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GE 108 The Changing Face of Germany in Film and Text

GE 108 The Changing Face of Germany in Film and Text. Urban Terrorism and the State. Terrorism. What/who is a terrorist? What is the difference between a terrorist and a freedom fighter? What is the difference between a terrorist and a criminal? Who is in charge of the terminology?.

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GE 108 The Changing Face of Germany in Film and Text

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  1. GE 108 The Changing Face of Germany in Film and Text Urban Terrorism and the State

  2. Terrorism • What/who is a terrorist? • What is the difference between a terrorist and a freedom fighter? • What is the difference between a terrorist and a criminal? • Who is in charge of the terminology?

  3. BennoOhnesorg shooting, June 2 1967

  4. After Ohnesorg shooting • Herbert Marcuse (socialist thinker from Weimar Republic), declares incident to legitimise revolutionary violence • Sept 1967: SDS leaders Rudi Dutschke (Berlin) and Hans-Jürgen Krahl (Frankfurt) call for a ‘metropolitan guerilla’ • Later picked up by RAF • Issue of violence resolved in: no violence against people but against property. • Campaign to ‘expropriate Springer’ • Springer Press runs personalised campaign against Dutschke

  5. Beginnings of urban terrorism in Germany • Sept 1967: SDS leaders Dutschke and Krahl deliver paper at SDS conference on necessity of urban guerilla • Initial concept of urban guerilla is not violent but anarchic • Aims at satirical exposure (e.g. throwing pudding at representatives of dictator states visiting Germany) • Modeled on jungle freedom fighters, Vorbild: Che Guevara

  6. Shooting of Rudi Dutschke • Shot in the head 11 April 1968 by Bavarian baker’s apprentice • Triggers violent demonstrations in 20 cities • Barricades outside of Springer offices in Hamburg, Essen, Frankfurt, Cologne, Munich

  7. Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, 1928-67 • Second in command in Cuban Revolution

  8. The RAF • First generation: Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, Jan Karl Raspe, Ulrike Meinhof, HolgerMeins (all arrested June 172) • Second Generation: responsible for a number of high-profile murders of state representatives and plane kidnappings in mid-late 1970s • Third generation (1980s-90s) • Rafis officially dissolved 20 April 1998

  9. Ulrike Meinhof’s idea of the ‘Stadtguerilla’ Terrorism Stadtguerilla Operates by eliminating targeted representatives of system (i.e. politicians, judges, etc.) • Terrorises people by means of destruction of resources (i.e. water) or of masses of people (e.g. bombs)

  10. RAF prime targets (all by second generation) • Siegfried Buback, General Federal Attorney at the Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe (shot April 1977) • Jürgen Ponto, Speaker of the Board of Dresdner Bank (shot July 1977) • Hans-Martin Schleyer, president of Employer’s Association (kidnapped Sept 1977, shot after suicide of Baader, Raspe, Ennslin and Meinhof in prison)

  11. Horst Mahler • Founder of ‘Socialist Lawyer Collective • Defence Lawyer of Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin after arson attack on Frankfurt Dept stores • Later member of first generation RAF • Becomes increasingly violent in rhetoric after Dutschke shooting • Today: on the far right (neo-Nazi)

  12. Ulrike Meinhof • Journalist with radical student magazine konkret • Writes article in 1968 in which she claims police violence will be answered with ‘paramilitary methods’ • Frees Andreas Baader during interview

  13. Meinhof’s argument re: right to resistance • Artikel 20, Section 4 Grundgesetz: Gegenjeden, der esunternimmtdieseOrdnung (i.e. the democratic order of the German state) zubeseitigen, habenalleDeutschen das RechtzumWiderstand, wennandereAbhilfenichtmöglichist.

  14. Beginnings of RAF • 2 April 1968: Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin& 2 other men set fire to a Frankfurt department store and are arrested the next day and sentenced to 3 years in prison. • 1969: Baader and Ensslin released, pending appeal • Summer 1969: series of fire bombing attacks in Berlin

  15. Feb 1970: Baader’s & Ensslin’s appeal rejected: go underground • April 1970: Baader arrested, Ulrike meinhof uses her status as journalist to free him • Baader, Ensslin, Raspe, Meins & Meinhof move to Jordan to train in Palestinian camp • June 1970: SPIEGEL publishes Meinhof article: ‘the revolution will not happen until the revolutionaries arm themselves’

  16. State reaction • Feb 1971: After shooting with police, RAF declared public enemy No 1 • Bundeskriminalamt given unprecedented resources • Introduces ‘Rasterfahndung’ (i.e. large scale search of databases) • Jan 1972: Government releases new anti-terrorist legislation ‘Radikalenerlass’

  17. Radikalenerlass or Extremistenbeschluss • Bars all former members of left-wing student groups from becoming a Beamter (affetcs teachers, lawyers, civil servants etc.) • Results in 430 sackings • No figures available for people turned down for employment

  18. After arrest of core of RAF • Limitation of constitutionally guaranteed rights • Solitary confinement with CCTV in cells • Bugging RAF lawyers • Forcible administration of narcotics • First (and only) time BRD appears on Amnesty International list of states using torture

  19. 17 Jan - 12 Feb 1973: 40 imprisoned members of the RAF hold hunger strike against conditions of imprisonment. • During 2nd hunger strike, begun on 8 May, authorities resort to force-feeding. • HolgerMeinsdies in the course of a hunger strike on 9 Nov 1974.

  20. Oct 1974: Federal Prosecutor Siegfried Bubackbrings charges of murder and the formation of a criminal organisation against Baader, Meinhof, Ensslin, Raspe and Meins. • Bubackhad served under the Nazis and had been one of the state prosecutors in the SPIEGEL affair in 1962 • Trial begins May 1975 and last 4 years

  21. RAF activities during trial • 24 April 1975: RAF commando ‘HolgerMeins’ take 11 hostages at German embassy in Stockholm demanding release of core RAF members • 7 April 1977 ‘Commando Ulrike Meinhof’ assasinatesSiegfried Buback and two of his colleagues in Karlsruhe. • July 1977: RAF tries to kidnap Jürgen Ponto, chairman of Dresdner Bank and shoot him when the attempt misfires • Sept 1977: Hans-Martin Schleyer, head of the employers association and Federal Union of German Industry is kidnapped in Cologne, the four people in his car are killed. • Oct 1977: PLO members hijack Lufthansa jet to reinforce RAF demands of Schleyer kidnapping: German Special forces storm plane in Mogadishu and kill 3 kidnappers.

  22. Death of RAF members • 9 May 1976: Ulrike Meinhof found hanged in her cell. • 18. Oct 1977: Baader, Ensslin, Raspe commit suicide after failed plane hijacking. • Autumn 1977 generally referred to as ‘DeutscherHerbst’

  23. Bank robbery, 22.12.1971 • One policeman shot • BILD headline 23.12.1971: ‘BaaderMeinhof-Bandemordetweiter’

  24. Heinrich Böll (Nobel Prize for Literature, 1972) ‘FreiesGeleitfür Ulrike Meinhof?’ (First in SPIEGEL 10.1.1972) Die verloreneEhre der Katharina Blum, 1974 Critiques of Springer Press

  25. ‘das istnichtmehrkryptofaschismus, das istnackterFaschismus, Verhetzung, Lüge, Dreck’

  26. Aftermath • BILD Campaign against Böll • Böll described as ‘sympathiser with terrorism’ in Springer Press (incl. the broadsheet Die Welt) • High ranking CDU/CSU and SPD politicians publically criticise Böll as trivialising/belittling terrorism (‘Verharmlosung’, from ‘harmlos) • 1. June 1972 (day of arrest of Baader): Police visits Böll’s house to check papers of his guests (see http://www.zeit.de/1998/19/Kaffee_Kuchen_und_Terror/komplettansicht)

  27. ‘Kaffee, Kuchen und Terror’, Robert Spaemann, DIE ZEIT, 29.4.1998 • Auf Bölls Frage, wieso man im Zusammenhang mit der Terroristenfahndung gerade auf ihn und seine Gäste verfallen sei, verwies der Polizeichef auf Bölls Spiegel-Artikel "Freies Geleit für Ulrike Meinhof". [...] • Herr Conrads [the chief of police in Düren] fragte dann Böll: "Ulrike Meinhof kennt Ihren Artikel. Sie können ebensowenig wie wir ausschließen, daß sie auf der Flucht an Ihre Tür klopft. Was würden Sie denn in diesem Fall tun?" Böll antwortete, er würde sie zunächst fragen, ob sie eine Waffe bei sich hätte. Wenn ja, dann würde er verlangen, daß diese Waffe draußen bliebe. Und dann würde er sicher sagen: "Kommen Sie mal rein." • Danach würde man weitersehen. Ob das für einen Christenmenschen falsch wäre?

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