Daring More Democracy? Internal Security and the Social Democratic Fight against West German Terrorism

摘要

OVER the course of the 1970s, West Germans fought one another in annattempt to defend democracy. Frustrated with the seemingly ineffec-ntual speeches and demonstrations of the 1960s protest movements,nmilitant groups such as the Red Army Faction (RAF), June 2ndnMovement,nand the Red Cells took up arms. They declared war on the Federal Republicnof Germany (FRG) for its failure to rid itself of the vestiges of fascism, for itsnhierarchical-authoritarian structure, and for the abuses of western consumernsociety. Inspired by national liberation movements in the formerly colonizednworld, the groups aimed both to raise revolutionary consciousness among thenWest German population and to demonstrate the state’s vulnerability throughnillegal action. The RAF, in particular, stressed the importance of violence as ansimultaneous act of emancipation and defense—the latter understood as coun-nterviolence necessitated by state-initiated violence. The repeated violation ofnnorms would, its members argued, undermine Germans’ traditional “habit ofnobedience” and, at the same time, force the state to reveal openly its fascism.