Terrorism in Germany

GSG9 team returning in 1977 after liberating the passengers of Lufthansa Flight 181

Germany has experienced significant terrorism in its history, particularly during the Weimar Republic and during the Cold War, carried out by far-left and far-right German groups as well as by foreign terrorist organisations.

In recent years, both far left, far right and Islamist groups have been suspected of terrorism or terrorism plans.

Weimar Republic

Germany's loss in the First World War resulted in a chaotic situation, with multiple far-left and far-right organisations attempting to seize power. Both the far left and the far right organised their own militias, and carried out assassinations. For example, the Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau was assassinated in 1922 by a far-right group. Members of the Communist Party of Germany assassinated police captains Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck in Berlin in 1931.

Terrorism in (or involving) West Germany and reunified Germany

During the Cold War, especially in the 1970s, West Germany experienced severe terrorism, mostly perpetrated by far-left terrorist groups and culminating in the German Autumn of 1977, the country's most serious national crisis in postwar history. Terrorist incidents also took place in the 1980s and 1990s. Some of the terrorist groups had connections to international terrorism, notably Palestinian militant groups, and were aided and abetted by the communist regime of East Germany.

Known groups responsible for attacks in Germany
Red Army Faction

Held responsible for numerous bomb attacks, arson, kidnapping and murder of 34 people between 1970 and 1998.

 Revolutionary Cells

Held responsible for 296 bomb attacks, arson and other attacks between 1973 and 1995.

 Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Black September
Tupamaros West-Berlin Movement 2 June Anti-Imperialist Cell Militante gruppe (mg)

List of significant terrorist incidents in Germany

Germany
Date Sub Location Deaths Injuries Type Perpetrator Description
10 February 1970 Munich 1 11 Grenade & Small arms fire PDFLP (Palestinian nationalists) -- Airports & airlines
Three terrorists attack El Al passengers in a bus at the Munich Airport with guns and grenades; one passenger is killed and 11 injured. All three terrorists were captured by airport police. The Action Organization for the Liberation of Palestine and the Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine claim responsibility for the attack.[1]
11 May 1972 Frankfurt 1 13 Improvised Explosive Device Red Army Faction -- Government institutions (Foreign: United States Army)
A bomb explodes at the Headquarters of the United States 5th Army in the IG Farben Building in Frankfurt, killing US Army officer Paul A. Bloomquist and injuring a further 13.[2][3]
24 May 1972 Heidelberg 3 5 Car bomb Red Army Faction -- Government institutions (Foreign: United States Army)
Two large car bombs are detonated at the US Army Supreme European Command within the Campbell Barracks in Heidelberg, killing three. The dead are identified as Ronald A. Woodward, Charles L. Peck and Captain Clyde R. Bonner[2][3][4][5]
5 September 1972 Munich 17
(5 perps.)		 - Hostage taking

(2 days)

 Black September (Palestinian nationalists) -- Olympic Games
Eight armed terrorists stage an attack during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany on 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team, who were taken hostage and eventually killed, along with a German police officer. Five of the attackers also died in the raid to free the hostages.[6][7][8][9]
See also: Munich massacre
7 April 1977 Karlsruhe 3 - Small arms fire Red Army Faction -- Government institutions
Shortly after 9:00 CET, a motorcycle pulls up next to the car of Germany's chief federal prosecutor, Siegfried Buback, a stoplight on the outskirts of Karlsruhe in western Germany. The motorcycle passenger proceedes to fire at least 15 bullets into the car. Buback and his 30-year-old driver Wolfgang Göbel die at the scene; the head of the chauffeur service Georg Wurster, 33, succumbs to his injuries six days later.[10]
See also: German Autumn
30 July 1977 Oberursel 1 - Small arms fire Red Army Faction -- Business
Jürgen Ponto, the head of Dresdner Bank, is shot and killed in his house in Oberursel. It is thought that three assailants attempted to kidnap Ponto, and after he resisted they shot him. He was shot five times and later died of his serious wounds. Susanne Albrecht, the daughter of a good friend of the Pontos, was later identified as one of the attackers.[11]
See also: German Autumn
5 September 1977 Cologne 5 - Small arms fire Red Army Faction -- Business
A group of armed terrorists attack the chauffeured car carrying Hanns Martin Schleyer, then president of the German employers' association, in Cologne. Four masked RAF members sprayed bullets into the two vehicles, killing Marcisz and a police officer, Roland Pieler. The driver of the police escort vehicle, Reinhold Brändle, and a third police officer, Helmut Ulmer, were also killed.
Schleyer was abducted and held prisoner in an apartment in a residential neighborhood near Cologne. He was forced to appeal to the West German government under Helmut Schmidt for several RAF members -- then imprisoned -- to be exchanged for him. On 18 October 1977, three of the imprisoned RAF members were found dead in their cells. In response, Schleyer was shot dead en route to Mulhouse, France, where his body was left in an Audi 100.[12]
See also: German Autumn
27 September 1980 Munich 12
(one perp.)		 213 Suicide bombing Gundolf Kohler -- Private citizens & property
A bomb detonates at the Oktoberfest fairgrounds in Theresienwiese, Munich, killing twelve and injuring over two hundred more. The dead include the alleged bomber Gundolf Kohler, a member of the neo-Nazi Military Sport Group Hoffman.[13][14]
15 January 1982 Berlin 1 25 Improvised Explosive Device (Palestinian nationalists) -- Private citizens & property
An explosion at the Mifgash-Israel, a Jewish owned restaurant in West Berlin, injures 25 people. An infant girl, who was in critical condition after the blast, later dies of her injuries.[15]
25 August 1983 Berlin 2 23 Improvised Explosive Device ASALA (Armenian nationalists) -- Diplomatic (French)
A bomb detonates on the fifth floor of the six-story French consulate building in West Berlin, causing extensive damage on the floor below, in which the consulate offices and a visitor's lounge were situated. The 11:20am explosion collapsed sections of the front facade and attic and catapulted parts of interior walls to the street below, although all dead and injured had all been inside the building.[16]
1 February 1985 Munich 1 - Small arms fire Red Army Faction -- Business
Head of the Federal Union of German Aerospace and Heavy Industries (BDLI), Ernst Zimmermann, is shot once in the head by a man with a sub-machine gun. The assailant forced his way into the industrialist's home in suburban Munich after his wife opened the door for a woman allegedly claiming to have a letter for Mr. Zimmermann.[17]
19 June 1985 Frankfurt 3 42 Improvised Explosive Device - -- Airports & airlines
A powerful bomb rips through an international departure lounge of the Frankfurt Airport, killing three people and wounding 42. The dead include a man and two children, and of the many injured, 18 were hospitalized. The explosive device, which the police said appeared to have been placed among seated passengers waiting for their flights, blasted a large hole in the cement floor of the airport terminal, then one of the busiest in Europe.[18][19]
8 August 1985 Rhein-Main Air Base 2 20 Car bomb Red Army Faction & Action Directe -- Government institutions (Foreign: United States Army)
A car bomb explodes outside the headquarters building at the Rhein-Main Air Base, where members of the United States Armed Forces are stationed, killing two Americans and wounding about 20 people.
The dead were Airman Frank H. Scarton, 19, who was serving with the 437th Military Airlift Wing, and Becky Jo Bristol, the wife of Senior Airman John Bristol, who wss with the Medical Airlift Squadron at the base.[2][20]
4 April 1986 Berlin 3 231 Improvised Explosive Device Libyan agents -- Private Citizens & Property
A bomb placed on the dance-floor of the La Belle Discotheque, popular with United States military personnel, explodes, killing 3 and injuring hundreds more. Two of the dead were members of the United States military.[21]
9 July 1986 Munich 2 - Improvised Explosive Device Red Army Faction -- Business
The physicist Karl-Heinz Beckurts, director of research and technology at the Siemens electronic company, and a driver are killed by a remote controlled bomb planted in his car in a Munich suburb.[22][23]
30 November 1989 Bad Homburg vor der Höhe 1 1 Improvised Explosive Device Red Army Faction -- Business
Banker Alfred Herrhausen dies instantly and his driver is seriously wounded in a blast caused by a remote controlled bomb under his vehicle. Mr. Herrhausen, who headed Deutsche Bank A.G., was described as the most powerful person in the West German economy and a dominant figure in European banking.[24]
23 November 1992 Mölln 3 - Incendiary device - -- Private Citizens & Property
A molotov cocktail is thrown into the house of a Turkish migrant family, destroying the property and killing three occupants. A neo-Nazi group is suspected.[25]
28 April 1993 Solingen 5 14 Incendiary device - -- Private Citizens & Property
Four young German men (aged between 16 and 23) belonging to the far right skinhead scene, the oldest with known neo-Nazi ties, set fire to the house of a large Turkish family in Solingen in North Rhine-Westphalia. Three girls and two women died; fourteen other family members, including several children, were injured, some of them severely.[26][27]
28 July 1995 Cologne 3
(one perp.)		 2 Small arms fire & Hostage taking - -- Private Citizens & Property
A masked man armed with a high-caliber weapon hijacks a sightseeing bus carrying two dozen German and foreign tourists, causing the deaths of three people, including himself. After seven hours, police commandos stormed the bus, killing the gunman; the police identified him only as an Israeli citizen of Russian origin. One hostage, a 60-year-old German woman, was allegedly shot by the hijacker moments before the vehicle was stormed and the 26-year-old driver was also killed near the beginning of the incident. An approaching police officer was shot in the stomach and taken to hospital in a serious condition and another hostage suffered minor injuries. Police said four Americans were among the hostages; none of the Americans were injured.[28]
24 December 1996 Frankfurt 3 6 Improvised Explosive Device - -- Religious figures & institutions
A bomb explodes at a Christmas Eve service in a Lutheran church, killing three people. Six others are wounded, with two suffering critical injuries. The blast reportedly occoured when a masked woman entered the church service in the suburb of Sindlingen.[29][30]
2 March 2011 Frankfurt 2 2 Small arms fire Arid Uka

(Islamist)

 -- Government institutions (Foreign: United States Army)
An immigrant from Kosovo fires upon an United States Air Force bus, killing two and wounding two. At the time of the attack the vehicle is parked outside the terminal building waiting to transport 15 U.S. airmen to Ramstein Air Base. The attacker first shoots an airman outside the vehicle, and then enters the bus, shooting and killing the driver and firing three shots at two other airmen, wounding them.[31][32][33]
17 September 2015 Berlin 1
(one perp.)		 1 Knife attack -

(Islamist)

 -- Government institutions (Police)
A 41-year-old self-proclaimed Islamist was shot dead in Berlin after he severely stabbed and injured a policewoman in an incident on a public street in Berlin.[34]

List of international terrorist incidents with significant German casualties

Response to terrorism

The terrorism of the 1970s has formed Germany's political culture and its policy of not negotiating with terrorists. It also led to the formation of the GSG9 counter-terrorism unit. In 1972, a law was passed, the Extremist Act (Radikalenerlass), which banned radicals or those with a 'questionable' political persuasion from public sector jobs.

In popular culture

Berlin citizens attending the funeral of assassinated police captains Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck in 1931

A number of books and films address this topic.

Films

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Significant Terrorist Incidents, 1961-2003: A Brief Chronology". Office of the Historian: Bureau of Public Affairs. United States Department of State. Retrieved 8 February 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 "2 Americans killed by car bomb at USAF base in West Germany". Schenectady Gazette. 9 August 1985. Retrieved 8 February 2014.
  3. 1 2 Varon, Jeremy (2004). Bringing the War Home: The Weather Underground, the Red Army Faction, and Revolutionary Violence in the Sixties and Seventies. University of California Press. p. 210. ISBN 9780520930957.
  4. ↑ Desmond Butler; Mark Landler (9 September 2002). "THREATS AND RESPONSES: HEIDELBERG; One Terror Plot May Have Been Foiled, but a U.S. Base in Germany Is Still Vulnerable". The New York times. Retrieved 8 February 2014.
  5. ↑ Moncourt, André. The Red Army Faction: A Documentary History. Projectiles for the people. PM Press. p. 178. ISBN 9781604861792.
  6. ↑ Juan Sanchez (7 August 2007). Terrorism & Its Effects. Global Media. p. 144. ISBN 978-81-89940-93-5. Retrieved 16 December 2012.
  7. ↑ The new dimension of international ... Google Books. 11 September 2001. Retrieved 22 June 2010.
  8. ↑ Encyclopedia of terrorism . Google Books. Retrieved 22 June 2010.
  9. ↑ The terrorist trap: America's ... Google Books. 18 July 1976. Retrieved 22 June 2010.
  10. ↑ "Who Assassinated Siegfried Buback? Germany Revisits RAF Terrorism Verdict". Der Spiegel. 23 April 2007. Retrieved 10 February 2014.
  11. ↑ Heinrich August Winkler (2007). Germany: 1933-1990. Oxford University Press. p. 318. ISBN 978-0-19-926598-5. Retrieved 13 September 2013.
  12. ↑ Büchel, Helmar; Aust, Stefan (17 September 2007). "Dann gibt es Tote" (in German). Der Spiegel.
  13. ↑ "Neo nazis Arrested in Octoberfest Bombing". Beaver County Times. Associated Press. 28 September 1980. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
  14. ↑ Gerber, Larry (29 September 1980). "Neo Nazi group suspected in Munich Oktoberfest bomb". The Lewiston Daily Sun. Retrieved 6 February 2014.
  15. ↑ "Group claims responsibility for restaurant bombing". The Victoria Advocate. Associated Press. 16 January 1982. Retrieved 9 February 2014.
  16. ↑ "FRENCH CONSULATE BOMBED IN BERLIN". The New York Times. 26 August 1983. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
  17. ↑ "Guerrillas Kill Top West German Arms Executive". The Glasgow Herald. 2 February 1985. Retrieved 16 February 2014.
  18. ↑ "BOMB AT FRANKFURT AIRPORT KILLS 3 AND WOUNDS 42". The New York Times. 20 June 1985. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
  19. ↑ "ARAB GROUP ASSERTS IT PLANTED BOMB IN FRANKFURT". The New York Times. 22 June 1985. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
  20. ↑ Tagliabue, John (9 August 1985). "CAR BOMB KILLS 2 ON A U.S. AIR BASE IN WEST GERMANY". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
  21. ↑ Chalk, Peter (2012). Encyclopedia of Terrorism. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. pp. 401–402. ISBN 9780313308956.
  22. ↑ "Germans Get 3 Suspects In an Ice Cream Parlor". The New York Times. 4 August 1986. Retrieved 8 February 2014.
  23. ↑ Tagliabue, John (26 July 1986). "CAR BOMB HITS A WEST GERMAN COMPANY INVOLVED IN 'STAR WARS'". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 February 2014.
  24. ↑ Protzman, Ferdinand (1 December 1989). "Head of Top West German Bank Is Killed in Bombing by Terrorists". The New York times. Retrieved 8 February 2014.
  25. ↑ Charles Hawley; Daryl Lindsey (24 August 2012). "Twenty Years after Rostock: Racism and Xenophobia Still Prevalent in Germany". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  26. ↑ Kinzer, Stephen (4 June 1993). "Thousands of Germans Rally for the Slain Turks". New York Times. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  27. ↑ "Neo-Nazi Asks Forgiveness for Death of Turks". New York Times. 14 April 1994. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  28. ↑ Williams Walsh, Mary (29 July 1995). "Gunman, 2 Others Killed in German Bus Hijacking : Europe: Police storm tour vehicle, which held 25, after seven-hour standoff. One hostage and a police officer are wounded.". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  29. ↑ "Christmas Eve Bomb Kills Three At Church". The Spokesman-Review. 25 December 1996. Retrieved 13 February 2014.
  30. ↑ "Church Bomb". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 25 December 1996. Retrieved 13 February 2014.
  31. ↑ "US soldiers shot dead in Germany". Al Jazeera English. March 2, 2011.
  32. ↑ Pidd, Helen (3 March 2011). "Frankfurt airport shooting may have Islamist link, say police". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 6 March 2011.
  33. ↑ "Frankfurt airport shooting: Jammed gun 'saved lives'". BBC News. 4 March 2011. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
  34. ↑ "'Islamist' shot dead in Berlin after knife attack on policewoman". Deutsche Welle. 17 September 2015. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  35. ↑ Park, Andrew (10 October 2012). "Bali bombings: Full list of victims' names". SBS Australia. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
  36. ↑ "Al-Qaeda claims Tunisia attack". BBC News. 23 June 2002. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  37. ↑ Der Baader Meinhof Komplex vs RAF Film Chronicle by Ron Holloway, accessed 19 April 2009
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