5 - The logic of underground organizations

Summary

On October 3, 1990, the states of the former GDR joined the FRG. Berlin – and thus the media throughout the whole world – celebrated German reunification. But not all the Germans celebrated: some movement activists in the West and in the East were skeptical about the unification and its timing. A few months later, on January 16, 1991, members of the German underground group the RZ expressed their disappointment by blowing up the Victory statue that stood in the middle of Berlin (Backes 1991:228). The surrounding streets, which are among Berlin's most important avenues – in the west side of the city but near the east side – had to be closed to traffic. No one was hurt.

By spring 1991, German reunification had created serious social and economic problems. One target of criticism had been the policy of the Treuhand, the trust company created for the privatization of the state-owned firms of the former GDR. On April 1, in Düsseldorf, the veteran German terrorist group the RAF assassinated the newly elected director of the Treuhand, Detlev Karsten Rohwedder, and wounded his wife.

These two recent episodes – similar in some ways, different in others – are part of what is normally understood as German terrorism. Both actions were aimed at propaganda among dissatisfied groups of the population, although the RAF in particular used a means that was highly stigmatized among the very groups it hoped to attract.