GHI Lecture Series

Fall Lecture Series 2007

The “German Autumn” of 1977: Terror, State, and Society in West Germany

Deutscher Herbst – “German Autumn” – was the name a group of filmmakers bestowed upon a series of terrorist attacks and the atmosphere of crisis they provoked in West Germany in late 1977. On September 5 of that year, the self-styled urban guerillas of the Red Army Faction (Rote Armee Fraktion, RAF) kidnapped Hanns Martin Schleyer, a prominent businessman, and demanded that imprisoned RAF members be freed as the condition for Schleyer’s release. After the government of Chancellor Helmut Schmidt refused to meet the kidnappers’ terms, a group of Palestinian terrorists hijacked a Lufthansa passenger jet and, like Schleyer’s kidnappers, demanded the release of the imprisoned RAF members. West German counterterrorist forces stormed the plane in the night of October 17-18 and succeeded in rescuing the 86 passengers on board. Later that same night, four imprisoned RAF members attempted suicide; three died, the fourth survived. Shortly after the raid on the hijacked plane, Schleyer was shot by his captors; his corpse was found on October 19. These events and the measures enacted in response to them gave new urgency to West Germany’s long-running debate on political violence and civil liberties. This lecture series will revisit the Deutscher Herbst and West Germany’s confrontation with terrorism.

Ideology and Terror in the Red Decade: Reflections on Communism, Anti-Zionism, and the Memory of Terrorism’s Victims
Jeffrey Herf
University of Maryland
Thursday, September 27, 6:00–8:00 p.m.

Refusing to be “Good Germans”: New Left Violence as a Global Phenomenon
Jeremy Varon
Drew University
Thursday, October 25, 6:00–8:00 p.m.

Terror and Security: Law Enforcement, the Media, and Social Change in West Germany during the 1970s
Klaus Weinhauer
University of Bielefeld
Thursday, November 1, 6:00–8:00 p.m.

Militant Subcultures: The Origins of West German Terrorism in the Late 1960s
Detlef  Siegfried
University of Copenhagen
Thursday, November 8, 6:00–8:00 p.m.

Stammheim and Majdanek: Prosecuting Terrorists and Nazis in 1970s West Germany
Rebecca Wittman
University of Toronto
Thursday, November 29, 6:00–8:00 p.m.

All lectures will be held at the German Historical Institute
1607 New Hampshire Avenue, NW
Lectures begin at 6:30 p.m.;
refreshments will be served beforehand from 6:00 to 6:30 p.m.

Metro: Red Line, Dupont Circle
(Use Q Street/North Exit)

RSVP (acceptances only)
Phone: 202.387.3355 - Fax: 202.387.6437 - E-mail

German Historical Institute | 1607 New Hampshire Ave., NW | Washington, DC 20009-2562 | U.S.A.
Tel. +1.202.387.3355 | Fax. +1.202.483.3430 | e-mail to GHI

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