Political Violence in the Federal Republic of Germany. 2 June Movement - Revolutionary Cells/Red Zora - Red and Black Aids

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Margit Szöllösi-Janze
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: from 2019 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 422610710

The project investigates three groups of the "New Left" that have so far stood in the dominating shadow of the RAF, both in the media and in academic research. In November 2021, the sub-project on the 2 June Movement was successfully completed. A follow-up application is hereby submitted for the two remaining sub-projects.Research conducted so far (by the members of this project) has shown that the history of the Revolutionary Cells (RZ), a social-revolutionary group in West Berlin, and the so-called Red and Black Aids (RSH), solidarity organizations in West Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt a. M., Hamburg, Cologne, must be rewritten on the basis of hitherto unknown or only partly explored sources. The sub-projects analytically focus on the previously neglected praxeological aspect. They can show that political violence or its support represented only one part of a much broader range of actions available to both groups. In addition, there are many other communicative and solidarity practices (e.g. publishing newspapers, organizing legal advice/aid, forging tickets or squatting for members of socially marginalized groups). Fluctuating both locally and over time, these practices were the result of transnational and historical transfer processes. Both the RZ and the RSH initially drew on the historical experiences and practices of the international workers’ movement, the student-led protests around 1968, and the following approaches to urban guerrilla and factory work. In addition, they further developed these practices in exchange with (other) armed groups such as the 2 June Movement, the urban left-alternative milieu such as the groups of the "undogmatic" left, and New Social Movements such as the squatters. In particular, seizing militant forms of action depended on the respective target groups: Solidarity with the workers required different practices than the mobilization of the autonomous movement.From the archival sources compiled under adverse research conditions during the ongoing pandemic, one can identify new personal, topical and praxeological joins from the APO to the New Social Movements. Both sub-projects considerably extend the current state of research. They meticulously reconstruct the history of the RZ and the RSH in their historical, social, spatial and discursive contexts. Thus, beyond the specifics of the respective local groupings, they reveal cross-regional and transnational interconnections and better explain turning points in the history of leftist movements. To put these findings on a broader empirical basis and to draw out the full analytical potential of sources for historical knowledge, an extension of the funding period is essential.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants