Bomb attack in Piazza Fontana

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Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura in Piazza Fontana

The bomb attack on Piazza Fontana on December 12, 1969 was the first major right-wing terrorist attack in Italian post-war history. At around 4:37 p.m., a bomb exploded in front of the headquarters of the Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura in Milan , killing 17 people and seriously injuring 88.

Historical context

The bomb attack on Piazza Fontana was the starting point for a wave of right-wing terrorist violence that lasted until 1982 and culminated in the 1980 attack in Bologna . In these years, 3,069 acts of terrorism and 2,925 further political acts of violence by right-wing extremists took place (over 150 in 1969 alone), which resulted in a total of 186 dead and 572 injured. Between 1970 and 1984 around 572 right-wing extremists are said to have been active in 113 terrorist groups.

The attack and its aftermath

Memorial plaque for the victims of the attack in Milan

In the run-up to Christmas, the bomb in Piazza Fontana killed fourteen people instantly. More victims died in the hospital, so a total of 17 people were killed; over 80 others were injured.

The attack at the Milan Agricultural Bank was not the only one planned for the day. Rather, he embedded himself in a timed series of bombs. At 4:25 p.m., a bank employee found a bomb in a parked briefcase at the branch of the Italian commercial bank in Piazza della Scala . He was able to bury them in the bank's yard in time. In Rome , three more detonations occurred almost simultaneously. At around 4:45 p.m., a bomb exploded on Via Veneto in the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro building , injuring 14 employees. Two more bombs exploded in Rome's Piazza Venezia ten minutes apart. They injured three civilians and one police officer.

The attacks in Rome and Milan were carried out by supporters of the Ordine Nuovo (ON). The main perpetrators were Franco Freda (* 1941) and Giovanni Ventura (1944-2010). The ON leader Pino Rauti took over the planning and management of the Milan attack . After the attack, Freda managed to escape. However, he was arrested in 1979 in Costa Rica . The attribution of the act in the direction of neo-fascist terrorist groups, of which the ON was the most important, is not complete. The people who commissioned the attack are placed in the ranks of Propaganda Due . The aim of the attack was to further heat the climate in Italy for a fascist coup. At that time the fascists had a mass base spread over numerous organizations.

Left-wing terrorist attacks should provide political legitimation for the use of the military. Since the left did not carry out this as desired, the blame for their own attacks should be blamed on the left through fictitious actions ( false flag ). As it later turned out, this attack was no exception with regard to the laying of false tracks. The ON carried out attacks in advance that bore the signature of anarchist groups. Meanwhile, the police removed evidence that led to the fascist perpetrators. The bomb that had not detonated was detonated on the instructions of the police headquarters. Meanwhile, about three hundred anarchists have been arrested. The police immediately assigned the blame to the anarchists. The right-wing press picked up on this and called for an end to communist terror. The responsible police officers then concentrated their investigations on the well-known anarchist Giuseppe Pinelli . Although he had an alibi, the police said it was not safe. On the night of December 15-16, 1969, Pinelli was thrown from the fourth floor of police headquarters and died instantly. The police leadership immediately spread the claim that he had thrown himself to death because of his missing alibi. The death record revealed that Pinelli had not committed suicide.

See also

• Yves Guérin-Serac

literature

• Luciano Lanza : Bombs and Secrets: History of the Massacre of Piazza Fontana. Nautilus, Hamburg, 1998, ISBN 3-89401-332-X .
  • Italian: Bombe e Segreti - Piazza Fontana: Una strage senza colpevoli. Eleuthera, Milan 1997, ISBN 88-89490-12-8 . (2nd edition. 2005; pdf, 839 kB)
• Tobias Hof: State and Terrorism in Italy 1969–1982 (= sources and representations on contemporary history. Volume 81). Oldenbourg, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-486-59812-4 . (also dissertation, University of Munich 2009).

Web links

Commons : Bomb attack in Piazza Fontana  - collection of images

• Romanzo di una strage in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tobias Hof: State and Terrorism in Italy 1969–1982. 2011, p. 50 f. (books.google.de)
2. ↑ Tobias Hof: State and Terrorism in Italy 1969–1982. 2011, p. 2. (books.google.de)
3. ^ Gerhard Feldbauer : Agents, Terror, State Plot: The Murder of Aldo Moro, Red Brigades and CIA (= New Small Library. 66). PapyRossa-Verlag, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-89438-207-4 , p. 112.
4. ↑ Gerhard Feldbauer: Agents, Terror, State Conspiracy. 2000, p. 112f.
5. ^ Rainer Fromm : The "Wehrsportgruppe Hoffmann": Presentation, analysis and classification. Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-631-32922-9 , p. 169.
6. ↑ Gerhard Feldbauer: Agents, Terror, State Conspiracy. 2000, pp. 117f.
7. ↑ Gerhard Feldbauer: Agents, Terror, State Conspiracy. 2000, p. 120ff.

Coordinates: 45 ° 27 '47.9 "  N , 9 ° 11' 38.7"  E