Regine Hedgehog

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Regine Igel (2012)

Regine Igel (* 1948 ) is a German investigative journalist and author of political non-fiction . It deals with possible entanglements of terrorists and secret services, especially those of Italy and both German states during the Cold War .

Life

After graduating from high school in Hamburg in 1967, Igel studied social sciences and German studies . She wrote for the Süddeutsche Zeitung , Die Zeit , the Neue Zürcher Zeitung , Friday and the taz , among others , and created radio features for various radio stations . For her book Silvio Berlusconi . For an Italian career , she received the Bausch Media Award in 1992 . After 18 years in Italy, she returned to Berlin in 2001 .

Journalistic focus

Terrorism in Italy

Her books deal primarily with the entanglement of Italian politics with organized crime and the controversial role of secret services in Italian terrorism during the so-called Anni di piombo and deal with their assumed strategy of tension . For her books Andreotti. Politics between secret service and mafia and years of terror. The dark side of the CIA in Italy sifted through files from the Italian judiciary and parliamentary investigative commissions and conducted interviews with investigators.

In his dissertation on the state and terrorism in Italy, which he wrote at the Institute for Contemporary History , Tobias Hof writes about Hedgehog's terror years like other more recent works. They “often disappoint, stick to conspiracy theories and do not adequately deal with the current state of research”. The review of Andreotti. Politics between Secret Service and Mafia in the yearbook Extremism & Democracy described the book in 1998 as the outflow of a “gigantic conspiracy theory” that can be found in many Italian publications on post-war Italy.

Terrorism in the Federal Republic of Germany

In this context, Igel published, among other things, in the political science journal Blätter für German and international politics about the little-known cooperation in Germany between the Italian terror group Red Brigades and the German Red Army faction , especially during the kidnapping and murder of the politician Aldo Moro in 1978 On the basis of the results of the Italian investigation, according to which they considered the infiltration of the Red Brigades by secret services to be proven, the thesis was that this also applied to the RAF. The fact that this connection is practically unknown in Germany and has never been investigated by a court is justified by the fact that the German public prosecutors are bound by the law and by the fact that former terrorists in Italy have cooperated with the judiciary. Unlike in Italy, this would block the investigation into the involvement of government agencies in terrorism in Germany.

The contemporary historian Petra Terhoeven judged this work in her study Deutscher Herbst in Europa , Igel did “anything but a serious relationship history study of the two organizations”; it goes to her "above all about the scandalization of alleged omissions of the historical science". In the “investigative exuberance” she mixed with the results of parliamentary investigations “purely speculative assumptions, some of which contradict any political logic, about the involvement of all secret services currently active in the terrorism problem”.

The GDR State Security as a terrorist supporter

For her book Terrorismus-Lügen , published in 2012, Igel evaluated files from the Ministry for State Security of the GDR , from which she concluded that she was actively working with the RAF, especially in the 1980s. So far, the opinion was widespread that some previous RAF members retired as "dropouts" when they moved to the GDR in the early 1980s . According to Igel, however, they were trained in paramilitary techniques by the Stasi special unit AGM / S, among others, and traveled several times to West Germany, which West German security authorities could have known according to INPOL documents they found . In addition, Igel argues that the Stasi also promoted right-wing extremist terrorists in West Germany and that leading international terrorists such as the leaders of the Japanese Red Army and the Palestinians Abu Daud , Abu Nidal and Zaki Helou acted as agents for the Stasi.

Sven Felix Kellerhoff wins positive aspects from the book in Die Welt , however, according to Kellerhoff, the author “sometimes blurs the line between serious file research and conspiracy theories”; he is "disturbed by their often all too loosely formulated allusions that are inappropriate to the seriousness of the matter". According to the review in Sehepunkte , hedgehogs often get entangled in conspiracy theoretic hints, and facts that do not support the main thesis are consistently hidden. The political scientist Eckhard Jesse described Igels results as "speculations, some of which turn into conspiracy theories". The GDR expert Karl Wilhelm Fricke described the book on Deutschlandfunk as a "serious contribution to the history of German and international terrorism and its links with the MfS and the KGB", which "brought to light a wealth of previously little known or well-known facts" but draw conclusions that "sometimes turn into pure conspiracy theories". The historian Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk attested the book to have a “vague empirical basis” and a “dubious method”.

Books

Articles and essays

Radio broadcasts

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tobias Hof: State and Terrorism in Italy 1969–1982. Oldenbourg, Munich 2011, p. 4, fn. 20 . To classify Hof see this positive review.
  2. ↑ Review. In: Yearbook Extremism & Democracy . Vol. 10, 1998, p. 410.
  3. ^ Regine Igel: Left-wing terrorism externally controlled? The cooperation of the RAF, Red Brigades, CIA and KGB. In: Sheets for German and international politics . Vol. 2007, p. 1230 (PDF; 671 kB) .
  4. ^ Regine Igel: Italy's leaden years . In: Friday . September 22, 2006.
  5. ^ Regine Igel: No muzzle for the public prosecutor. On the use of Italian conditions in the judiciary. In: Sheets for German and international politics . No. 11, 2003, pp. 1380-1389 (online) ( Memento of September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ).
  6. ↑ According to RAF expert Jan-Hendrik Schulz, "a historical milestone", see his review in H-Soz-Kult , March 21, 2014.
  7. ↑ Petra Terhoeven: German Autumn in Europe: The Left Terrorism of the Seventies as a Transnational Phenomenon. Oldenbourg, Munich 2014, p. 40 f.
  8. ^ Sven Felix Kellerhoff : Cold War. The Stasi supported red and brown terrorists. In: Die Welt , August 1, 2012.
  9. ↑ Thomas Riegler: Review of: Regine Igel: Terrorism Lies. How the Stasi acted underground. In: Sehepunkte . Volume 13, 2013, No. 11 from November 15, 2013.
  10. ↑ Eckhard Jesse : Review of Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk: Stasi concrete: surveillance and repression in the GDR, 2013. In: Totalitarismus und Demokratie . Vol. 10, 2013, No. 2, pp. 362–365, here p. 363, urn : nbn: de: 0168-ssoar-436546 .
  11. ^ Karl Wilhelm Fricke : Terrorism networking of the KGB and MfS. In: Deutschlandfunk , October 29, 2012.
  12. ↑ Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk : Stasi concrete. Surveillance and repression in the GDR. Beck, Munich 2013, p. 268, note 42.
personal data
SURNAME Hedgehog, Regine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German investigative journalist and author of political non-fiction books
DATE OF BIRTH 1948