Rote Zora (group)

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Logo of the Rote Zora

The Rote Zora was a left-wing extremist and radical feminist terror group in the Federal Republic of Germany . At the beginning of the 1970s it was part of the Revolutionary Cells , from which it broke away in the 1980s and became independent. The name goes back to the youth book Die Rote Zora und seine Gang by Kurt Held . She confessed to several attacks, sometimes with considerable damage to property.

Self-image

The Rote Zora saw themselves as part of the “women's struggle” and legitimized their armed actions with feminist theory. In an interview that they made available to the magazine Emma , they reported in detail for the first time in 1984 about their goals and working methods and invited all interested women to develop with them a concept of radical feminist criticism and practice that could also be implemented in everyday life. They did not want to limit themselves to specific “women's issues”. In addition to international women's solidarity, the fight against § 218 , reproductive medicine and genetic engineering , sex tourism and trafficking in women , the living conditions of refugees , they put their thematic focus on the living and working conditions of women in countries and regions with, in their opinion, particularly unleashed forms of economic and patriarchal Recovery.

They did not see their politics as "extreme" but as " radical ". The aim is not to differentiate oneself from the women's movement through extreme forms, but to find answers demanding radical changes with women in extreme contradictions (e.g. economic dependence of the women concerned and the associated compulsion to prostitution, etc.). By radicalism, they also understood a critique of structural violent relationships , which would thus also be reflected in laws. Radical feminist positions would consequently come into conflict with the law. They saw a fundamental prerequisite for radical feminist politics in solidarity among women, who also had to organize themselves “cheekily” and “self-confidently”. To do this, they generally urged women to join together in "gangs". Militarism is generally criticized. They use the term militancy to describe the forms of resistance that they recognize as legitimate . In their actions, it was important to them that people were not endangered.

“The 'red Zora and her gang' - that is the wild brat who steals from the rich to give it to the poor. And forming gangs to move outside the law, that seems to be a male privilege to this day. Yet the thousand private and political shackles with which we as girls and women are tied to pieces should turn us en masse into "bandits" for our freedom, our dignity, our humanity. Laws, law and order are fundamentally against us, even if we have fought hard for a few rights and have to fight for them every day. Radical women's struggle and law-abiding - they don't go together! "

- from the 1984 interview - see below

terrorist attacks

The attacks by the Rote Zora were initially directed primarily against biotechnology and genetic engineering facilities . In 1987 there were several arson attacks against branches of the clothing company Adler . The sprinkler system was triggered by means of a smaller incendiary device , which should cause as much property damage as possible. The Adler Group operated the Flair Fashion subsidiary in South Korea. Their female employees entered the labor dispute in the same year; The Rote Zora wanted to support this strike with the attacks.

After the police investigations into the group that were triggered by the attacks , the attacks subsided significantly. From 1991 onwards there were also more and more critical voices from within our own ranks. The Rote Zora split up into a part that wanted to give up the armed struggle and a part that wanted to hold on to it.

At the end of 1993 the Rote Zora tried to start a new beginning for the group with her booklet Mili's Tanz auf dem Eis . However, an attack on the Lürssen shipyard in Bremen - Lemwerder in 1995 remained without a response, so that the project failed.

Since the Rote Zora emerged from the revolutionary cells, it cannot be said with absolute certainty since when it carried out attacks on its own. Attacks were assigned to the Rote Zora on the basis of the associated declarations.

1975
Attack on the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe (as: women from the revolutionary cells )
1977
Explosives attack on the building of the German Medical Association in Cologne
1978
Arson attacks on sex shops in Cologne
1981
Arson attack on the car of the lawyer Wagner in Cologne
Distribution of fake local transport tickets in the Ruhr area (together with the revolutionary cells)
1983
Four attacks on recruitment agencies for foreign women
Explosives attack on the Philippine embassy in Bonn
Explosive attacks against Siemens communication technology in Braunschweig and Witten
Attacks on Nixdorf AG in Hanover and the data center of the "Association of Creditreform Associations" in Neuss
1984
Arson attack on a truck from the Kreuzer company and explosives attack on the Koch company in Gütersloh, as they would "enrich themselves from prison work" (together with the revolutionary cells)
1985
Two attacks on the Max Planck Institute for Breeding Research in Cologne and a medical institute at the University of Heidelberg
Attack on the Institute for Genetics at the University of Cologne
1986
Arson attack on the Institute for Human Genetics at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster, publication of the stolen documents
Explosives attack on the Society for Biotechnological Research in Braunschweig
1987
Ten arson attacks on the headquarters of the Adler clothing chain in Haibach / Ufr. and branches of the same chain in Halstenbeck, Bremen, Oldenburg, Isernhagen, Kassel, Holzwickede, Neuss, Frankfurt and Aachen
1988
Explosives attack on the "biotechnical institute at the TU Berlin "
1994
Arson attack on a company that supplies refugee accommodation with food in Nuremberg and Meilitz / Gera
1995
Explosives attack on the Lürssen shipyard as one of the "arms suppliers for the Turkish regime that is waging a murderous war against the Kurds."

Reception in the women's movement

In connection with the violence debate surrounding the RAF in the early 1970s, the women's movement criticized fundamentally militant and terrorist strategies and turned against opinions within the New Left that were sympathetic to them . For example appeared in October 1977 in the feminist magazine Courage the call to all women to invention of happiness . In it the authors distanced themselves from the murders of the RAF terrorists as well as from the use of state violence. The militancy of the Rote Zora and other terrorist women's groups were rejected by all wings of the women's movement. After the attacks by the Rote Zora on shops of the Adler clothing chain, which had disregarded the rights of women in the third world , feminist solidarity groups with the workers vehemently criticized the theories and actions of the Rote Zora . In a 1981 article titled Has Violence Arrived in the Women's Movement? developed Sybille Plogstedt a fundamental critique of power and violence logic. In the controversy over violence and terror in the 1980s, the women's movement in connection with the women's peace movement deepened approaches to peaceful conflict resolution, which were later further developed in the international debates on women and human rights.

Katharina Karcher is of the opinion on the website anschlag.at that it should be discussed further whether the actions of the group were feminist.

Investigations and Law Enforcement

The Rote Zora was investigated for the formation of terrorist groups . A first trial against a suspect resulted in an acquittal.

The Rote Zora supported various campaigns against the paragraph and claimed that it would primarily be used against the radical left and serve the “criminalization”, “intimidation” and almost “unrestricted investigation” of all persons, groups and especially journalists who deal with it "Attack-relevant topics" (this frequent formulation of the authorities was taken up) dealt with. The Federal Prosecutor's Office cited topics such as “genetic engineering” and “sex tourism” as being “relevant to the attack ” in numerous investigations, which in accordance with the “terrorism paragraph” ( Section 129a StGB) included extensive eavesdropping , surveillance , revocation of postal secrecy , searches and arrests allowed.

In 2007, the 58-year-old teacher and native Hanoverian Adrienne Agathe Gerhäuser confessed to the Berlin Court of Justice that she had been involved in two failed explosive attacks. The woman, who is also a trained radio electronics technician, has been charged with membership in a terrorist organization and attempted bomb attacks. She confessed to having bought alarm clocks for the ignition in 1986 for an attack on the genetic engineering institute in Berlin and in 1987 on a clothing factory near Aschaffenburg. Her and her partner of the same age, Thomas K., who was also under suspicion of terrorism, was given the prospect of a two-year suspended prison sentence for a confession and then granted.

Others

This year in March in Ljubljana held queer feminist festival rdeče Zore (Slovenian Red Zora and red twilights ) refers by name to both the Red Zora as a political group and to that described by Kurt Held for children and youth gang , by the Red Zora was led.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ilse Lenz (Ed.): The New Women's Movement in Germany (VS, 2nd edition 2010), Chapter 8: Women's movement and terrorism , p. 269
  2. ↑ Mili's Tanz auf dem Eis , Brochure of the Rote Zora, 1993, documented on Freilassung.de
  3. ^ ID archive in the IISG (ed.): The fruits of anger. Texts and materials on the history of the Revolutionary Cells and the Red Zora. ID archive in the IISG, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-89408-023-X ( online ).
  4. ↑ Notice of posting by the Revolutionary Cells and Red Zora from August 1984
  5. ↑ Notice of attack by the Rote Zora from September 1986, documented on Freilassung.de
  6. ↑ Notice of attack by the Rote Zora from June 1987, documented on Freilassung.de
  7. ↑ Notice of attack by the Rote Zora from February 1988, documented on Freilassung.de
  8. ↑ Notice of attack by the Rote Zora, documented on Freilassung.de
  9. ↑ Notice of attack by the Rote Zora, documented on Freilassung.de
  10. ↑ Ilse Lenz; Women's movement and terrorism , ibid. P. 270
  11. ↑ Katharina Karcher wrote her dissertation on female participation in leftist political violence in Germany since 1970 at the University of Warwick.
  12. ↑ Katharina Karcher : Hitting the patriarchy to pieces . Article on the website of an.schlag , February 23, 2014, accessed on April 22, 2017.
  13. ↑ Left-wing extremist women's group: “Rote Zora” terrorist confesses . dpa report on stern.de , April 11, 2007, accessed on April 22, 2017.
  14. ↑ Uta Falck: Trial: The Red Zora and Her Shame . Spiegel Online , April 11, 2007, accessed April 22, 2017.
  15. ^ "Rote Zora": Pedagogue is committed to attacks. dieStandard.at , April 11, 2007, archived from the original on July 17, 2012 ; Retrieved April 22, 2017 .
  16. ↑ About the title of Rdeče zore festival . Website of the Rdeče Zore festival , accessed on April 22, 2017.
    Tea Hvala: The Red Dawns Festival as a Feminist-Queer Counterpublic / Festival Rdeče zore kot feministično-kvirovska kontrajavnost. (PDF; 1 MB) In: Monitor ISH. Revija za humanistične in družbene vede / Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Institutum Studiorum Humanitatis, Faculty za podiplomski humanistični študij, Ljubljana, archived from the original on November 29, 2014 ; Retrieved April 22, 2017 (XII / 1 2010).