Major Police Raids Against Leftists In Germany

     On Tuesday, June 13, 1995, 50 left-wing collective homes,
private flats, and infoshops all over Germany were the target of a
large-scale raid by the police. In eight states special units and
officers of the State Offices of Criminal Investigation (LKA) and
of the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation (BKA) stormed the
houses and political centers early in the morning. The orders for
the operation were given by the Office of the Federal Attorney
(BAW) in Karlsruhe, which, as its speaker Rolf Hannich said,
ordered the raid in connection with present preliminary proceedings
against "left-wing extremist and left-wing terrorist groupings".
During the whole day the BAW imposed a news ban on the details and
the background of the big raid. Also the BAW didn't want to confirm
reports that the police operation was aimed at the Anti-Imperialist
Cell (AIZ). Concrete proceedings were only rarely mentioned in the
search warrants. The main excuse: Supporting a terrorist
organization and distribution of the autonomist underground
magazine Radikal.
     In Berlin, three collective houses and one private flat were
raided. The operation was legitimized with the suspicion of the
distribution of Radikal. In two houses the police also searched for
two men who are wanted in connection with the failed car bomb
attack on the deportation prison under construction in
Berlin-Grunau. For that reason they broke open the flats at six in
the morning, with tracker dogs, and detained the inhabitants until
midday. In response to the question of whether the proceedings in
connection with Grunau were also making up the reason for the raids
in other towns, the spokesman for the BAW, Hannich, didn't want to
say anything.
     In Hamburg, besides several private flats, a printshop was
raided. Police seized flyers and a stereotype of a flyer for the
"Anti-Racist Telephone". This flyer contained a call for reminder
vigils because of racist attacks by police officers in police
stations in Hamburg (which happened - and became public! - in
several other towns as well). Also the inhabitants of four flats in
the Schanzenviertel in Hamburg were woken up by SEK special units.
The excuse: Again, the production and distribution of Radikal.
Probably nine people were arrested, but released shortly
afterwards. That may mean that also their arrest was just an excuse
and not the aim of the raids.
     In Schleswig-Holstein (a northern state in Germany), police in
Rendsburg and Lubeck arrested two men, and the warrant against
them, issued for "suspicion of membership in a terrorist
organization", gave the excuse for the searching of several flats
and two political centers in Lubeck. A member of the group ID-
Schleswig-Holstein (Information Service Schleswig-Holstein)
reported to the daily newspaper Junge Welt that at least one of two
men arrested has already been transported to Karlsruhe for
interrogation. The search for one of them also was the excuse for
the searching of the infoshop in Neumunster. According to the BAW
he allegedly has been a regular visitor. During the raid, police
seized all the material in the offices of ID-Schleswig-Holstein,
everything from the archives to the computers.
     By order of the BAW, eleven raids were conducted in the state
of North Rhein-Westphalia, in Duisburg, Munster, and Cologne. In
these cases the operations were not aimed at specified persons, and
arrests only happened because of "resistance against the police".
In Cologne the police raided two former squats, one flat, and the
infoshop. Here, too, the officers excused their entrance with the
search for proof for the production of Radikal.
     Altogether the reasons for the raid seem to be constructed.
The house in Berlin-Kreuzberg had already been turned upside down
in May in connection with the search for the suspects from Grunau.
The magazine Radikal, which is less and less important in the
autonomist scene, has existed for 20 years and has already been
used often as an excuse for repressive operations by the state
security agencies. Obviously the aim of the BAW is a different one.
After the police appeared several times before the public with
proceedings against right-wing extremists, proof of efficiency also
against the radical-left was overdue. The last "success" in this
direction, the arrest of one alleged RAF-member, Birgit Hogefeld,
and the shooting of another, Wolfgang Grams, is two years old, and
that actually backfired on the BAW. What probably is going to be
sold as "an effective strike against left-wing terrorism" is no
more than an hyped attempt to intimidate, made up for the benefit
of the media.

(Mainly based on an article in Junge Welt, June 14, 1995, by Elke
Spanner and Ivo Bozic. Translated by SpinnenNetz Berlin.)