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The SakerA bird's eye view of the vineyard
Public InquiryInterested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
Human Rights in IrelandIndymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
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Rewriting Berlin's 2nd of June 1967 shooting & German history.![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() "oh lord won't you buy me a mercedes benz" June 2nd 1967 was a watershed in German postwar history so pivotal that the date would be used by a terrorist grouping as their name. Benno Ohnesorg was shot dead by a policeman. Ohnesorg had been peacefully protesting the visit of the then Shah of Iran to the then West Berlin. It has now emerged the policeman in question, Karl-Heinz Kurras had been a member of the STASI since 1955 though there is no evidence he was acting on their orders at the time of the shooting. June 2nd 1967 was a watershed in German postwar history so pivotal that the date would be used by a terrorist grouping as their name & a monument in Berlin would be raised in memory of the student Benno Ohnesorg was shot in the back of the head & quite dead by a policeman. Ohnesorg had been peacefully protesting the visit of the then Shah of Iran to the then West Berlin Opera to hear Mozart's Magic. After that shooting many believe the 1968 and subsequent social movements and agitation in the then West German state began. TThe "fascist cop" had shot "the innocent kid".
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Jump To Comment: 1 2As survey after survey shows that young people in eastern germany have been handed down from their parents a positive attitude to the GDR, the powers-that-be do their best to counter-attack. I doubt the veracity of this story.
However, all indications are that the Stasi assisted the RAF in its military campaign.
Earlier this week I saw this election tide story launched on the German daily "Bild" with an exclusive interview with the ex-Detective Chief Inspector Kurras on why he shot Benno Ohnesorg complete with many archive articles and very professionally and carefully padded out with archive articles, "expert" and "insider" comments and not too much tie-in with Chancellor Merckel's recent revealations on how the STASI had tried to recruit her.
the newspaper "Bild" haven't really paid much attention to other EU states' election campaigns other than the usual fodder covered by all :- Irish Roman Catholic Child Abuse, Berlusconi Demographic Shagging Girlies Appeal & British Gravy Train wannabe fat cat MPs.
& that's how I initially read it, until I registered how many changes, discussions and background noises the news was bringing up on the old internet radar I pride myself on being a dab hand at interpreting.
Wikipedia edits came along with lengthy discussion on contemporary German activist sites as diverse as indymedia to the black block to the more sinister fash variety whilst the popularity of the youtube vids of the event and statements of both Baader Meinhof and "Bewegung 2. Juni" moved from relative moribund status after their last peak of public interest (which came with the release of the movie "The BM complex". & so naturally the US so-called mainstream "liberal media" picked up on the story.
& that's when I thought, oh heck - Janis Joplin, this is when you would want me to remind people not of the facts of history nor the supposed true reasons and causative agents or conspiratorial impeta of societal change, but rather the vibe of revolution
Because quite honestly I don't think it matters whether or not Kurras was acting on STASI orders when he shot the innocent student Ohnesorg no more than I think it matters who shot or ordered shot JFK.
They died & that is that.
& lest we ever forget the night of November 9th 1989, the wall came down - not because either the leadership of the West or East had planned it (for it is undisputed that neither side had any clue the garbled press conferences given by DDR would cause Berliners to collapse the border crossings)
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/62069
Some would have marked that event with the music of Janis Joplin's hymn to the Baader Meinhof - "Oh lord won't you buy me a mercedes benz" (thankfully not the contemporary "mercedes daimler chrysler benz") Others would have marked it as I did with Rostropovitch playing Bach.
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/82207?&condense_comment...91643
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Irgendwann fällt jeder Mauer - some day every wall shall fall
don't stop singing your songs - it's just EU election shite.