Rewriting Berlin's 2nd of June 1967 shooting & German history.

international | history and heritage | other press

Wednesday May 27, 2009 19:47

by iosaf

"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.

was postwar Germany more fascistic before or after his death?

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".

It has now emerged the policeman in question, Karl-Heinz Kurras had been a member of the STASI or East German secret service since 1955 though there is no evidence he was acting on their orders at the time of the shooting.

Those who understand German might enjoy this short vid on the shooting with commentary by Ulrkie Meinhof, whose group the RAF or "Baader Meinhof" were to cite in justification of their subsequent armed actions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5yvzwjN8NY

[.....The Movement 2nd June (German: Bewegung 2. Juni) was a well known West German militant group based in West Berlin. Named after the date on which Benno Ohnesorg was killed, the group mostly bombed property in Berlin. The most significant operation of the group was when they successfully kidnapped Peter Lorenz in 1975. Lorenz was the CDU candidate for mayor in Berlin. The kidnappers managed to free four of their imprisoned comrades, who were flown to South Yemen. Lorenz was released the next day, dropped off with some small change so he could call a taxi. Movement 2nd June was allied with the Red Army Faction (RAF) (referred to by the German media as the Baader-Meinhof Gang after the two founding members), but was ideologically anarchist as opposed to the Marxist RAF. In the early eighties, the movement disbanded. Many members then joined the RAF......] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movement_2_June

Indeed the Bernad Eichinger's 2008 film The Baader Meinhof Complex begins with a graphic depiction of the shooting which is to this day central to many German's imaginary awareness of their own society.
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a back article from IMC Ireland on the RAF saw a lot of information in the comments on the people who would in the space created by that shooting find their place in history & we might muse also find their place in prison, some to this very day :-

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/80970

Whereas the former STASI spy, Kurras, who is now 81 years of age only got suspended from the West Berlin policeforce after the shooting for a paltry 4 years. During which he put bread on his table by working in private security. In 1971 he rejoined the police force and was subsequently promoted to Kriminaloberkommissar (Detective Chief Inspector). He retired from the service in 1987.

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“It makes a hell of a difference whether John F. Kennedy was killed by just a loose cannon running around or a Secret Service agent working for the East,” “I would never, never, ever have thought that this could be true.”
:- Stefan Aust, who served from 1994 to 2008 as editor in chief of the "Der Spiegel".

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original story from Monday's German newspaper "Bild" with interview & archive links.
http://www.bild.de/BILD/politik/2009/05/24/karl-heinz-k....html

The monument to "the dead protester" at the Berlin Opera House.

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Comments (2 of 2)

Yeah, blame it on the Stasi....

by Doubting Thomas

Thu May 28, 2009 12:38

As 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.

I don't want to internationalise revisionism, but the kernal of the story is the cop's interview.

Fri May 29, 2009 23:01

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.

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Rewriting Berlin's 2nd of June 1967 shooting & German history.

Comments (2 of 2)