Guns n’ Roses – A new approach to female participation in the leftist terrorist groups “Red Army Faction” and “Movement of June 2” since the 1970s in Germany

Abstract

Women’s active role in political violence is still a relatively understudied phenomenon. In groups that were involved in leftist terrorism in Germany since the 1970s, women were not only the majority but also, from the very beginning on, active in the leading cadres. With particular focus on the ‘Red Army Faction’ and the ‘June Second Movement’, my thesis provides new data and an in depth discussion of the history of leftist terrorism in Germany, of women’s roles in concrete attacks and of accounts about and by female fighters. My approach to female terrorism in Germany since the 1970s is informed by discussions in social and political sciences, gender theories and philosophy of sexual difference. Drawing on these theoretical frameworks, I offer an in-depth discussion of one concrete attack, which indicates a strategic recourse to femininity. In my analysis, I develop the hypothesis that female terrorists in Germany have drawn on femininity as a form of camouflage. While this recourse to femininity can have significant strategic similarities to Luce Irigaray’s concept of ‘mimesis’, both are embedded in very different political frameworks.