Rote Zora ( en, Red Zora) was a
West German
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
radical left feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
urban guerrilla organization active from 1974 to 1995. The group committed a series of
bombing and
arson
Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wat ...
attacks against ideological enemies, including individuals and organizations thought to be involved with
sexism
Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls.There is a clear and broad consensus among academic scholars in multiple fields that sexism refers primari ...
, the
exploitation of women,
genetic engineering
Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including t ...
, enforcing
patriarchal
Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of Dominance hierarchy, dominance and Social privilege, privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical Anthropology, anthropological term for families or clans controll ...
society,
nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...
, and
anti-abortion
Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionist movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in respons ...
ism. Rote Zora were particularly opposed to § 218 of the
German Penal Law limiting
abortion
Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...
, which they referred to as the "Terrorism Paragraph".
The organization never officially dissolved, but was completely inactive by 1996.
History
Revolutionary Cells
Rote Zora began in 1977 as the autonomous
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
arm of the
Revolutionary Cells, a major
radical left terrorist
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
organisation in
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
, which saw itself as a rival to the more prominent
Red Army Faction
The Red Army Faction (RAF, ; , ),See the section "Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang (, , active 1970–1998), was a West German far-left Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla group founded in 1970.
The ...
. The organization took its name from the
protagonist
A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...
of the 1941 book ''Die Rote Zora und ihre Bande'' (English title ''
The Outsiders of Uskoken Castle
''The Outsiders of Uskoken Castle'' is a children's novel written by Kurt Kläber. The German original, ''Rote Zora und ihre Bande'' (''Red Zora and her gang''), was published under the pseudonym Kurt Held in 1941. The English version was transl ...
'') by
Kurt Held
Kurt Kläber (1897–1959), who published under the pseudonym Kurt Held, was a writer and Communist displaced from Germany during the Second World War.
Early life
Kläber left school at the age of 14 and began training as a locksmith and later t ...
, which tells the story of a
red-haired
Red hair (also known as orange hair and ginger hair) is a hair color found in one to two percent of the human population, appearing with greater frequency (two to six percent) among people of Northern or Northwestern European ancestry and l ...
girl named Rote Zora (''rot'' meaning red in
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
) who leads a gang of
orphans
An orphan (from the el, ορφανός, orphanós) is a child whose parents have died.
In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents due to death is called an orphan. When referring to animals, only the mother's condition is usuall ...
committed to righting injustice.
The organization had previously existed from 1974 as "Women of the Revolutionary Cells" and began its attacks in 1975, with a
bombing of the
Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
The Federal Constitutional Court (german: link=no, Bundesverfassungsgericht ; abbreviated: ) is the supreme constitutional court for the Federal Republic of Germany, established by the constitution or Basic Law () of Germany. Since its inc ...
in
Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...
, and in 1977 with a bombing outside the offices of the German Doctors Association, both of which were to protest against support for
anti-abortion
Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionist movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in respons ...
laws.
[Dark Star Collective, p.101] In 1978, Rote Zora committed
arson
Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wat ...
attacks against
sex shop
A sex shop is a retailer that sells products related to adult sexual or erotic entertainment, such as sex toys, lingerie, pornography, and other related products.
An early precursor of the modern sex shop was a chain of stores set up in th ...
s in
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
. In 1981, they set fire to the car of a
lawyer
A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...
in Cologne, and distributed fake local
public transport
Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...
tickets in the
Ruhr
The Ruhr ( ; german: Ruhrgebiet , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr area, sometimes Ruhr district, Ruhr region, or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2,800/km ...
area. In 1983, Rote Zora committed four bomb attacks against a recruitment agency for foreigners, a bomb attack on the
Philippine
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
embassy in
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...
, bomb attacks against
Siemens
Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad.
The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...
in
Braunschweig
Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the Nor ...
and
Witten
Witten () is a city with almost 100,000 inhabitants in the Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis (district) in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Geography
Witten is situated in the Ruhr valley, in the southern Ruhr area.
Bordering municipalities
* Bochum
* Dortmu ...
, Attacks on the
Nixdorf Computer
Nixdorf Computer AG was a West German computer company founded by Heinz Nixdorf in 1952. Headquartered in Paderborn, Germany, it became the fourth largest computer company in Europe, and a worldwide specialist in banking and point-of-sale syst ...
in
Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
, and the
data center
A data center (American English) or data centre (British English)See spelling differences. is a building, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunic ...
of the Association of Clubs Creditreform in
Neuss
Neuss (; spelled ''Neuß'' until 1968; li, Nüss ; la, Novaesium) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the west bank of the Rhine opposite Düsseldorf. Neuss is the largest city within the Rhein-Kreis Neuss district. It ...
. In 1984, they committed an arson attack on two companies in
Gütersloh
Gütersloh () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, in the area of Westphalia and the administrative region of Detmold. Gütersloh is the administrative centre for a district of the same name and has a population of 100,194 peo ...
who were accused of using
prison labor for private profit. In 1985, attacks were committed on the
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research
The Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research was founded in Müncheberg, Germany in 1928 as part of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft. The founding director, Erwin Baur, initiated breeding programmes with fruits and berries, and basic resear ...
in Cologne, a medical institute of the
University of Heidelberg
}
Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...
, and the Institute of Genetics of the
University of Cologne
The University of Cologne (german: Universität zu Köln) is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in the year 1388 and is one of the most prestigious and research intensive universities in Germany. It was the sixth university to ...
.
Split
In 1986, Rote Zora split from the Revolutionary Cells, having become disillusioned with the violent methods of other left-wing groups that had resulted in deaths. Although there was still significant overlap in membership, Rote Zora launched a separate campaign that was intended not to harm. Their first attack as an independent organization was an arson attack against the Institute of Human Genetics at
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in
Münster
Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state distr ...
, where sensitive documents were also stolen from the institute and published. The same year they committed a bombing attack on the
Society for Biotechnological Research in Braunschweig. In 1987, Rote Zora committed ten arson attacks against the clothing chain Alder, including their headquarters in
Haibach, and at branches in
Halstenbeck,
Bremen
Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...
,
Oldenburg Oldenburg may also refer to:
Places
*Mount Oldenburg, Ellsworth Land, Antarctica
*Oldenburg (city), an independent city in Lower Saxony, Germany
**Oldenburg (district), a district historically in Oldenburg Free State and now in Lower Saxony
*Olde ...
,
Isernhagen
Isernhagen ( Eastphalian: ''Isernhogen'') is a municipality in the district of Hanover, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the north-east of Hanover. According to the average income per capita it is the most affluent municipality in Low ...
,
Kassel
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...
,
Holzwickede
Holzwickede () is a municipality in the district of Unna in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
It is twinned with Weymouth, Louviers and Colditz
Colditz () is a small town in the district of Leipzig, in Saxony, Germany. It is best known for Col ...
, Neuss, Frankfurt and
Aachen
Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th- ...
. In 1988, they committed a bombing attack at the Biological Institute of the
Technical University of Berlin
The Technical University of Berlin (official name both in English and german: link=no, Technische Universität Berlin, also known as TU Berlin and Berlin Institute of Technology) is a public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was ...
. In 1994, they committed an arson attack on a company supplying food to
refugee shelters in
Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
and
Gera
Gera is a city in the German state of Thuringia. With around 93,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city in Thuringia after Erfurt and Jena as well as the easternmost city of the ''Thüringer Städtekette'', an almost straight string of cit ...
.
Rote Zora carried out its last known attack in July 1995, when it bombed the
shipyard
A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...
of
Lürssen GmbH in the
Vegesack
Vegesack is a northern district of the city of Bremen.
Geography
''Vegesack'' is located about north from the centre of Bremen-city at the mouth of the river Lesum, beside the river Weser (). Abutting the district of Vegesack to the northwest is ...
district of Bremen, in support of the
Kurds ug:كۇردلار
Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Ir ...
in the
Turkish-Kurdish Conflict. Lürssen was manufacturing a ship for
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
, and was accused by the group of being armaments suppliers for the Turkish regime, which leads a war against the Kurds.
Demise
Following the Bremen shipyard bombing, Rote Zora had become inactive but had never officially dissolved. The group had begun to splinter in the early 1990s, following the
dissolution of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
and a general decline in far-left militant activity, as some members wished to give up armed struggle, while others wished to continue it. Rote Zora's activists were part-time
guerillas
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tactic ...
, and were known as "after-work terrorists" because most had
middle class
The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Commo ...
jobs and carried out their attacks in their free time.
In 2000, a short documentary about the group, ''Die Rote Zora'', was made by Oliver Ressler.
In April 2007, former Rote Zora member Adrienne Gershäuser stood trial for the attempted bombings of the Berlin Genetic Technical Institute in 1986, and a clothing factory in
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
in 1987, receiving a suspended two-year sentence, due to the time lapse and because she turned herself in, stated the authorities. The maximum penalty Gershäuser could have faced would have been ten years in jail for being a member of a terrorist group.
Militant feminist on trial after 20 years on run
The Guardian, 12 April 2007, "''If convicted Gershäuser faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail for being a member of a terrorist organisation and for attempted bombing. But the authorities have indicated that as she turned herself in, and due to the time lapse, she will probably get a two-year suspended sentence''."
See also
*Radical feminism
Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a Political radicalism, radical re-ordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts, while recognizing that women's experiences are al ...
* Anti-Imperialist Cell
References
Sources
*Dark Star Collective, ''Quiet Rumours: An Anarcha-Feminist Reader'', Oakland: AK Press
AK Press is a worker-managed, independent publisher and book distributor that specialises in radical left and anarchist literature. Operated out of Chico, California, the company is collectively owned.
History
AK was founded in Stirling, Sc ...
, 2002, .
*Heitmeyer, Wilhelm; Hagan, John. ''International Handbook of Violence Research'', Springer, 2003, .
{{Authority control
1977 establishments in West Germany
1995 disestablishments in Germany
Abortion-rights violence
Anti-pornography feminism
Außerparlamentarische Opposition
Clandestine groups
Far-left politics in Germany
Feminist organisations in Germany
Left-wing militant groups in Germany
Organizations disestablished in 1995
Organizations established in 1977
Radical feminist organizations
Revolutionary Cells (German group)
Socialist feminist organizations
Terrorism in Germany