2JM |
Bewegung 2. Juni (2nd of June Movement); Berlinbased anarchist guerilla group formed in early 1972, its name comes from the date of the police shooting of protester Benno Ohnesorg in 1967. |
APO |
Außerparlemtarische Opposition (Extra-Parliamentary Opposition); the name given to the broad-based militant opposition with its roots in the student movement that encompassed the left-wing anti-imperialist and social revolutionary movements of the late sixties and early seventies. |
ARD |
Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Syndicate for Publicly Regulated Radio Stations in the Federal Republic of Germany); state-funded radio. |
BAW |
Bundesanwaltschaft (Federal Prosecutors Office); noted for its aggressive prosecution of cases against the guerilla and the left. |
BGS |
Bundesgrenzschutz (Federal Border Patrol); border security police. |
BKA |
Bundeskriminalamt (Federal Criminal Bureau); the German equivalent of the FBI, particularly active in police activities against the guerilla and the left. |
BND |
Bundesnachrichtendienst (Federal Intelligence Service); the FRG’s foreign intelligence service. |
CDU |
Christlich Demokratisches Union Deutschlands (Christian Democratic Union of Germany); Germany’s mainstream conservative party. |
CSU |
Christlich-Soziale Union in Bayern (Bavarian Christian-Social Union); Bavaria’s mainstream conservative party, the Bavarian partner to the CDU. |
DGB |
Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (German Union Federation); the largest union federation in the FRG. |
DKP |
Deutsche Kommunistische Partei (German Communist Party); the pro-Soviet communist party founded in 1968, in effect the rebranding of the KPD (Communist Party of Germany), which was banned in 1956. |
FAZ |
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; a high-quality, national, moderate conservative, German daily newspaper. |
FDP |
Freie Demokratische Partei (Free Democratic Party); Germany’s mainstream liberal party. |
GIM |
Groupe Internationale Marxisten (International Marxist Group); West German section of the Trotskyist Fourth International active in the FRG in the seventies and eighties, fused with the KPD/ML to form the VSP in 1986. |
GSG-9 |
Grenzschutzgruppe 9 (Border Patrol Group 9); officially part of the BGS, in practice Germany’s antiterrorist special operations unit. |
KB |
Kommunistischer Bund (Communist League); a small Maoist group active in the seventies. |
KBW |
Kommunistischer Bund Westdeutschland (West German Communist League); founded in Bremen in 1973. A Maoist organization originally associated with China, subsequently shifted their support to Albania and Pol Pot’s Cambodian regime. Dissolved in 1985. |
KPD |
Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (Communist Party of Germany); pro-Soviet communist party founded in 1919, banned under Hitler in 1933 and under Adenauer in 1956, rebranded as DKP (German Communist Party) in 1968. Also a Maoist party founded by the KPD/AO in 1971 and dissolved in 1980. |
KPD/AO |
Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands/Aufbauorganisation (Communist Party of Germany/Pre-Party Formation); a Maoist organization founded in 1970, became the KPD in 1971. |
KPD/ML |
Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands/Marxisten-Leninisten (Communist Party of Germany/Marxist-Leninist); a Maoist party founded on December 31, 1968. It fused with the Trotskyist GIM in 1986 to form the VSP. |
KSV |
Kommunistische Studentverband (Communist Student Association); student wing of the KPD/AO and later the KPD, founded in 1971 and dissolved in 1980. |
ID |
Informationsdienst; a left-wing news service published weekly from 1973 until 1981. In 1988, its archives were used to launch the left-wing publisher, Verlag Edition ID-Archiv, specializing in books about the German far left. |
LG |
Landesgericht (Land Court); each of the Länder had it’s own court system. |
LKA |
Landeskriminalamt (Land Criminal Bureau); the equivalent of the BKA functioning at the level of a state or province. |
LWA |
Landesanwaltschaft (Land Prosecutors Office); the equivalent of a state or provincial prosecutors office. |
NPD |
Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (National Democratic Party); far-right political party, supported by many neo-nazis. |
OLG |
Oberlandesgericht (Land Court of Appeal); each of the Länder had it’s own Court of Appeal. |
ÖTV |
Gewerkschaft öffentliche Dienste, Transport und Verkehr (The Public Service, Transport, and Communication Union). |
PFLP |
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine; founded in 1953, secular nationalist and Marxist, the second largest tendency within the PLO after Fatah. |
PFLP (EO) |
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (External Operations); originally a section of the PFLP, expelled in the early seventies for conducting controversial actions outside of Israel, effectively dissolved in 1978 after the death of its leader Waddi Haddad, who had been poisoned by the Mossad. |
RAF |
Rote Armee Fraktion (Red Army Faction). |
RH |
Rote Hilfe (Red Aid); an important prisoner support network which came out of the APO. |
RH E.V. |
Rote Hilfe e.v. (Red Aid registered association); a Red Aid network set up by the KPD/AO in 1970. |
RZ |
Revolutionäre Zellen (Revolutionary Cells); founded in 1973, most groups within its structure ceased activity in 1991, with the final action occurring in 1994. |
SDS |
Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund (Socialist German Students Federation); founded by the SDS in 1946. By the late sixties it was an independent left-wing student federation and the most significant organization in the APO. It dissolved in 1970. |
SHB |
Sozialdemokratischer Hochschulbund (Social Democratic Student Federation); founded in 1960 by the SPD, dissolved in 1992. |
SPD |
Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (Social Democratic Party of Germany); Germany’s mainstream social democratic party. |
SPK |
Socialistiches Patientenkollektiv (Socialist Patients’ Collective); founded in 1970, part of the antipsychiatry movement. It dissolved under extreme state pressure in 1971, many of its core members later joining the RAF. |
VSP |
Vereingte Sozialistische Partei (United Socialist Party); formed in 1986 through the fusion of the KPD/ML and the GIM, splintered into various groups in 1993. |
ZDF |
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (Second German Television); German publicly regulated television, Europe’s largest broadcasting corporation.
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