The course intends to investigate memories of post-war left-wing terrorism in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) in its relationship with Israel. Beyond an understanding of a mere reflection of events, we will conceive memory as a driving-force in recent history. Work will concentrate on two basic questions that represent distinct analytical dimensions: • To what extent did memories (as specific references to past events) influ¬ence the self-understanding and political legitimation of the terror¬ists as well as counter-terrorist measures taken by state actors from the late 1960s to the early 1980s? • How have memories of left-wing terrorist attacks shaped the percep¬tions of more recent forms of terrorist violence (right-wing terrorism as well as ‘new’ forms of Jihadist terrorism)? Two parallel seminars in the History Program at the FU Berlin and in the Contem-porary German Studies Program at HUJI on memo¬ries of Left Terrorism in Germany. • Both seminar groups receive identical reading lists • Both seminar groups use the same e-learning platform (Moodle), which provides reading material, online tasks • Joint real-time introduction sessions on the “History of German Postwar Terror¬ism” and “Theories of Memory” • Short video lectures by Prof. Bauerkämper (Memories of “Weimar” in the German Autumn of 1977) and Tobias Ebbrecht-Hartmann (Forms of Commemorating the German Autumn), incl. viewing tasks • Online reading tasks for specific articles • Production of a joint Wiki, including information about terrorist attacks (events), terms and memorials / films (to be researched by students) • List of proposed research topics and online forum; students establish German-Israeli research groups that conduct background research on specific topics • Student projects will be presented and discussed at a joint seminar to be held in mid-June 2019 (at HUJ). The joint seminar will also include a study trip to Mount Herzl cemetery and the memorial for the victims of terrorism as well as a q/a session with Anki Spitzer about her struggle for commemorating the victims of the Munich Olympic Attack Topics for research: • References to the Holocaust, the Nazi past and other memory frames in the contemporary perception of the Munich Olympic Attack • Memorials commemorating the Munich Olympic Attack in Germany and Israel • Holocaust memories in films about the Entebbe hijacking 1976 • The Entebbe hijacking in German and Israeli memory – entangled or competing memories? • The German Autumn and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict • The RAF and the Nazi past • Martyr-culture as terrorist memory culture • Counter-terrorism and memory frames of terrorist violence • Brown Army Faction? Perceptions of right-wing terrorism in Germany (the case of the NSU) • Commemorating victims of terrorism in Israel – a model memory culture? We propose to study memories of terrorists and terrorism in two particular fields: visual culture and public memory. Beyond texts, students are to utilise films, and investigate memorials, exhibitions, commemoration ceremonies and sites of memory, which in many cases are still in the process of develop¬ing specific patterns of commemoration and mourning. These ways of commemo¬rating, which have been influenced by the increasing significance of Holocaust memory, are particularly characterized by entangled memories and embedded in a cross-border culture of commemorating traumatic experiences of political violence. As the relationship between the Federal Republic of Ger¬many and Israeli is particularly relevant in this respect, it will receive strong emphasis. close

Christopher Daase, “Die RAF und der internationale Terrorismus. Zur transnationalen Kooperation klandestiner Organisationen“, Wolfgang Kraushaar (ed.), Die RAF und der linke Terrorismus, Vol. 2 (Hamburg 2006), pp. 1272-1298; Christian Lütnant, „Im Kopf der Bestie“. Die RAF und ihr internationalistisches Selbstverständnis (Marburg 2014); Petra Terhoeven, Deutscher Herbst in Europa. Der Linksterrorismus der siebziger Jahre als transnationales Phänomen (München 2014); Marcel Serr, “‘Shoot their hearts and blow their minds“. Terrorismusbekämpfung in Israel. Vorbild für Europa?”, Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte. Beilage zur Wochenzeitung “Das Parlament“, B 43-45/2016, pp. 41-46. close