Terror and Democracy in West Germany [Paperback]

Karrin Hanshew examines West German responses to 1970s terrorism to explain why the experience had lasting significance for German politics and society.The Red Army Faction failed to bring down West Germany in the 1970s, but the decade-long debate they inspired helped shape a new era. After 1945, West Germans answered longstanding doubts about democracy's viability and fears of authoritarian state power with a militant democracy empowered against its enemies and a popular commitment to anti-fascist resistance. In the 1970s, these postwar solutions brought Germans into open conflict, fighting to protect democracy from both terrorism and state overreaction. Karrin Hanshew shows how Germans managed to learn from the past and defuse this adversarial dynamic.The Red Army Faction failed to bring down West Germany in the 1970s, but the decade-long debate they inspired helped shape a new era. After 1945, West Germans answered longstanding doubts about democracy's viability and fears of authoritarian state power with a militant democracy empowered against its enemies and a popular commitment to anti-fascist resistance. In the 1970s, these postwar solutions brought Germans into open conflict, fighting to protect democracy from both terrorism and state overreaction. Karrin Hanshew shows how Germans managed to learn from the past and defuse this adversarial dynamic.In 1970, the Red Army Faction declared war on West Germany. The militants failed to bring down the state, but this book argues that the decade-long debate they inspired helped shape a new era. After 1945, West Germans answered longstanding doubts about democracy's viability and fears of authoritarian state power with a militant democracy empowered against its enemies and a popular commitment to anti-fascist resistance. In the 1970s, these postwar solutions brought Germans into open conflict, fighting to protect democracy from both terrorism and state overreaction. Drawing on diverse sources, Karrin Hanshew showl“)