ÌÇÐÄTV

This presentation explores notions of feminist militancy in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). Although it has played a vital role in protest movements and armed struggles since the 1970s, feminist militancy has been neglected in feminist historiography and research on political violence. Drawing on archival sources and interviews with former members of the militant feminist group ‘Red Zora’ [Die Rote Zora], this talk gives a brief overview of militant feminist activism in the FRG between 1975 and 1995. First I discuss some of the challenges and problems that I faced when I started collecting data on this subject for my PhD and how I dealt with them. Then, I offer some of my findings. Based on a number of case studies including a bombing at the Federal Court of Justice in 1975, a series of attacks against sex shops in 1978, and militant protest against a German clothing chain in 1986 and 1987, I show what feminist ‘counter-violence’ meant to the Red Zora in theory and practice. Finally, I want to discuss some of the questions that I look at in my current research project: What distinguishes feminist militancy from other forms of militancy? And, to what extent can the activities of the Red Zora be compared to militant feminist protest in other geo-political contexts (e.g. suffragette militancy in the UK)?