When a brief kerfuffle erupted a few weeks ago about current German defense minister von der Leyen ever so slightly fluffing her official resume by including a stint as an auditing guest student and a term as a volunteer in Stanford, the blogster did some research and explained details in The two resumes of the German Defense Minister (official vs. Wikipedia).
Another intriguing aspect of the story of Ms. von der Leyden shines a light on a troubled period in West German history: the left wing terrorism of the 1970s and 1980s.
Her Wikipedia entry explains that, as a young student in London in 1978, she used the pseudonym Rose Ladson "because she was seen as a potential terrorism target for West German left-wing extremists".
This explanation is from a very flattering article in the Daily Telegraph on the occasion of her becoming Germany's first female minister of defense.
While no known facts support the claim, and the use of "potential" further weakens it, it does illuminate the feelings of the German upper middle and upper classes in the face of the terrorist threat at the time.
The vast majority of victims of the left wing terrorists of the Red Army Faction (RAF) were police officers, US personnel stationed in Germany and other regular citizens, whereas the common "short version" of the rampage focuses exclusively on several high profile victims.
The perception of the danger of left wing or right wing violence in Germany since the days of the RAF, deadly right wing violence has killed far more people, yet never received the same attention nor the same resources to fight it. We collected figures for the past two decades in the post German officials and extremism: always mention right and left together.
The biggest single post WWII terrorist attack in Germany remains the Munich Oktoberfest bombing discussed in this post.
Whether the knife attack this weekend, that left a mayoral candidate in Cologne, Germany, hospitalized with life threatening injuries, by an individual from the right wing fringe will change the perceived threat is anybody's guess.
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