The Stasi and the radical West German left

[Aspiring Humanist]

Since Karl-Heinz Kurras murder of Benno Ohnesorg sparked both Movement 2 June and the Red Army Faction, and he was outed to have been an agent of the East German Stasi, was Ohnesorgs murder a Stasi conspiracy to provoke left-wing outrage? And since it was a distinct event that caused a lot of armed action, doesn't it make their reasoning for resistance somewhat illegitimate?

[Ocean Seal]

Since Karl-Heinz Kurras murder of Benno Ohnesorg sparked both Movement 2 June and the Red Army Faction, and he was outed to have been an agent of the East German Stasi, was Ohnesorgs murder a Stasi conspiracy to provoke left-wing outrage? And since it was a distinct event that caused a lot of armed action, doesn't it make their reasoning for resistance somewhat illegitimate?
The reasoning for resistance against capitalism is never illegitimate.

[Aspiring Humanist]

The reasoning for resistance against capitalism is never illegitimate.

I agree, but the RAF had pretty substantial support among the west germans, they must have been radicalized at least enough to support it by Ohnesorgs death. If Kurras was Stasi and it was premeditated, its almost too convenient to be anything but a conspiracy, even if he was acting without orders from the stasi

[Ocean Seal]

I agree, but the RAF had pretty substantial support among the west germans, they must have been radicalized at least enough to support it by Ohnesorgs death. If Kurras was Stasi and it was premeditated, its almost too convenient to be anything but a conspiracy, even if he was acting without orders from the stasi
I strongly doubt that the Stasi would have killed an important asset just to provoke the people into fighting back. And if the people reacted so strongly to his death, it must have been more than just him, and there would have been a true basis for working class anger in West Germany.

[zoot_allures]

I strongly doubt that the Stasi would have killed an important asset just to provoke the people into fighting back.

Ohnesorg wasn't an important assest, he was just some random university student. It was the first demonstration he'd ever attended.

[zoot_allures]

was Ohnesorgs murder a Stasi conspiracy to provoke left-wing outrage?
That seems to me to be a reasonable supposition, although as far as I'm aware there's no evidence for it.


And since it was a distinct event that caused a lot of armed action, doesn't it make their reasoning for resistance somewhat illegitimate?
The killing of Ohnesorg was a catalyst; it certainly made a lot of people very angry, especially after Kurras was acquitted - but the idea that it caused the resistence is pretty simplistic. People don't take up armed resistence just because of a single failure of justice.

[Rafiq]

Left wing outrage was already brewing up in West germany, and would have come about regardless of the event.

[marl]

There is no evidence however of a link between the shooting of Ohnessorg and Kurras' spy activity.[4] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl-Heinz_Kurras#cite_note-3)[5] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl-Heinz_Kurras#cite_note-4)

- Wikipedia

[A Marxist Historian]

- Wikipedia

Yeah, this is all right wing McCarthyite paranoia, German style.

And besides, Markus Wolf had better politics than a lot of West German leftoids anyway. Sure, the Stasi did bad stuff at home in East Germany, but Stasi agents in WestGermany were not necessarily worse revolutionaries than West German leftists, especially the West German Maoists, who were particularly right wing before they largely ceased to exist.

-M.H.-