Introduction
From the Baader-Meinhof Terror Group to the Frankfurt School and today’s radicalized insurgence movements, a disturbing parallel emerges:
Subversive ideologies thrive where outrage, Wokism and enemy images intersect. History doesn’t repeat itself in external forms but in discourse and dynamics. What was once called “urban guerrilla” is now “direct action”; what once was the RAF (Red Army Faction) with ties to Moscow and Palestinian Terror Orgs, is now often multi governments and taxpayers funded NGO’s, digitally networked and increasingly supported by pro terror Islamists, illegal immigrants, BLM, Antifa, “Free Palestine”.
Woke activists and the left-wing scene exert its influence through mass mobilization.
In a side note, the far right and right Woke are gaining power via so called media influencers.
1. RAF (Baader-Meinhof Group): Origins & Ideology
The Red Army Faction (RAF), colloquially known as the “Baader-Meinhof Group”, was founded in spring 1970 in West Germany. Its best-known founding members were Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin, and Horst Mahler. The group saw itself as an “urban guerrilla” and drew ideologically from Marxist-Leninist, “anti-imperialist”, and Maoist theories. Their goal was to combat and ultimately overthrow the pro west Federal Republic of Germany through violence. Two parallel groups, which share the same name were active in Italy and Japan.
As early as April 1968, Baader, Ensslin, and others carried out arson attacks on department stores in Frankfurt. These actions were not just provocations; they were meant as signals of “resistance” against West German capitalism. The RAF’s beginnings were deeply intertwined with the climate of the 1968 movement: protests against the Vietnam War, opposition to emergency laws, and resistance to what they saw as “authoritarian structures in education, police, and society”.Their ties to the Soviet Union served to destabilize the American plan to de-radicalize Germany after WWII.
Their tactics included:
- Bank robberies to finance operations
- Bomb attacks, such as one on the US Army Headquarters in Heidelberg
- Targeted assassinations of figures from business, judiciary, and politics (e.g., Attorney General Siegfried Buback, employers’ president Hanns Martin Schleyer, the murder of the Italian PM Aldo Moro):
- Passengers’ aircraft’s hijacking such as the Lufthansa “Landshut” hijacking (in collaboration with Palestinian terror groups)
By the mid-1970s, key RAF members were incarcerated. Time in prison led to hunger strikes, deaths (suicides), and the emergence of a second and third generation of RAF members who continued attacks into the 1990s. Finally, in 1998, the RAF officially disbanded.
2. Frankfurt School: Theory & Relation to the RAF
The Frankfurt School wasn’t a single movement but a group of critical thinkers at the Institute for Social Research (founded in 1923 in Frankfurt). Central figures included Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Erich Fromm, and later Jürgen Habermas.
Their philosophy was shaped by an interdisciplinary approach: Marxism, psychoanalysis, cultural criticism and sociology, all aimed to exploit societal power structures. Adorno’s concept of the “authoritarian personality” served as a model explaining fascism and conformity to authoritarian systems.
In the 1960s, the Frankfurt School had a strong influence on the student movement. Herbert Marcuse, in particular became an icon, he regarded rebellious youth as a revolutionary force against a repressive, consumer-oriented, capitalist system. His works, such as One-Dimensional Man, resonated widely.
3. Today: New Movements, Old Patterns? Old habits die hard
Antisemitism & Antizionism in a New Guise
Since the October7 Massacre, 2023, Germany, France, the USA, the UK, Canada and Australia have seen a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents. According to the German Interior Ministry, recorded cases nearly doubled in 2024. Most demonstrations don’t remain peaceful, there are signs of increasing readiness for violence, especially at so-called “solidarity rallies,” where anti-Israel slogans and Holocaust denial occur.
NGOs & State Financial Flows Today
A key difference from the RAF is today’s legal funding of radical movements: via foreign governments (China, Qatar, Iran, Russia), Numerous NGO’s
Funding flow especially to
- Online crowdfunding
- Activists monetize campaigns directly
- State universities & academic institutes
Today: Radical Left Movements Against Israel & the USA
Since the Gaza war in October 2023, parts of the left protest scene have radicalized. Unlike traditional Antifa, the agenda is often not limited to antifascism but increasingly focused on anti-Zionist, anti-American, and anti-Western mobilization.
Methods of violence include blockades, arson (e.g., targeting Israel-related institutions), attacks on police, and physical assaults. In LA, London, and Berlin, planned violent clashes have occurred, linked to Islamist networks and NGOs. These groups are often decentralized, anonymous, loosely organized collectives, but digitally highly networked.
4. Structural Parallels to the RAF — Then & Now
| Feature | RAF (1970s) | Today (2020s) |
| Enemy Image | Capitalism, USA, Israel, | Israel, the West, “Colonialism,” Capitalism |
| Ideology | Marxist-Leninist, anti-imperialist | Anti-Zionist, anti-Western neo-Marxism, postcolonialism, “wokeism” |
| Justification forViolence | “Liberation struggle,” resistance to oppression | “Solidarity with the oppressed,” “decolonization,” “justice” illegal immigrants |
| Organization | Clandestine, hierarchical | Decentralized, anonymous, loose collectives, deep state, digitally connected |
| Support | East Germany Palestinian groups, Moscow | Islamist circles (Hamas), Qatari asserts and funders, ideological NGOs |
| Methods | Bank robberies, chaos, kidnappings, bomb attacks, terror, cooperation with Palestinian terror groups | Demonstrations, online shaming, physical attacks, arson, propaganda, terror attacks, targeted individuals and state institutions, chaos, cooperation with Palestinian terror groups |
| Language & Terms | Revolution, class struggle, people’s liberation | Intersectionality, queerness, “anti-Zionist,” “colonial racism,” “resistance” |
| Goal | Overthrow of the system, communist society | Abolition of Western structures, destruction of nation-states & property |
| Vision | Proletarian dictatorship | Diffuse utopian peace under “just conditions”—ultimately totalitarian |
Sources & Literature
- Aust, Stefan: The Baader-Meinhof Complex, Bodley Head, 2008.
- Kraushaar, Wolfgang: Die RAF und der linke Terrorismus, Hamburger Edition, 2006.
- Adorno, Theodor W.: The Authoritarian Personality, Harper & Row, 1950.
- Marcuse, Herbert: One-Dimensional Man, Beacon Press, 1964.
- Horkheimer, Max & Adorno, Theodor W.: Dialectic of Enlightenment, Stanford University Press, 2002.
- Fromm, Erich: Escape from Freedom, Farrar & Rinehart, 1941.
- Habermas, Jürgen: The Theory of Communicative Action, Beacon Press, 1984.
- Bundestag Archives & German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV)
- Reports from the Simon Wiesenthal Center
- Academic journals: Critical Sociology, Journal of Contemporary History, Terrorism and Political Violence
- Government statements and statistics from the German Ministry of the Interior (BMI)