Italian and German Left-Wing Terrorism in the 1970s in a Transnational Perspective

The dissertation thesis concerns with the issue of the left-wing terrorism in Italy and Federal Republic of Germany in the 1970s. The chosen topic is approached using the methods of transnational studies, which have been thus far applied only exceptionally in the relation to this phenomenon, despite the numerous parallels in different countries. The focus of the research lies in the analysis of the German-Italian terrorist network as a whole, the contacts between the organizations and mutual influence. The direct and indirect comparison of the cooperating terrorist organizations is also a substantial part of the thesis. The protest movement, which spread at the end of the 1960s and from which emerged the future terrorist groups as its most radical branches, was an important transnational phenomenon itself. The first chapter concerns with the analysis of this movement, emphasizing the reasons of its inception and its stances on political violence. The student and worker aspects of the movement are introduced, as well as older roots in the anti-fascist resistance or in the work of the Marxist authors. The thesis finds a special inspiration for the radicalizing Left in the events in the Third World. The thesis further examines the individual terrorist groups, chosen according to their importance and relevance..