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Chapter 4 Immigration, Asylum, and Terrorism: How Do They Inter-Relate in Germany?

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Chapter 4 Immigration, Asylum, and Terrorism: How Do They Inter-Relate in Germany? Chapter 4 Immigration, Asylum, and Terrorism: How Do They Inter-relate in Germany? Ulrike Davy 1 Introduction German soldiers were not actively engaged in Gulf War I or the post-11 Sep- tember war on terrorism. Coincidentally, however, Germany reflected upon fun- damental changes in immigration and asylum law in the early 1990s as well as in the early 2000s. Yet, the relationship between immigration, asylum, and ter- rorism was conceived of very differently. In the early 1990s, measures combating terrorism did not directly relate to immigration and asylum law. Rather, they were primarily connected to criminal law. In the aftermath of the attacks of 11 September 2001, measures against terrorism and changes in immigration law were intrinsically entwined. 2 Immigration, Asylum and Terrorism in the Aftermath of Gulf War I 2.1 Terrorism: The Phenomenon The word ‘terrorism’ as a legal term was first introduced in 1975/76. In May 1975, the Conservative Party in Parliament1 – then in opposition – formally sub- mitted a Bill on combating terrorist criminal groups.2 The governing coalition of Social Democrats and Liberals followed suit, avoiding, however, any reference to ‘terrorism’ in the title of their bills. They simply referred to amendments to the Criminal Code (Strafgesetzbuch), the Criminal Procedure Act (Strafprozess- 1 The term ‘Conservative Party’ and the term ‘Conservatives’ refer to a parliamentary coalition between two parties having seats in the Bundestag (first chamber of Parliament): the Christlich-Demokratische Union and the Christlich-Soziale Union (CDU/CSU). 2 Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Bekämpfung terroristischer krimineller Vereinigungen (Bill on combating terrorist criminal groups), 21 May 1975 (Gesetzentwurf der Fraktion der CDU/CSU), BT-Drs. 7/3661. Elspeth Guild and Anneliese Baldaccini (eds.), Terrorism and the Foreigner ... 177-232. © 2007 Koninklijke Brill NV. Printed in the Netherlands. ISBN 90 04 15187 7. Ulrike Davy ordnung), the Act on the Organisation of Courts (Gerichtsverfassungsgesetz), and the Federal Act on legal counsels (Bundesrechtsanwaltsordnung).3 The Act on amendments to the Criminal Code, the Criminal Procedure Act, the Act on the Organisation of Courts, and the Federal Act on legal counsels was finally published as law in August 1976.4 Colloquially, the Act was and is nevertheless called the ‘Anti-Terrorism Act’,5 because it was clearly prompted by the terrorist activities Germany was exposed to in the early 1970s. 2.1.1 RAF-Terrorism Around 1970, a group of persons – Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, and Ulrike Meinhof being the most well-known – organised themselves as the ‘Red Army Faction’ (Rote Armee Fraktion, short, RAF). The first generation of RAF members had close links with the student movement of the late 1950s and the 1960s. The members of the group were opposed to Adenauer’s policy of rearma- ment based on nuclear weapons, and to US policies and military tactics vis-à-vis Vietnam, and took a critical stance towards the Shah’s regime in Iran. In the late 1960s, the group’s protest took a different form. Members of the group planted incendiary bombs in shopping malls, robbed banks, attacked US military sites in Germany, and threatened the life of high-ranking German officials. In 1972, Andreas Baader, Holger Meins, Gudrun Ensslin, and Ulrike Meinhof were arrested. All were accused of murder and of the formation of a criminal group (Bildung einer kriminellen Vereinigung). When the trials finally began in 1975, Germany was hit by another wave of terrorist attacks, this time primarily com- mitted by second generation members of the RAF who demanded the liberation of the accused. In March 1975, Peter Lorenz, the leader of the Conservative Party’s section of Berlin was kidnapped; in April 1975, the German embassy in Stockholm was attacked, and two attachés were shot dead. 3 Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Änderung des Strafgesetzbuches, der Strafprozeßordnung, des Gerichtsverfassungsgesetzes und der Bundesrechtsanwaltsordnung v. 4. 6. 1975 (Gesetzentwurf der Fraktionen der SPD und der FDP), BT-Drs. 7/3729; Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Änderung des Strafgesetzbuches, der Strafprozeßordnung, des Gerichtsverfassungsgesetzes und der Bundesrechtsanwaltsordnung v. 1. 9. 1975 (Gesetzentwurf der Bundesregierung), BT-Drs. 7/4005. 4 Gesetz zur Änderung des Strafgesetzbuches, der Strafprozeßordnung, des Gerichtsverfassungsgesetzes, der Bundesrechtsanwaltsordnung und des Strafvollzugsgesetzes (Act on amendments to the Criminal Code, the Act on Criminal Procedure, the Act on the Organisation of the Courts, the Federal Act on Legal Counsels, and the Act on the Execution of Sentences), 18 August 1976, BGBl. I S. 2181. The Act came into force on 20 September 1976. 5 See, e.g., v. Bubnoff, in H.-H. Jescheck, W. Ruß and G. Willms, eds, Strafgesetzbuch, Leipziger Kommentar. Großkommentar, (Berlin: de Gruyter, 10th edition, 1988), Sec. 129a. 178.
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