Case Western Reserve University's five-day symposium, "Terrorism in Europe: The 'German Autumn' of 1977 after Thirty Years," will revisit the wave of terrorism that swept across Germany when part of the Red Army Faction called the Baader-Meinhof group tried to free their imprisoned members and kidnap Hanns-Martin Schleyer, president of the Association of German Industrialist.
"Given current events, scholarly explorations of terrorism are of fundamental interest at the present," said Kenneth F. Ledford, associate professor of history and law in the College of Arts and Sciences at Case Western Reserve. "This episode from the German past is of particular use in pointing out that terrorism as a tactic and weapon from the German past has no exclusive possession of religion, culture or the non-European world."
Ledford and Susanne Vees-Gulani, assistant professor of comparative literature and German at Case Western Reserve, present the series of lectures, films and discussions, starting Sunday, November 4 and concluding Thursday, November 8 in order to explore the cinematic and historical exploration of this episode in history.
The Baader-Meinhof Gang was in league with Palestinians to hijack the Lufthansa airliner, Landshut, from Majorca to Mogadishu in Somalia.
"This spasm of violence transfixed the world and stamped the views of a generation of Germans regarding the limits of political expression and the balance of privacy and security," said Vees-Gulani.
On each day of the seminar, a free, public event begins with a reception at 4:30 p.m., followed by the program. Except where noted, the programs will take place in Clark Hall, Room 309, 11130 Bellflower Road. The public is invited to:
The symposium is sponsored by the German Studies Program, the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities, the Department of History, the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures and the Center for Policy Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Institute for Global Security Law and Policy in the School of Law. This symposium is made possible by the Ohio Humanities Council.
Posted by: Marsha Bragg, October 31, 2007 09:41 AM | News Topics: Collaborations/Partnerships, College of Arts and Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Conferences/Symposia, Events, Faculty, Grants, HeadlinesMain, Lectures/Speakers, Provost Initiatives, School of Law
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