From Hash Rebels to Urban Guerrillas: A Documentary History of the 2nd of June Movement

In the early 1970s, all across the Americas and Western Europe, armed groups emerged out of the social movements of the late 1960s. Their goal was to advance the struggle for a socialist society. In Germany, the Red Army Faction received most attention, but a less well-known, antiauthoritarian and social-revolutionary counterpart operated in its shadows: the 2nd of June Movement, named after the date when, in 1967, the unarmed student Benno Ohnesorg was shot and killed by a Berlin cop during a demonstration. The 2nd of June Movement was composed of working-class youth who got politicized in Berlin’s underground culture. They first emerged as a political collective under the name “Hash Rebels” before forming the 2nd of June Movement as a revolutionary organization. The 2nd of June Movement received most attention for the 1975 kidnapping of conservative politician Peter Lorenz. Lorenz was exchanged for six comrades in prison, one of the biggest successes of any urban guerrilla group in Europe. Dissolved in 1980, the principles of the 2nd of June Movement lived on in the militant network of the Revolutionary Cells and the German autonomist movement. From Hash Rebels to Urban Guerrillas, the first book to present the 2nd of June Movement in English, documents the group’s history and politics through translations of original documents and reflections by former members. The editors provide an introduction, extensive notes, a timeline, and an overview of key protagonists. This is mandatory reading for anyone interested in the politics of the era and the ongoing quest to challenge the rule of the state and capital.

Praise

“In the 1970s, the 2nd of June Movement had many fans among the left. It was the guerrilla group with the human face, denounced by the Red Army Faction as ‘hippie lumpen.’”
—taz

“This well-structured book allows us to revisit—and rethink—the politics, practice, and consequences of the radical left-wing opposition during the 1970s in West Germany.” —Geronimo, author of Fire and Flames: A History of the German Autonomist Movement

“Ten bank robberies, a bombing, resisting arrest, illegal possession of firearms. The defendants? Members of the criminal organization ‘2nd of June Movement.’”
—Der Spiegel

“No urban guerilla is no solution either.”
—graffiti, Berlin

About the Editors

Roman Danyluk is a worker, grassroots labor unionist, and writer from Munich. He is the author of Blues der Städte: Die Bewegung 2. Juni—eine sozialrevolutionäre Geschichte.

Gabriel Kuhn is an Austrian-born writer and translator living in Sweden. His numerous authored and edited books include All Power to the Councils! A Documentary History of the German Revolution of 1918–1919; Turning Money into Rebellion: The Unlikely Story of Denmark’s Revolutionary Bank Robbers; Liberating Sápmi: Indigenous Resistance in Europe’s Far North; and Soccer vs. the State: Tackling Football and Radical Politics.

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