Between ‘coloreds’ and ‘foreigners’. The effect of Manfred Roeder’s contagious encounters abroad on West-German right-wing extremism

Vortrag von Annelotte Janse (Universität Utrecht)

In this lecture, Annelotte Janse will dive into the transnational network of Manfred Roeder in the 1970s. Roeder was best known for his leadership of the Deutsche Aktionsgruppen, a right-wing terrorist group responsible for the first ‘explicitly racist’ and lethal anti-foreigner attacks in West-Germany. Presenting previously unused archival material, Annelotte Janse will show that Roeder’s encounters abroad decisively shaped and emboldened his thoughts and actions regarding the presence of ‘foreigners’ in West Germany. Consequently, it was not just the racist violence of the Deutsche Aktionsgruppen, but also Roeder’s transnational encounters contributed to the consolidation of a new threat perception that came to dominate the West German right-wing extremist scene of