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In the 1980 Oktoberfest attack, 13 people died and many more were injured. For decades, the worst far-right attack in West German history was dismissed as an apolitical act on the part of an individual. To this day, many questions remain unanswered.
By Patrick Gensing, tagesschau.de and Thies Marsen, BR
It is September 26, 1980: at 10:19 p.m. 1.39 kilograms of explosives explode at the main entrance to Oktoberfest in Munich. Twelve people are killed by the blast, as well as screws and nails from the explosive device flying around. More than 200 more people are injured, some seriously. Right-wing extremist Gundolf Koehler was also killed in the bomb attack.
Right-wing terrorist incidents had already occurred in previous years: the prominent victim of a right-wing attack in 1968 was Rudi Dutschke, head of the student movement. He was shot in the street. Investigators later found a portrait of Hitler and a copy of the book “Mein Kampf” about the perpetrator. It is now clear that he was in close contact with the far-right scene and that he was practicing target shooting and buying arms and ammunition from a former member of the NPD.
Terrorist network
Starting in the 1970s, right-wing terrorist groups such as the “Greater Germany National Socialist Combat Group” or the “European Liberation Front” group created by members of the NPD were formed. In 1973 Karl-Heinz Hoffmann founded his military sports group. Others followed, such as the Neumann military sports group in Hamburg, the neo-Nazi Michael Kühnen’s werewolf group or the Hepp Kexel group, which carried out several bomb attacks.
Also in 1980, a member of the Hoffmann military sports group allegedly shot publisher Shlomo Lewin, former president of Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Nürnberg, and his partner Frieda Poeschke. The “German Action Groups” carried out bomb attacks, including in Hamburg and Baden-Württemberg. Two people died and several were injured. Terrorist cells obtained the money for the attacks through bank robberies, similar to what the NSU did later.
In view of the numerous attacks and weapon finds, as well as a network of old militants and neo-Nazis, the thesis that the 21-year-old Köhler planned and implemented the attack in Munich entirely on his own seems questionable. Based on new statements, the BKA resumed the investigation in 2014, but halted it in July.
Reason for love evil?
As early as September 28, 1980, just two days after the attack, then-Federal Prosecutor Kurt Rebmann had stated that “Köhler is not supposed to be the sole perpetrator, investigations have shown that Köhler was a member of the Hoffmann military sports group.” Hoffmann, however, denies Koehler’s membership to this day. The killer was at least an active sympathizer.
Still, the investigation took a completely different direction. Bavarian researchers gradually tended to portray Koehler as a lone perpetrator who had committed his act out of love and frustration. The Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution influenced the investigation, traces of the neo-Nazi scene were not investigated, expert reports and important evidence, including a severed hand, disappeared without a trace.
To this day, the central questions remain unanswered. “Nothing can be said about the court festival, as the authorities have blocked investigative activities in various ways,” says the veteran. BR-Journalist Ulrich Chaussy, who has been investigating the attack for decades. It is not known whether Köhler actually “detonated the bomb, whether he built the bomb,” says Chaussy, and “we don’t know who was there at Köhler’s that night.”
The government admits ambiguities
The federal government, however, assumes that Köhler detonated the bomb: “As a result of the investigation it can be stated that Gundolf Köhler detonated the bomb on September 26, 1980 at around 10:20 pm in the west area of the main entrance to the Oktoberfest site. ” At the request of the left-wing group in a government response, he said that tagesschau.de Present.
However, it is also clear from the statements made by the government that many issues have yet to be clarified beyond all doubt. The response says that “the origin of the individual components of the bomb could not be traced” and that the whereabouts of “the hand that had been seized” could not be clarified with “absolute certainty”. But it “seems” “obvious” that she was cremated in the crematorium after being assigned to the murderer and his body.
No information on informants
When it comes to questions about the role of informants, the government gives the usual information that cannot be commented on, “since it is information whose disclosure could endanger the well-being of the federal government or of a country.” the most important intelligence resources available to intelligence services to obtain information. If the details were known, conclusions could be drawn about the use of the sources and the functioning of the intelligence services. “
No secret service spy on the neo-Nazi scene was reportedly heard during the investigation, although the Office for the Protection of the Constitution was found to have V people in the vicinity of the Hoffmann military sports group. As the federal government had to admit, sources from the Hoffmann military sports group reported more than 140 times to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
Martina Renner of the left-wing parliamentary group criticized in an interview with tagesschau.deAccording to Renner, the worst attack in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany “requires further clarification because the essential questions have not been answered. Investigations by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office could not provide this clarification.” Among other things, it had been neglected “to make known the identities of the informants, to identify accomplices and accomplices of the murderer, and to make the errors and possible obstacles of the original investigation an independent objective of the investigation.”
Joint fund for victims of the federal, state and municipal governments
Indeed, Bavaria had doubted the attack’s political background for decades: Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann only admitted right-wing extremist motivation on the 30th anniversary of the attack. Furthermore, the state government refused to provide comprehensive financial support to those affected by the attack. Bavaria had made aid money available as early as 1980, but most of the victims were left empty-handed. Now, shortly before the 40th anniversary of the attack, the Council of Ministers decided that the Free State should provide 500,000 euros for a joint fund for victims of federal, state and municipal authorities.
Reactions to this are moderate. He is pleased that the Free State now wants to help financially, says Robert Höckmayr, who was seriously injured in the attack at the age of 12. But it’s surprising that it took so long. The victims’ lawyer, Werner Dietrich, who represents 16 victims of the attack, considers the total amount of the fund of 1.2 million euros to be completely inadequate. With more than 200 injured, of which more than 100 are still alive, the money will barely be enough to offset the physical and psychological consequences of the attack.
