Germany – Page 4 – Dark Nights

Hermannsburg, Germany: Incendiary attack on Armin Papperger. Switch off Rheinmetall!

Posted on 2024/04/30 - 2024/05/03 by darknights

Incendiary attack on Armin Papperger
Switch off Rheinmetall!

On the night of April 28 to 29, 2024, we carried out an incendiary attack on the Armin Papperger’s property in Hermannsburg, Turnerstr. on the corner of Immenhoop, where an incendiary device was placed on his garden shed. Papperger is CEO of Rheinmetall, one of the big players in the German armaments industry.

Papperger feels at home here in the Südheide. Surrounded by military training areas and not far from the GÜZ combat training center in the Altmark. The Rheinmetall plant in Unterlüß is only a stone’s throw away. This is where thousands of forced laborers who worked for the German war economy at the Rheinmetall-Borsig Rheinmetall-Borsig plant for the German war economy. In a region where, after the war where many National Socialists found refuge after the war, including Adolf Eichmann and the murderer of the Adreatinian Caves, Kappler. In a region where in the 1980s and 1990s regular Nazi military exercises took place regularly in the 1980s and 1990s. Not far from Papperger’s house is Munster, one of the largest military bases in Germany. In he feels safe and well accepted in this environment, including by his friends with whom the hobby hunter occasionally goes stalking. But tonight may have signaled to him that he doesn’t just have friends and that his retreat is not safe.

Rheinmetall is one of the beneficiaries of the so-called turnaround. This can be clearly seen from a few figures: Since 2022, the Rheinmetall’s share price has quintupled since 2022; Papperger himself has replenished his share portfolio with Rheinmetall shares several times. In 2023 the Group, which has been promoted to the DAX index, increased its turnover to 7.2 billion euros, with a target of 10 billion euros for 2024. Before February 2022 the annual production of artillery shells was 70,000 units, 350,000 in 2023 and 700,000 in 2024. Following the takeover of the Spanish ammunition company Expal, Rheinmetall sees itself as the the world’s largest manufacturer of artillery ammunition. The groundbreaking ceremony for a for a new production facility in Unterlüß was attended by Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the Ukrainian ambassador and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (“Germany must become fit for war”). The new factory is expected to 200,000 shells a year.

Papperger is one of the arms managers with a particularly high media presence. The days when the armaments industry suffered from its image are over. In March 2024, Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck assured at a meeting of the 20 most important German arms manufacturers: “We need this industry!” Self-confident and offensively, killing machines can now be presented and advertised. And Rheinmetall has other things to offer besides ammunition, of course tanks in particular: the Lynx and Puma infantry fighting vehicles, the Boxer wheeled tank and the Skyranger anti-aircraft tank. For the Leopard Rheinmetall produces the gun barrel. Rheinmetall also stockpiles various old tank types, which have now been sold to Ukraine, complete with ammunition at a hefty profit. But parts production for the US F35 fighter jet is also on offer.

Rheinmetall plans, produces and murders not only on a national framework. The Group employs over 30,000 workers worldwide in 28 countries. A new ammunition production facility is planned in Ukraine and a maintenance plant for tanks is also due to open there in summer 2024. In addition, the production of infantry fighting battle tanks is also planned. There are also plans for an artillery factory and Rheinmetall is developing a completely new type of battle tank. In the USA, Rheinmetall is participating in tenders and is close to winning a 45 billion dollar contract for the successor to the Bradley infantry fighting vehicle. The development of the Russian market is now off the table for the time being. But as recently as 2011, Rheinmetall concluded a contract with the Russian government for the delivery of a training center for the Russian army and saw itself in the role of a pioneer and door opener.

However, the so-called turnaround does not only mean gigantic rearmament armament and new record profits for the arms industry. It also means a reorientation of the entire society towards war. Politicians from almost all parties are outdoing each other with proposals. The reintroduction of compulsory military service, military education in schools, interlinking research and the military,…
The fact that armies and the arms industry are the biggest destroyers of the environment, devour gigantic amounts of resources and, of course, are also the and are of course also the biggest producers of greenhouse gases.

The fight against climate destruction is also the fight against war, the military and the arms industry!
War starts here, let’s stop it here!
Switch off the system of destruction!

Freedom for Daniela!

Strength and luck to all those in hiding from of the radical left and those who agree to militantly attack structures of power!

Source: de.indymedia

Germany: Ex-RAF Militant Arrested After Thirty Years Underground + The new citizen cop weapon ‘AI image search’

Posted on 2024/03/03 - 2024/03/05 by darknights

A 30-year manhunt ended in the heart of Berlin when police special forces arrested former Red Army Faction guerrilla fighter Daniela Klette. She is one of the famous RAF trio, three ex-militants still on the run and among the most wanted in Germany. This trio emerged from the leadership of the third and final generation of the urban guerrilla group.

The arrest of Klette in Berlin marked the end of her successful evasion of authorities for over 30 years. Klette, now 66 years old, was found in an apartment where ammunition was allegedly discovered. Her identity, allegedly, was confirmed through her fingerprints.

Alongside Ernst-Volker Staub and Burkhard Garweg, they have managed to elude capture for decades. The arrest in Berlin could tighten the circle around her comrades.

The arrest followed a recently launched public manhunt, also screened across Germany on billboards. Additionally, police forces raided relatives’ homes associated with the RAF trio in early 2023 in search of clues about the wanted revolutionaries.

Klette had been involved in left-wing revolutionary groups since 1975. She primarily engaged in Germany’s anti-NATO movement before affiliating herself with the RAF’s supporters network and eventually joining the group.

The RAF carried out attacks agaist imperialist, capitalist and state targets. The revolutionary organization was founded in 1970 and disbaned in 1998. They were particularly active during the 70s and 80s.

In the 1980′, the trio allegedly partly formed the command level of the third generation of the RAF. The third generation coordinated with other European guerrilla struggles like the Italian Red Brigades, and concentrated attacks against US and NATO targets, like the 1981 bombing of the US Air Force headquarters in Ramstein.

The bourgeois state alleges that Klette was involved in the very last RAF action which was a huge explosion targeting Weiterstadt prison in 1993. The attack is considered to be the most technically perfected attack incomparable in terms of damage to other RAF actions.*

Source: Abolition Media

DN Note

On 27 March 1993, the Red Army Faction (RAF) Command Katharina Hammerschmidt bombed and destroyed a newly built prison in Weiterstadt, near Frankfurt am Main in Germany. It was the RAF’s last major action before it dissolved. At least three armed and masked men and a woman climbed a high wall and entered the guardhouse around 1 am. The terrorists tied the 10 guards and locked them in a van near a landfill. They then brought in five cargoes with 200 kg of explosives. At 5:12 am, the explosives were detonated. RAF`s Command Katharina Hammerschmidt warned the population with signs that the prison was about to be blown up and asked them to get to safety. The Weiterstadt prison took eight years to build and cost 250 million Marks ($155 million). It was designed to be multi-use and high-tech. The blast managed to destroy the administration building and much of its security system. At the time the prison was not holding inmates yet – they were expected by May. Over $90 million in damages was caused. The prison had to be rebuilt, which took another four years when it opened and received inmates in May 1997.

Link to PDF of the communique released by the Red Army Faction:

https://socialhistoryportal.org/sites/default/files/raf/en/0019930330%2520EN_2.pdf

The new citizen cop weapon ‘AI image search’

It has come to our attention from infomation passed on to us by comrades in Germany that the former member of Red Army Faction, Daniele Klette, was possibly identified using a new repressive weapon of ‘Artifical Intelligence image search’. The program in question is named as ‘PimEyes’, which was used apparently by an ‘investigative’ citizen cop journalist from the snitch ‘investigative’ website Bellingcat, who put the police wanted notice of Klette from the 1990s through the AI image search. PimEyes is a facial recognition search website that allows users to identify all images on the internet of a person given a sample image. It is comparable to the facial recognition company Clearview which is a notorious for providing software to law enforcement and government agencies and other organizations. The company’s algorithm matches faces to a database of more than 20 billion images collected from the Internet, including social media applications. Several Twitter users claim to have used it in an effort to identify US Capitol rioters, for example.

For several years she was involved in a Brazilian culture centre in the Kreuzberg district, where she practised capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art that combines dance and fighting. It is thought that the discovery of photographs of her with her capoeira group at Berlin’s annual carnival led to her identification and arrest. The cops have yet to confirm the link between the arrest and a podcast from 2023.

The use of Artificial Intelligence and Facial Recogintion software is not only dangerous in the hands of the authorities but also in its widespread use by the have a go heroes and citizen cops. With the increase of surveillance technologies pernmeating through all society, from the smart phone camera to the doorbell camera. All of these are presented as for personal safety and security but in actual fact are leading to the self-surveillance of our entire environment. In the past computer technology was brought forward in Germany in respose to the Red Army Faction’s attacks. Computerisation of taxes, rental agreements, wages, etc were able to be used to narrow down what the German security forces named as ‘sympathisers’, a minimal group of people they could place under surveiilance that did not buy into their electronic system, who they deemed as avoiding it especially if they paid using cash.

The same tactics that were learnt during the 70’s and 80’s are now being upgraded not only by using the advanced technolgies but asking even more for the ‘responsible citizen’ to be their extra pair of eyes in the corners of the society they cannot reach. The expansion of crime fighting ‘private eye’ style entities on the internet and social media such as blogs and podcasts that have already been mentioned fuel even further the active participation of growing online private security industry, by not only private companies but by any citizen who feels the need to fill the void in their life by becoming a Dick Tracey or Imspector Gadget for the day.

This article is only to highlight once again the danger of technology to be used as a weapon to surveil those who dare to resist as the Red Army Faction did, which becomes a weapon easily used by the society to surveil itself in the aid of the authorities and cops.

For the urban guerrilla, against the new surveillance technologies and all the citizen cops

The Uncivilized

Berlin, Germany: Thales Group Vehicle Attacked in Berlin: For Refaat – For Gaza

Posted on 2024/02/19 by darknights

In the early hours of February 15, we set fire to a Mercedes van belonging to the French arms company Thales in Berlin. Standing up for the oppressed in Gaza and Palestine is a matter of dignity.

If I Must Die

If I must die,

you must live

to tell my story

to sell my things

to buy a piece of cloth

and some strings,

(make it white with a long tail)

so that a child, somewhere in Gaza

while looking heaven in the eye

awaiting his dad who left in a blaze—

and bid no one farewell

not even to his flesh

not even to himself—

sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above

and thinks for a moment an angel is there

bringing back love

If I must die

let it bring hope

let it be a tale

— poem written by the Palestinian poet, writer and professor, Refaat Alareer who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on December 6, 2023 along with 6 members of his family.

Source: https://de.indymedia.org/node/340604

Via & translated by Abolition Media

Which Countries Supply Arms to “Israel”?

Posted on 2024/02/19 by darknights

As civilian casualties continue to mount in Gaza, global calls for countries to halt arms sales to Israel grow. The United States Senate has approved a bill committing $14bn to support Israel’s war on Gaza this week.

Even before the start of the war last October, the US firmly supported Israel with the supply of military equipment, contributing $3bn annually in military aid. Many other countries provide military support to Israel via arms sales.

Civilian casualties continue to mount in Gaza – currently standing at more than 28,000 dead with thousands more trapped under rubble and presumed dead in just four months of bombardment and ground invasions. The rising death toll is prompting international condemnation.

On Monday, the European Union foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, commented on US President Joe Biden’s description of Israel’s response to the October 7 Hamas attacks as “over the top”. “Well, if you believe that too many people are being killed, maybe you should provide less arms in order to prevent so many people being killed,” Borrell told reporters.

So which countries continue to send weapons to Israel?

Who supplies arms to Israel?

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s arms transfers database, 68 percent of Israel’s weapons imports between 2013 and 2022 came from the US.

The US military also stockpiles weapons on the ground in Israel, presumably for use by the US army itself. However, the US has allowed Israel to make use of some of these supplies during the Gaza war.

Besides the US, Israel also receives military imports from other nations.

Weapons imported from Germany make up 28 percent of Israel’s military imports. Germany’s military exports rose nearly tenfold in 2023 compared with 2022 after it increased sales to Israel in November, according to figures from the German Economic Ministry. Germany primarily supplies Israel with components for air defence systems and communications equipment, according to the German press agency dpa.
The United Kingdom has licensed at least 474 million pounds ($594m) in military exports to Israel since 2015, Human Rights Watch reported in December 2023. These exports included aircraft, missiles, tanks, technology and ammunition, including components for the F-35 stealth bomber used in Gaza.
In Canada, dozens of civil society groups have recently urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to end arms exports to Israel. The government says it does not send full weapons systems to Israel, but these civil society groups claim it is downplaying the amount of military support it provides. “Canadian companies have exported over $84m [114 million Canadian dollars] in military goods to Israel since 2015,” said Michael Bueckert, vice president of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, an advocacy group, adding that the government has continued to approve arms exports since the start of the war.
Australia’s foreign affairs minister has said the country has not provided weapons to Israel since the start of the war. However, The Australian Greens party’s defence spokesperson, David Shoebridge, has asked for the government to be more transparent about exactly what items have been exported to Israel, adding that the country has one of the most secretive weapons export systems in the world. Amnesty International has also called on Australia to halt arms sales to Israel and claims the country has approved 322 defence exports to Israel over the past six years.
In France, a pro-Palestine demonstration on February 7 called on French companies, including Dassault Aviation, to stop selling arms to Israel. Demonstrators said, according to the Anadolu news agency, “all French companies that sell arms to the Tel Aviv administration are complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza”.

Source: Abolition Media

Berlin, Germany: Fire for Tesla

Posted on 2024/02/11 by darknights

Two Teslas were set on fire in Rummelsburg on February 7 and two Tesla charging stations on Vulkanstraße on February 8.

We think that Tesla is an ideal target for our attacks.

Because:

> Several armies use Tesla’s Starlink satellite system in their wars. Including Israel in Gaza. Also Ukraine. Tesla’s Starlink infrastructure is an important military player and attacks on Tesla can be a sign everywhere: against every war!

> Tesla is a symbol of “green capitalism”. But it is anything but green: the lithium batteries come from toxic mines in Chile and devour other rare metals, which means misery and destruction for the mining areas. “Green capitalism” stands for colonialism and land theft!

> Tesla wants to further expand its Gigafactory in Grünheide near Berlin. We want to defend ourselves against this! We don’t want any more Teslas on the roads! The Gigafactory became known for its extreme exploitation conditions. In addition, the factory contaminates the groundwater and consumes huge amounts of this already scarce resource for its products.

> Tesla is militarizing our roads. Their cars are equipped with high-resolution cameras. In “guard mode”, they film everything and everyone. Make sure to make yourself unrecognizable during actions.

> Elon Musk is an arsehole!

Therefore:

Let the air out of the tyres of expensive cars? great.

Even better: let Teslas burst into flames everywhere!

A few barbecue lighters and spring can begin!

Source: https://de.indymedia.org/node/339237

Via & translated by Abolition Media

Berlin, Germany: Attack on Police Union Cars

Posted on 2024/02/11 - 2024/02/11 by darknights

The GdP is the largest German police union. It has over 200,000 members across Germany and is a member of the DGB. The GdP is more than one union, but a lobby organization for the interests of German cops.

Their political agenda is as dull and small-minded as one would expect from a police association: more money, more weapons, more powers to use force. Its representatives are busy giving interviews, appearing at congresses such as the European Police Congress and the German Security Conference, and listening to ministers and senior officials across the country. Not infrequently with success.

For example, the GdP has successfully campaigned for the introduction of bodycams, facial recognition, the mass use of pepper spray, emetic torture (it should be remembered at this point that it was Olaf Scholz who, as Senator of the Interior of Hamburg, introduced the use of emetics and thus contributed to the death of Achidi John in 2001), paragraph 114 of the Criminal Code and the annual ritualized expansion of the police apparatus.

The fact that the Berlin police have long had a budget of 2 billion euros and, with almost 19,000 cops, one of the highest cops density in all of Europe (705 police employees per 100,000 inhabitants – almost every hundredth Berliner is a cop!), does not prevent the GdP from staging itself as a victim every time there is a bang.

Where this leads was once again more than clear on New Year’s Eve: 4500 cops from all over Germany in action, bodycams, sniffer dogs, helicopters and over 100 “endangerment speeches” with “swimming pool suspects, migrantifa supporters and Middle East demo-goers”.

Behind the objective, technocratic façade, the GdP makes use of the methods of right-wing demagogy that one can expect from the racist thugs it represents, which are riddled with Nazi structures. In its publications, it uses the logic of right-wing demagogues, in which the poor and migrants appear exclusively as a security risk. Continue reading “Berlin, Germany: Attack on Police Union Cars” →

Berlin, Germany: Claim of Responsibility for the Incendiary Attack Against a Greek Diplomatic Vehicle

Posted on 2024/02/07 by darknights

On January 30, we placed an incendiary device under a car with the number plate of Greece’s diplomatic mission in Germany. The action took place in the Rosenthaler district in Berlin.

The action is not directed against a specific person but against the relations between two racist and murderous states and those responsible for them. The burning diplomatic car is once again a vehicle for international messages between the oppressed and at the same time a message to those who want to rule the world…

..that we have not forgotten the hundreds of murders committed last June off the coast of Pylos at the hands of the Greek coastguard and Frontex.

…that we have not forgotten the racist, murderous acts of violence by the police against Roma youth in Greece.

…that we do not remain inactive in the face of the persecution of anarchists and individuals fighting against oppression and exploitation.

In 2024, at a time when indifference in the face of daily mass murders is far advanced, we anarchists continue to reach out to migrants. We want to remind them once again that mass migration has its origins in the system and that those who try to control it are the same ones who live off our labour and resources. The thousands of murders at the borders are murders of our brothers and sisters. The victims of the coming pogroms and assassinations in this increasingly openly racist European Union live among us and stand side by side with us.

In memory of Oury Jalloh, who was tied up and set on fire alive with broken bones in a police cell on January 7, 19 years ago.

Signed: Anarchists

PS: For the immediate release of Nikos Maziotis and solidarity with Pola Roupa!

Source: https://de.indymedia.org/node/338369

Via & translated by Abolition Media

Projekt Feniks – Nieformalna Federacja Anarchistyczna (FAI)

Posted on 2024/01/27 - 2024/01/27 by darknights

Video: Conspiracy of Cells of Fire – Phoenix Project – An account of the FAI/IRF Project ‘Phoenix’ (Black International) 2015

Posted on 2024/01/22 - 2024/01/27 by darknights

English subtitled version of the film giving the account of the early part of the Phoenix Project, international project of sabotage and attack with over a dozen hits in a variety of different countries.

Dedicated to Alfredo Cospito and Nicola Gai, Olga Cell FAI/IRF, who took responsibility for the laming of CEO Roberto Adinolfi of Ansaldo Nucleare.

“We are here, where everything starts now.”

The Project of ‘Phoenix’ is the unfolding of a hidden map marking one of the routes to the Atlantis of practical theory. An unknown and lost continent that exists beyond the edges of the burning cities of the interzone. Created through action, dialogue and ideas and organised informally with anarchic principles of permanent autonomous attack, revolutionary solidarity and internationalism. A sequence of attacks by different radical direct action groups around the world, breaking the silence of isolation and striking back again against the prison societies of the techno-industrial system.

The imprisoned members of CCF are charged with instigation for the attacks, Spyros Mandylas and Andreas Tsavdaridis were arrested and charged for act #4 in the project, sending a parcel-bomb to the former commander of the anti-terrorist agency, Dimitris Xorianopoulos, whilst Christos Rodopoulos is reportedly accused of the mailing of the parcel bomb to Dimitris Mokkas, chief prosecutor in the CCF case, as act #6.

The Phoenix project is now renewed through the 2015 attacks in Chile, Czech Republic and Greece, with the comrades within the territory of Czech Republic initiating the campaign “Let’s destroy repression“. The story of the Phoenix continues to be written…

SOLIDARITY IS OUR WEAPON

NOT A MILLIMETER BACK

NINE MILLIMETERS TO THE COPS’ HEADS

Source: 325

DN Note: Eternal gratitude to the comrade who sent a copy of the English version of video our way that dissapeared from cyberspace.

Below we translate the article from the reposting of the Spanish version of the video that inspired us to repost the English version.

Nothing is over, everything continues…

Continue reading “Video: Conspiracy of Cells of Fire – Phoenix Project – An account of the FAI/IRF Project ‘Phoenix’ (Black International) 2015” →

About the Switch Off! attack campaign

Posted on 2024/01/22 - 2024/01/22 by darknights

A year ago in Europe a campaign of attack against companies and infrastructures that feed the ecological catastrophe around the world, entitled Switch Off! was launched. Large and small actions have positioned themselves in offensive from the concern and need to confront an evident eco-systemic collapse provoked by the global capitalist machinery that destroys everything in its path.

The intention of the campaign is to “attack the system in a sustainable way”, placing direct action in a common context through anonymous communication with each other, inviting to arm themselves with their own means and go on the offensive against the productive infrastructure and with it the property, without falling into false discursive, institutional and/or technological illusions, “making it clear that there can be no green capitalist alternative, nor peace with the existing conditions”.

In a first statement of presentation we can see more precisely what is the background and objective of why to invite the use of the slogan “Switch Off!”:

Switch off – a call to revolt

(DN Note: We make our own translation into English from the original German text.)

The certainty that the current system will lead to the collapse of the massively damaged ecosystem has already moved countless people and driven them into resistance. Tens of thousands are taking to the streets against the capitalist machinery’s “business as usual”, people are resisting the destructive large-scale projects en masse, the system’s infrastructure is being blocked and courageous fighters are setting fire to the machines that are robbing them of their livelihoods.

What we need in the struggle against the destruction of nature and the resulting social misery is the common striving for the real revolutionary break and the freedom of all. For an initiative that rejects all compromises and cosmetic corrections of the state and brings about a transformation of our social relations.

Because the destruction of the planet by the neoliberal economic system is inextricably linked to patriarchal thought patterns, racism and colonialism. The initiative for this must necessarily come from below. From the struggles of the marginalized. From the struggles of those who oppose the state’s promise of salvation with a self-organized, solidary coexistence. From the struggles of those who see that there can be no compromise in the fight against the systemic destruction of the biosphere.

We should also be aware that we cannot completely prevent the gradual collapse of a massively damaged ecosystem. Not the loss of biodiversity. Not the depletion of resources. We will not be able to prevent the climate catastrophe, as we are already in the midst of it. Admitting this – without any doomsday pathos – does not paralyze us. On the contrary: it should open up the question for us and our contexts of what our lives and our revolutionary struggles could look like in the future.

We can hardly block and sabotage as radically and uncompromisingly as the climate change caused by capitalism requires. But we should not be discouraged by this. Let us question, sabotage and sustainably attack the infrastructure of capitalism in the fight against exploitation. So that another world becomes possible! Let us cooperate with each other in solidarity so that we can live a dignified life. Let us realize our ideas in the here and now and already within our struggles and actions. We will not be lulled into complacency by the attempts at appeasement by those in power.

Against their technological solutions

The solutions offered by those in power for the now noticeable effects of the ecological crisis are primarily technological. This is obviously also driven by lobbying, but above all it is a strategy to legitimize themselves. The development, control and application of the “technologies of the future”, which are supposed to make growth capitalism “sustainable”, are in the hands of the state, industry and science and are inextricably linked to them. If we are being sold the illusion that climate change can be stopped technologically, then this is based on the belief that those in power only need to take the right steps, the right measures, to save this world.  For one thing, they have absolutely no interest in ending the expansionist capitalism that secures their position of power. And for another, technological reform, with the new dependencies it produces, is also doomed to failure. Examples of this could be e-mobility or technologies for the production of so-called renewable energies. The required raw materials are often procured in the course of neo-colonial environmental exploitation. The transportation of these raw materials and components is in turn highly dependent on fossil fuels. As a result, a conversion of the current industry to renewable energies before the global oil reserves dry up is unthinkable anyway. Continue reading “About the Switch Off! attack campaign” →