Post a response to this discussion thread
In the second last paragraph the article refers to "profiling" of left wing terrorists from the 1970s.
In the late 1970s, West Germany had a computer system recording EVERY sale of petrol by location and vehicle registration. This enabled the inter-city movements of any vehicle in West Germany to be tracked. They were up against the Bader-Meinhof group at the time. This system was public because the petrol stations were involved. You can only imagine the rest of the intelligence gathering in the late 1970s tracking suspected Bader-Meinhof members.
I find it impossible to believe that the German state destroyed all such intelligence, and that the organisations involved in collecting it just disappeared. Secret agencies just don't work that way, especially when the threat is against their political masters.
BTW Knife in the Head, Sisters, and Mannheim are three excellent German films set in this period.
Post a response to this discussion thread