2007-08-15 

Open letter to the Generalbundesanwaltschaft against the criminalization of critical academic research and political engagement

On 31st July 2007 the flats and workplaces of Dr. Andrej Holm and Dr. Matthias B., as
well as of two other persons, were searched by the police. Dr. Andrej Holm was
arrested, flown by helicopter to the German Federal Court in Karlsruhe and brought
before the custodial judge. Since then he has been held in pretrial confinement in a
Berlin jail. All four people have been charged with “membership in a terrorist
association according to § 129a StGB” (German Penal Code, section 7 on ‘Crimes
against Public Order’). They are alleged to be members of a so-called ‘militante gruppe’
(mg). The text of the search warrant revealed that preliminary proceedings against these
four people have been going on since September 2006 and that the four had since been
under constant surveillance.

A few hours before the house searches, Florian L., Oliver R. und Axel H. were arrested
in the Brandenburg region and accused of attempted arson on four vehicles of the
German Federal Army. Andrej Holm is alleged to have met one of these three persons
on two occasions in the first half of 2007 in supposedly “conspiratorial circumstances”.
The Federal Prosecutor (Bundesanwaltschaft) therefore assumes that the four above
mentioned persons as well as the three individuals arrested in Brandenburg are members
of a “militant group,” and is thus investigating all seven on account of suspected
“membership in a terrorist association” according to §129a StGB.

According to the arrest warrant against Andrej Holm, the charge made against the above
mentioned four individuals is presently justified on the following grounds, in the order
that the federal prosecutor has listed them:

• Dr. Matthias B. is alleged to have used, in his academic publications, “phrases and key
  words” which are also used by the ‘militante gruppe’;

• As political scientist holding a PhD, Matthias B. is seen to be intellectually capable to
  “author the sophisticated texts of the ‘militante gruppe’ (mg)”. Additionally, “as
  employee in a research institute he has access to libraries which he can use
  inconspicuously in order to do the research necessary to the drafting of texts of the
  ‘militante gruppe’”;

• Another accused individual is said to have met with suspects in a conspiratorial
  manner: “meetings were regularly arranged without, however, mentioning place, time
  and content of the meetings”; furthermore, he is said to have been active in the “extreme
  left-wing scene”;

• In the case of a third accused individual, an address book was found which included
  the names and addresses of the other three accused;

• Dr. Andrej H., who works as urban sociologist, is claimed to have close contacts with
  all three individuals who have been charged but still remain free;

• Dr. Andrej H. is alleged to have been active in the “resistance mounted by the extreme
  left-wing scene against the World Economic Summit of 2007 in Heiligendamm”;

• The fact that he – allegedly intentionally — did not take his mobile phone with him to a
  meeting is considered as “conspiratorial behavior”.

Andrej H., as well as Florian L., Oliver R. und Axel H., are detained since 1st August
2007 in Berlin-Moabit under very strict conditions: they are locked in solitary
confinement 23 hours a day and are allowed only one hour of courtyard walk. Visits are
limited to a total of half an hour every two weeks. Contacts, including contacts with
lawyers, are allowed only through separation panes, including contact with their
lawyers. The mail of the defense is checked.
The charges described in the arrest warrants reveal a construct based on very dubious
reasoning by analogy. The reasoning involves four basic hypotheses, none of which the
Federal High Court could substantiate with any concrete evidence, but through their
combination they are to leave the impression of a “terrorist association”. The social
scientists, because of their academic research activity, their intellectual capacities and
their access to libraries, are said to be the brains of the alleged “terrorist organization”.
For, according to the Federal prosecutor, an association called “militante gruppe” is
said to use the same concepts as the accused social scientists. As evidence for this
reasoning, the concept of “gentrification” is named – one of the key research themes of
Andrej Holm und Matthias B. in past years, about which they have published
internationally. They have not limited their research findings to an ivory tower, but have
made their expertise available to citizens’ initiatives and tenants’ organizations. This is
how critical social scientists are constructed as intellectual gang leaders.
Since Andrej Holm has friends, relatives and colleagues, they now also are suspect to be
“terrorists”, because they know Andrej. Another accused individual was blamed for
having the names of Andrej Holm and of two others charged (but not jailed) in his
address book. Since the latter are also deemed to be “terrorists” – this is how “guilt by
association” is established.

Paragraph § 129a, introduced in Germany in 1976, makes it possible for our colleagues
to be criminalized as “terrorists”. This is how, through § 129a, the existence of a
“terrorist group” is claimed.

Through these constructs, every academic research activity and political work is
presented as potentially criminal – in particular when politically engaged colleagues
who intervene in social struggles are concerned. This is how critical research, in
particular research linked with political engagement, is turned into ideological ring
leadership and “terrorism”.

We demand that the Federal Prosecutor (Bundesanwaltschaft) immediately suspend the
§ 129a-proceedings against all parties concerned and to release Andrej Holm and the
other imprisoned from jail at once. We strongly reject the outrageous accusation that the
academic research activities and the political engagement of Andrej Holm are to be
viewed as complicity in an alleged “terrorist association”. No arrest warrant can be
deduced from the academic research and political work of Andrej Holm. The Federal
Prosecutor, through applying Article § 129, is threatening the freedom of research and
teaching as well as social-political engagement.

Initial signatures by:

Prof. Dr. Manuel Aalbers (Universiteit van Amsterdam),

• Prof. Dr. Elmar Altvater (Freie Universität Berlin),

• Prof. Dr. Rowland Atkinson (University of Tasmania, Australien),

• Prof. Dr. Lawrence D. Berg (Canada Research Chair in Human Rights, Diversity & Identity, University of British Columbia),

• Prof. Dr. Neil Brenner (New York University, Sociology),

• Prof. Dr. Craig Calhoun (President, Social Science Research Council, and University Professor, Sociology, NYU),

• Prof. Dr. Mike Davis (Prof. of Urban History, Irvine/USA),

• Prof. Dr. Michael Dear (Professor of Geography at the University of Southern California/Los Angeles),

• Prof. Dr. Frank Deppe (Universität Bremen),

• Prof. Dr. Michael Edwards (The Bartlett Centre for Architecture and Planning, UCL, London),

• Prof. Dr. Geoff Ely (University of Michigan, Karl Pohrt Distinguished University Professor),

• Prof. Dr. John Friedmann (University of California, Los Angeles), Prof. Dr. Herbert Gans (Columbia University, New York),

• Prof. Dr. Alan Harding (University of Salford, UK), Prof. Dr. Michael Harloe (University of Salford, Vice-President),

• Prof. Dr. David Harvey (Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Graduate Center of the City University of New York, New York),

• Prof. Dr. Joachim Hirsch (Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt/M.),

• Prof. Dr. Andreas Huyssen (Villard Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Columbia University),

• Prof. Dr. Martin Jay (Sidney Hellman Ehrman Professor of History, University of California Berkeley), Prof. Dr. Bob Jessop (Lancaster Universtiy),

• Prof. Dr. Roger Keil (York University, Toronto, Canada),

• Prof. Dr. Rianne Mahon (Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada),

• Prof. Dr. Peter Marcuse (Columbia University, New York),

• Prof. Dr. Margit Mayer (Freie Universität Berlin),

• Prof. Dr. Philipp Oswalt (Universität Kassel),

• Prof. Dr. Frances Fox Piven (President of the American Sociological Association, Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Sociology, City University New York),

• Prof. Dr. Andrew Ross (New York University, New York),

• Prof. Dr. Roland Roth (Hochschule Magdeburg/Stendal),

• Prof. Dr. Dieter Rucht (Wissenschaftszentrum für Sozialforschung Berlin)

• Prof. Dr. Saskia Sassen (Columbia University, New York, and London School of Economics)

• Prof. Dr. Andrew Sayer (Lancaster University, Sociology),

• Prof. Dr. Richard Sennett (Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics, Bemis Professor of Social Sciences at MIT, Professor of the Humanities at New York University),

• Prof. Dr. William Sewell (The Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and History Emeritus, University of Chicago),

• Prof. Dr. Neil Smith (Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Geography, Director of the Center for Place Culture and Politics, Graduate Center of the City University of New York),

• Prof. Dr. Michael Storper (Centennial Professor of Economic Geography, London School of Economics, and Professor of Economic Sociology, Science Po, Paris), Prof. Dr. Erik Swyngedouw (University of Manchester, UK),

• Prof. Dr. Peter J. Taylor (Loughborough University, UK), Prof. Dr. John Urry (Lancaster University, Sociology),

• Prof. Dr. Jennifer Wolch (Professor of Geography at the University of Southern California/Los Angeles).

Media contact to solidarity group in Berlin: einstellung@so36.net

German lawyer and media contact for Germany:
Wolfgang Kaleck
Immanuelkirchstrasse 3-4
D-10405 Berlin
Germany
fon: +49-(0)30-4467-9218
fax: +49-(0)30-4467-9220

Media contact for international affairs:
Prof. Dr. Neil Brenner (New York University, fon: USA-212-998 8349)
Prof. Dr. Margit Mayer (Freie Universität Berlin, fon: 030-8385-2875)