From Hash Rebels to Urban Guerrillas: A Documentary History of the 2nd of June Movement

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In the early 1970s, across the Americas and Western Europe, armed groups emerged out of the social movements of the late 1960s. In Germany, the Red Army Faction received most attention, but a less well-known, antiauthoritarian counterpart operated in its shadows: the 2nd of June Movement, named after the date when, in 1967, a Berlin cop killed the unarmed student Benno Ohnesorg during a demonstration. The group was composed of working-class youth who got politicized in Berlin’s underground culture. They first emerged as a political collective under the name “Hash Rebels” before forming the 2nd of June Movement as a revolutionary organization. After the group’s dissolution in 1980, its principles lived on in the militant network of the Revolutionary Cells and the German autonomist movement.



From Hash Rebels to Urban Guerrillas, the first book to present the 2nd of June Movement in English, documents the group’s history and politics through translations of original documents and reflections by former members. This is mandatory reading for anyone interested in the politics of the era and the ongoing quest to challenge the rule of the state and capital.

“In the 1970s, the 2nd of June Movement had many fans among the left. It was the guerrilla group with the human face, denounced by the Red Army Faction as ‘hippie lumpen.’” 

—taz

“This well-structured book allows us to revisit—and rethink—the politics, practice, and consequences of the radical left-wing opposition during the 1970s in West Germany.”

—Geronimo, author of Fire and Flames: A History of the German Autonomist Movement

“Ten bank robberies, a bombing, resisting arrest, illegal possession of firearms. The defendants? Members of the criminal organization ‘2nd of June Movement.’”

—Der Spiegel



“No urban guerilla is no solution either.” 

—graffiti, Berlin