Abstract

This article examines the radicalization of segments of West Germany's Croatian population during the 1960s and 1970s and the social processes which led to the adoption of political violence as the preferred form of political expression. Specifically, the article explores the interaction between the older generation of pro-fascist Croatian émigrés who came to West Germany immediately following World War II in the 1940s and the younger generation of migrant workers who began to flood into West Germany in the mid-1960s. The article derives from three main sources of materials. Firstly, it draws information from various state archives, including those of the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic and Socialist Yugoslavia. Secondly, it analyses various publications produced by radical Croatian émigré groups themselves in West Germany and elsewhere. Finally, it makes use of interviews with former members of some of the most active groups of radical Croatian separatists, many of whom continue to maintain that émigré Croatian organizations in West Germany played a central role in helping Croatia gain independence in 1991.