• 2013: Germany banned Hezbollah’s military wing.
• April 30, 2020: Germany designated Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organization.

The European Union decided to ban Hezbollah’s military wing in July of 2013 in response to concerns over the group’s military involvement in the Syrian Civil War, and its suspected responsibility for a bombing of a civilian bus in Burgas, Bulgaria in 2012. The E.U. has resisted calls to proscribe the whole of the group, presumably for the same reasons as France, which holds considerable sway in the E.U.’s decision-making on the matter.

Germany banned Hezbollah in its entirety on April 30, 2020. The designation coincided with early morning raids by German police on mosque associates in cities throughout Germany, believed to be connected to Hezbollah.

The United States and Israel applied pressure to convince Germany to adopt the measure. Previously, Berlin had distinguished between Hezbollah’s political arm and its military arm – proscribing only the latter.

Germany’s interior ministry said the ban was the result of Hezbollah calling for the violent elimination of the State of Israel and questioning Israel’s right to exist. “The organization is therefore fundamentally against the concept of international understanding, regardless of whether it presents itself as a political, social or military structure,” it said.

Additionally, Berlin may have been motivated by concern over Hezbollah’s militant activities on its soil. German Security officials believed up to 1,050 people in Germany are part of what they described as Hezbollah’s “extremist wing.” Reports also emerged that Israel’s Mossad had tipped off their German counterparts about Hezbollah stockpiling materials for explosives in warehouses in Germany.