The Baader-meinhoff Gang

A couple of months later in a bungled kidnapping attempt the head of the Dresdner Bank, Jurgen Ponto, was killed in front of his house by a R.A.F. commando that included the sister of his goddaughter.

Hanns Martin Schleyer, a former SS officer and the current most powerful industrialist in West Germany, was being driven home from work on the 5 September 1977 when the car was forced to screech to a halt as a pram was pushed in front of it. His police escort could not avoid crashing into the back of his car and all three were immediately shot and killed along with his chauffeur by masked assailants.

A letter was soon sent to the Government demanded the release of the Baader-Meinhof prisoners or Schleyer would be killed. The situation escalated soon afterwards when Lufthansa Flight 181 from Spain to Frankfurt was hijacked. When the plane landed in Rome for refuelling the hijackers also demanded the release of the Baader-Meinhoff prisoners as well as two Palestinians and a $15 million ransom. The plane flew on to Dubai and then Aden where the pilot, who was deemed to not be cooperating enough, was executed. The co-pilot flew them onto Mogadishu in Somalia.

The German Government determined not to give in to the terrorists dispatched an elite unit of the German police to Mogadishu airport. They stormed the plane in a seven minute operation, three of the hijackers were killed and all of the hostages were freed unharmed.

Death Night

Later that same night after news of the daring rescue had been broadcast on the radio Baader was found dead in his cell with a bullet wound to the back of the head. Ensslin was found hanged in her cell and Raspe was taken to hospital also with a bullet wound in the head where he later died. Meinhoff had committed suicide the year before after apparently being ostracised by the rest of the group.

Conspiracy theories were rife that the prisoners were the victims of an extra-judicial killing determined to finally end the R.A.F.’s reign of terror. However a government inquiry concluded that it was a collective suicide using weapons smuggled in by their lawyers.

The following day Schleyer’s kidnappers announced that he had been executed. His body was discovered later that day in the trunk of a green Audi in France.

The funeral of Baader, Ensslin and Raspe

Legacy

The Baader-Meinhoff gang’s campaign tore at the very fabric of German society; attacking its law, economy and industry. Not only was left-wing ideology pitted against right-wing but also young against old. It was reported in the early days of their campaign that one in four of German’s under the age of 30 sympathised with the group and would shelter one of the gang if they were on the run.

Long after the deaths of the original members attacks were still committed under the name of the Red Army Faction by a so-called “third generation”. These attacks by the few remaining members never acquired the same ferocity or threatened the German state to the depth of Baader and his cohorts. The collapse of communism was a serious blow to the R.A.F. as well as other left-wing groups. So too was the discovery that the group had received financial and logistical help from the Stasi, the intelligence and security organisation of East Germany.

In 1992 the German Government announced that if the R.A.F. was to refrain from attacks then some of its members in prison would be released. Soon after a R.A.F. communiqué announced its decision to de-escalate the anti-imperialist struggle and not engage in significant actions.

On 20 April, 1998 the Reuters press agency received a letter signed the “RAF” and bearing their machine gun and red star insignia, which declared: “Almost 28 years ago, on 14 May 1970, the RAF arose in a campaign of liberation. Today we end this project. The urban guerrilla in the shape of the RAF is now history.”