An extreme left-wing group active in the 1970s and 1980s. It officially ceased to exist in 1998. This group was also known as the Bader-Mainnhof group, named after their founders Andreas Bader and Urlike Mainnhof.
After the end of World War II, Germany was completely destroyed. It was occupied and divided into so-called four occupation zones between America, the United Kingdom, France and the Soviet Union. After several years, more precisely in 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany was first created, merging the three occupation zones of the Western Allies, and to the east, the Democratic Republic of Germany was formed, which was the occupation zone under the Soviet Union. FR Germany (West Germany) fell under the Marshall Plan (one of its tasks was to suppress the influence of communism), and the great help it received helped to create the fastest growing post-war Europe of post-war Europe.
During this period, almost the entire world was drawn into the Cold War, weighing on the forces of America and the USSR. The early 1960s saw a wave of uprisings among high school and college students in most European countries. One of the reasons for the rebellion in the Federal Republic of Germany was the large number of Nazi officials who had the protection of Americans and others in government services to function.
What triggered the students to move from peaceful protests to armed struggle was the event of June 2, 1967. Visit by Iranian Shah Pahlavi when student Benno Ohnesorg, who was 26, was killed. He was killed by West Berlin police, although it was speculated that intelligence officers from the Shah's entourage then intervened.
A year later, on April 11, 1968, Josef Bachmann attempted to assassinate one of the leaders of the student movement, Rudy Dutschke. He fired three bullets at him but did not kill him.
These two events propel RAF founders to more radical action. Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin plant bombs at a department store in Frankfurt. A great deal of material damage was done. They were soon arrested and convicted.
Soon, a key member of the RAF emerges who has done a lot for the organization itself. This is about journalist Urlike Meinhof, who has for some time been writing texts that have sympathized with the left. She asked the prison warden for permission to interview Baader. With the help of several comrades, she actually released Baader and became an active member of this terrorist group. We will often come across this event that happened on May 14, 1970 as the day the Red Army Faction was founded.
After a well-planned escape, they fled to the Middle East, where they completed training at the PLO camps. They taught mostly the basics of guerrilla warfare and bomb making. On their return to Germany they went into action. They mainly dealt with bank crying, so they were financed initially, but also with attacks on state institutions, embassies, US military bases, the media. During the bank robbery, they used BMW branded vehicles, and for a while, the abbreviation of BMW was Baader Meinhof Wagen, and BMW became an icon of criminals.
In May 1972, RAF members carried out 6 terrorist attacks throughout FR Germany. The US Army Corps in Frankfurt, the Federal Bureau of Criminal Investigation in Munich, the building of the Springer media group in Hamburg, were also attacked.
There was great fear in the RAF members who had more women in their ranks. Much pressure was placed on police to track down and arrest RAF members, so officers arrested Baader and several colleagues in a garage on June 1st, and a few days later arrested Gudrun Enslin and Urlike Meinhof. Virtually the entire first generation of the RAF ended up in prison.
A specially made wing of the Stammheim prison was reserved for RAF leaders. During this time, the second generation grew up. Siegfried The Hague took the lead, and they set out to release first-generation members by assassination and kidnapping. By the way, many young people across the country have endorsed what the RAF is doing, and polls at the time showed that every third youth would provide shelter to RAF members.
They continued with the action and were joined by other groups, June 2 and Revolutionary Cells. The actions involved attacks on police and banks. It was rumored to be financing them and providing them with weapons by the East German secret police Stasi.
The second generation attacked the German Embassy in Stockholm. Two hostages have been killed and two RAF members dead. Germany has set up special police units to combat such groups.
During the trial of the first generation, which lasted a long time, on May 9, 1976, Urlike Meinhof was found dead in her cell. She allegedly committed suicide by hanging, but it was never explained how she did it. Years later, it was rumored that they found traces of rape on the first findings and it was suspected that she had been killed.
Her death enraged Baader and her ideological comrades. Baader required his RAF men to do something concrete, and in the later period they had a lot of actions that resulted in the death of important people. On July 30, 1977, the owner of the Dresden Bank was killed. In September of the same year, a former SS troop officer and one of the most powerful industrialists in West Germany, Hans Martin Schleier, were abducted. Authorities have been asked to release RAF members, two Palestinians, and be given $ 15 million. Authorities organized a crisis headquarters led by Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. The plan was to delay negotiations.
Since nothing had been happening for a month, PLO members kidnapped the Lufthanza plane on Flight 181. The demands were the same as those of the RAF. The plane was first supposed to land in Italy then Cyprus, but it arrived in Mogadishu. Then the pilot was killed. The next day, a hostage rescue operation was conducted under the leadership of the German anti-terrorist group GSG 9. SAS also participated in this action. The code name of the action was Fire Fire. The terrorists were killed and the hostages rescued.
The same night that the Mogadishu action took place, something never happened in Germany. Andreas Baader, Gudrun Esslin and Jan Carl Raspe were found dead in their cells. The official version says Baader and Raspe killed themselves with a gun someone smuggled while Esslin hanged herself. The only survivor, Irmgard Moller, who reportedly stabbed herself four times with a knife to her chest, survived. She said the state was behind the murder. The following day, RAF members told reporters that they had killed Schleier.
In 1977, the second generation of RAF ceased to exist. After them, there were third and fourth and fifth generations carrying out similar activities that were diminishing, partly because of police performance, partly because of global political changes.
Their last major action was in 1993 when they planted a bomb and demolished part of a women's prison in Vieterstadt. Five years later, in 1998, they informed the Reuters news agency that they had disbanded.
Verena Becker was the last arrested member of the RAF for participating in 3 murders during her activities in this terrorist group. One of them is the murder of German Attorney General Bubak, his driver and bodyguard.
There are documents stating that four members of the RAF were arrested in Belgrade in 1978. There was allegedly no basis for their extradition and they were released. This was signed by Stane Dolanc, the Yugoslav security chief at the time. He was rumored to be trying to trade them for some political fugitives in Germany.
Stevan Djokic
