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10
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PARAMILITARY/Baader-Meinhof Group.md
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@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ tags:
- 1970s
- 1980s
category: "Paramilitary"
summary: "The Red Army Faction (RAF/Baader-Meinhof Group) was a West German far-left terrorist organization active 1970-1998, conducting major operations including the 1972 bombing campaign, the 1977 German Autumn Schleyer kidnapping and Lufthansa hijacking, and the 1989 assassination of Deutsche Bank chief Alfred Herrhausen."
summary: "The Red Army Faction (Baader-Meinhof Group) was a West German far-left terrorist organization active 1970-1998, responsible for the 1972 bombings, the 1977 Schleyer kidnapping and the 1989 Herrhausen assassination."
start: 1970
end: 1998
location: "West Germany"
@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ The Red Army Faction (Rote Armee Fraktion, RAF), commonly known as the Baader-Me
### Foundation and First Generation
The RAF's origins lay in the student protest movements of the late 1960s and the radicalization of a faction that concluded electoral and protest politics were insufficient. Baader, Meinhof, and Ensslin carried out their first arson attacks against Frankfurt department stores in 1968. After Baader's arrest and escape from custody in 1970 - an escape in which Meinhof, then a prominent left-wing journalist, participated - the group formally constituted itself. Meinhof authored the RAF's founding manifesto.[^1]
The RAF's origins lay in the student protest movements of the late 1960s and the radicalization of a faction that concluded electoral and protest politics were insufficient. On April 2, 1968, Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, Thorwald Proll and Horst Söhnlein set fires in two Frankfurt department stores, the Kaufhof on the Zeil and the M. Schneider store, causing considerable property damage and no injuries.[^2] Ulrike Meinhof was not among the four defendants. She reported on the trial for konkret and criticized the arson in her column, arguing that an attack of this kind on the capitalist consumer world does "not lift that consumer world off its hinges, does not even injure it."[^2][^3] After Baader's arrest and escape from custody in 1970 - an escape in which Meinhof, then a prominent left-wing journalist, participated - the group formally constituted itself. Meinhof authored the RAF's founding manifesto.[^1]
The group trained in [[Jordan]] with Palestinian fedayeen organizations in 1970 before returning to West Germany to begin operations. Its first major campaign in May 1972 involved coordinated bombings against U.S. Army headquarters in Frankfurt and Heidelberg, the Hamburg police headquarters, and the Springer newspaper building in Hamburg, resulting in several deaths and dozens of injuries.[^1]
@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ Following the deaths of its founding leadership in 1977, the RAF reorganized wit
### Entebbe Connection
On June 27, 1976, two members of the RAF - Wilfried Böse and Brigitte Kuhlmann - participated in the hijacking of [[Air France]] Flight 139 from [[Tel Aviv]] to [[Paris]], diverting it ultimately to Entebbe Airport in [[Uganda]] under Idi Amin's government. The operation was jointly conducted with members of the [[Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command|PFLP-GC]] and organized by Wadie Haddad's PFLP-EO. On July 4, 1976, Israeli special forces conducted Operation Entebbe, killing the hijackers, including Böse and Kuhlmann, and rescuing 102 of the 106 hostages.[^2]
On June 27, 1976, two members of the RAF - Wilfried Böse and Brigitte Kuhlmann - participated in the hijacking of [[Air France]] Flight 139 from [[Tel Aviv]] to [[Paris]], diverting it ultimately to Entebbe Airport in [[Uganda]] under Idi Amin's government. The operation was jointly conducted with members of the [[Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command|PFLP-GC]] and organized by Wadie Haddad's PFLP-EO. On July 4, 1976, Israeli special forces conducted Operation Entebbe, killing the hijackers, including Böse and Kuhlmann, and rescuing 102 of the 106 hostages.[^4]
### Dissolution
@ -48,4 +48,6 @@ The RAF officially announced the end of its armed struggle in a statement releas
### Footnotes
[^1]: Aust, Stefan. *The Baader Meinhof Complex.* Translated by Anthea Bell. Bodley Head, 2008. Originally published in German as *Der Baader Meinhof Komplex* (Hoffmann und Campe, 1985). This is the authoritative account of the RAF's history by a journalist who knew several of its members.
[^2]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network.* Sheridan Square Press, 1992 (TrineDay reprint, 2015). Netanyahu, Iddo. *Entebbe: A Defining Moment in the War on Terrorism.* Balfour Books, 2003.
[^2]: Urteil des Oberlandesgerichts Stuttgart vom 28. April 1977, Az. 2 StE (OLG Stgt) 1/74, in: Das Stammheim-Protokoll. Die Gesamtedition (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2021), https://www.stammheim-prozess.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/OLG-Stuttgart-Urteil-vom-28.4.1977-2-StE-174-Text.pdf, p. 137, footnote 200.
[^3]: Ulrike Meinhof, Die Würde des Menschen ist unantastbar (1980), p. 153, as quoted in the judgment, footnote 200. German: "Gegen Warenhausbrandstiftung im besonderen spricht, daß dieser Angriff auf die kapitalistische Konsumwelt [...] eben diese Konsumwelt nicht aus den Angeln hebt, sie nicht einmal verletzt [...]."
[^4]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network.* Sheridan Square Press, 1992 (TrineDay reprint, 2015). Netanyahu, Iddo. *Entebbe: A Defining Moment in the War on Terrorism.* Balfour Books, 2003.

19
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PARAMILITARY/Red Army Faction.md
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@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
---
created: 2026-05-15
updated: 2026-05-15
updated: 2026-10-15
title: Red Army Faction
aliases:
- RAF
@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ tags:
- 1970s
- 1980s
category: "Paramilitary"
summary: "The Red Army Faction was a West German urban guerrilla organization that conducted bombings, kidnappings, assassinations, and bank robberies from 1970 until officially dissolving in 1998, with its founding generation of Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof, and Gudrun Ensslin dying in Stammheim Prison in 1976-1977 under circumstances that the group and supporters disputed."
summary: "The Red Army Faction was a West German urban guerrilla organization that conducted bombings, kidnappings and assassinations from 1970 until dissolving in 1998; its founders Baader, Meinhof and Ensslin died in Stammheim Prison in 1976-1977."
start: 1970-06-02
end: 1998-04-20
location: "West Germany / Germany"
@ -26,19 +26,19 @@ The Red Army Faction (Rote Armee Fraktion, RAF) was a [[West Germany|West German
The RAF emerged from the West German student movement of the late 1960s, radicalized by opposition to the [[Vietnam War]], the shooting of student Benno Ohnesorg by police at a 1967 demonstration, and the assassination attempt on student leader Rudi Dutschke in 1968. Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin began bombing department stores in [[Frankfurt, Germany|Frankfurt]] in 1968 as political protest.
The group's formal founding date is conventionally given as June 2, 1970 - the day a group including Baader, Ensslin, and journalist [[Ulrike Meinhof]] broke Baader out of police custody in [[Berlin]] during a supervised library visit. Meinhof's participation transformed her from a respected journalist into a wanted terrorist. The group trained with the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] in Jordan before returning to [[West Germany]] to begin operations.[^1]
Baader was freed from police custody in [[Berlin]] on May 14, 1970, during a supervised library visit, by a group around Ensslin and the journalist Ulrike Meinhof.[^2][^3] Meinhof's participation transformed her from a respected journalist into a wanted terrorist. The group trained with the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] in Jordan before returning to West Germany to begin operations.[^1]
### Major Operations
The RAF's first phase (1970-1972) included a series of bombings in 1972 targeting American military installations, the [[West Germany|German]] police headquarters in Augsburg, and the federal judge's offices in Karlsruhe. Baader, Meinhof, Ensslin, and other core members were arrested in 1972.
The RAF's first phase (1970-1972) included a series of bombings in 1972 targeting American military installations, the German police headquarters in Augsburg, and the federal judge's offices in Karlsruhe. Baader, Meinhof, Ensslin, and other core members were arrested in 1972. The Stammheim judgment dates the attack on the 5th US Corps headquarters in Frankfurt to May 11, 1972, when one person was killed, and the attack on the US Army headquarters in Heidelberg to May 24, 1972, when three American soldiers were killed.[^2]
During the long trial (1975-1977) the imprisoned leaders continued to direct operations through lawyers who, the prosecution alleged, were part of the RAF network. The second generation of the RAF - operating to free the imprisoned founders - kidnapped industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer in September 1977 and simultaneously coordinated with Palestinian hijackers who seized Lufthansa Flight 181 to [[Mogadishu]], [[Somalia]].
[[West Germany]]'s GSG 9 commando unit stormed Flight 181 in Mogadishu on October 18, 1977, freeing all hostages. Hours later, Baader, Ensslin, and Jan-Carl Raspe were found dead in Stammheim Prison - officially suicides by firearms smuggled into the maximum-security facility. Schleyer was murdered the following day. The RAF and its sympathizers disputed the suicide findings, arguing that the prisoners had been killed by state action. No evidence of state killing was found in subsequent investigations.[^1]
West Germany's GSG 9 commando unit stormed Flight 181 in Mogadishu on October 18, 1977, freeing all hostages. Hours later, Baader, Ensslin, and Jan-Carl Raspe were found dead in Stammheim Prison, officially suicides: Baader and Raspe by firearms smuggled into the maximum-security facility, and Ensslin by hanging.[^4] Schleyer was murdered the following day. The RAF and its sympathizers disputed the suicide findings, arguing that the prisoners had been killed by state action. The Baden-Württemberg state government's preliminary report of October 26, 1977 stated that there was no indication of third-party responsibility for the deaths.[^5] The state prosecutor closed the death investigation on April 18, 1978.[^6] The Neue Deutsche Biographie regards the allegation of non-suicide as refuted.[^2] Irmgard Möller's criminal complaint and Karl-Heinz Weidenhammer's 1988 book on the death investigation dispute the suicide account.[^1][^5][^6]
### Later Phases
The RAF continued operations into the 1980s and early 1990s, including assassination of Deutsche Bank chief Alfred Herrhausen in 1989 and the attempted assassination of [[Klaus Kinkel]] in 1991. The organization announced a ceasefire in 1992 and officially dissolved on April 20, 1998, with a statement acknowledging that the "urban guerrilla" strategy had failed.[^2]
The RAF continued operations into the 1980s and early 1990s, including assassination of Deutsche Bank chief Alfred Herrhausen in 1989 and the attempted assassination of [[Klaus Kinkel]] in 1991. The organization announced a ceasefire in 1992 and officially dissolved on April 20, 1998, with a statement acknowledging that the "urban guerrilla" strategy had failed.[^7]
### East German Connection
@ -47,4 +47,9 @@ Declassified documents from the [[East Germany|East German]] Stasi revealed afte
### Footnotes
[^1]: Aust, Stefan. *The Baader-Meinhof Complex.* Bodley Head, 2008. Varon, Jeremy. *Bringing the War Home: The Weather Underground, the Red Army Faction, and Revolutionary Violence in the Sixties and Seventies.* University of California Press, 2004.
[^2]: Peters, Butz. *Red Army Faction: A Documentary History.* PM Press, 2011. Preece, Julian, ed. *The Baader Meinhof Group: An Analytic History.* Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
[^2]: Urteil des Oberlandesgerichts Stuttgart vom 28. April 1977, Az. 2 StE (OLG Stgt) 1/74, in: Das Stammheim-Protokoll. Die Gesamtedition (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2021), https://www.stammheim-prozess.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/OLG-Stuttgart-Urteil-vom-28.4.1977-2-StE-174-Text.pdf, pp. 4-5 (Frankfurt, May 11, 1972), n. 32 (Heidelberg, May 24, 1972), p. 308 (completed murders), and the Neue Deutsche Biographie entry "Ensslin, Gudrun," https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz136461.html.
[^3]: Urteil des Oberlandesgerichts Stuttgart vom 28. April 1977, Az. 2 StE (OLG Stgt) 1/74, in: Das Stammheim-Protokoll. Die Gesamtedition (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2021), https://www.stammheim-prozess.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/OLG-Stuttgart-Urteil-vom-28.4.1977-2-StE-174-Text.pdf, p. 3 (tenor) and the Neue Deutsche Biographie entry for Ensslin, Lebenslauf: "14.5.1970 Beteiligung an der Befreiung von Andreas Baader."
[^4]: Weidenhammer (1988), pp. 118-122 (autopsy protocols: hanging for Ensslin; a single head gunshot wound each for Baader and Raspe).
[^5]: Landesregierung Baden-Württemberg, "Vorläufiger Bericht über die Ereignisse vom 18. Oktober 1977 in der Vollzugsanstalt Stuttgart-Stammheim," October 26, 1977, Ziffer 5, as quoted in the anonymous 1978 leaflet "Kontaktsperre und die Ereignisse in Stammheim am 18.10.77," https://socialhistoryportal.org/sites/default/files/raf/0019780200_0.pdf. The leaflet reproduces Möller's criminal complaint of December 19, 1977.
[^6]: Karl-Heinz Weidenhammer, Selbstmord oder Mord? Das Todesermittlungsverfahren: Baader, Ensslin, Raspe (Kiel: Neuer Malik Verlag, 1988), https://www.socialhistoryportal.org/sites/default/files/raf/0019771018_16_0.pdf, on the closing decision signed by Staatsanwalt Christ on April 18, 1978.
[^7]: Peters, Butz. *Red Army Faction: A Documentary History.* PM Press, 2011. Preece, Julian, ed. *The Baader Meinhof Group: An Analytic History.* Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.