1.0 Introduction
Red Army Faction (RAF) (German: Rote Armee Fraktion) was a West German far-left militant group that was active between 1970 and 1998. Also known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang, the terrorist organisation targeted the pillars of German capitalism. RAF engaged in bank robberies and bombings as well as the kidnapping and assassination of prominent German industrialists. Ideologically, RAF perceived the rapid growth of consumerism in post-war West Germany as a distraction preventing Germans from confronting the country’s Nazi past. Members of RAF considered themselves to be urban guerillas fighting for the Third World behind the frontlines of Western fascist capitalism.
In 1977, RAF reached their peak during an event known as the “German Autumn”. Between July and October, RAF launched a string of kidnappings and assassinations which plunged the West German government into crisis. 1977 marked the end for RAF’s influential first generation of leaders. However, two more generations of RAF would continue the Marxist-Leninist struggle beyond the end of the Cold War. Despite only being held responsible for 34 deaths during their twenty-eight year existence, RAF leave a heavy influence on German politics, media and security culture.
2.0 The Context of Red Army Faction’s Creation
2.1 West Germany in the 1960s
Red Army Faction can be characterised as the violent wing of the New Left which had emerged from the 1960s counterculture movement. In 1968, West Germany had been rocked by student protests as the issues of civil rights and women’s liberation intersected with anti-war sentiment generated by America’s War in Vietnam. In particular, German students were angered by what they perceived as their parents’ generation’s failure to denazify Germany. Although Germany had undergone a programme of Denazification during the 1940s, former Nazi sympathisers continued to serve the German state into the 1960s. To West Germany’s student movement the continued employment of former Nazi represented the continuation of the Third Reich’s authoritarian structures.
“You know what kind of pigs we’re up against. This is the Auschwitz generation. You can’t argue with people who made Auschwitz. They have weapons and we haven’t. We must arm ourselves!”
Gudrun Ensslin, Red Army Faction.
[source]
Since 1966, Germany’s political left had also become increasingly disillusioned with mainstream politics as Germany’s left leaning political party SPD entered into a “Grand Coalition” with the conservative CDU. With the Grand Coalition dominating 90% of Bundestag seats, Germany’s left wing student movement looked beyond parliamentary politics to make their voices heard. [source]
A conference held by West German students protesting against the US war in Vietnam, 1968. [source]
2.2 Formation
2.2.1 The Baader-Meinhof Prison Break
In 1970, Red Army Faction formed out of a successful prison break. In 1970, Andreas Baader, a previously convicted arsonist, was arrested by West German authorities for producing a fake drivers licence.
Further, in April 1970, Baader’s girlfriend, Gudrun Ensslin recruited well known left-wing journalist Ulrike Meinhof to conduct a false book deal that would allow Meinhof to interview Baader.
In May 1970, Baader was granted permission to meet Meinhof in the prison library under the watch of two guards for a supposed interview. During the interview, Meinhoff’s female assistants Irene Goergens and Ingrid Schubert produced pistols from briefcases and overwhelmed the prison guards.
Andreas Baader (Left) was convicted of arson in 1968 for firebombing a department store in Frankfurt. Ulrike Meinhof (right) was a prominent journalist for the left-wing German magazine Konkret. Image sources [source] [source].
Baader, Meinhof and the two other women fled through a window to become West Germany’s most wanted criminals. Joined by friend and fellow leftist, Horst Mahler, Baader, Meinhof and Ensslin formed Red Army Faction. As the group embarked on a series of bank robberies and bombing, the German media baptised the left-wing criminal terrorists the “Baader-Meinhof Gang”. In 1970, Baader travelled to Jordan to receive training from the Palestinian Liberation Organisation in guerilla tactics.
3.0 Ideology and Objectives
3.1 Ideology
Red Army Faction members typically described themselves as Marxist-Leninists however some of the group actions and motives veered into Anarcho-Communism. Publications by RAF also drew heavily on the works of the Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong. In particular, RAF subscribed to the idea that revolution must begin from the fringes of society in order to invite a heavy handed response by the state. By doing so RAF believed that the authoritarian and fascist nature of the West German state would become clear to the ordinary German. [source]
Red Army Faction’s logo featured a red communist star adorned with a Heckler and Koch MP5. [source]
3.1 Tactics
Despite receiving training from the PLO, RAF was more closely modelled on Latin American urban guerilla groups. RAF were heavily inspired by the Brazilian Marxist-Leninist, Carlos Marighella, and his 1969 work Minimanual of the Urban Guerilla. Marighella’s Minimanual stressed that guerrilla forces must be aggressive and mobile as a defensive posture is tantamount to death. The minimanual further instructs the user on how to conduct hit and run attacks, target law enforcement and utilise networks of safehouses. [source]
3.2 Connections with the Communist Bloc
Despite the RAF considering themselves to be Marxist-Leninists, the group did not align themselves with the Soviet Union. RAF’s founding generation considered the Soviet Union during the 1960s and 70s as revisionist and were more sympathetic to the Chinese side of the Sino-Soviet Split. Into the 1980s however, third generation RAF members began making links with East Germany’s secret police the Stasi.
Following the Cold War, it was initially believed the Stasi only provided RAF members with fake identities and refuge behind the Iron Curtain. However, investigations following the end of the Cold War have revealed that Stasi officers conspired with RAF members to bomb a West German US Army base in 1981. [source] Furthermore, RAF not only collaborated with the Stasi but also the Soviet KGB. In 2020, Catherine Belton revealed that KGB officers met with RAF members in Dresden, East Germany to offer weapons and cash for RAF terror attacks in the West. One such KGB officer, Belton claimed, was future Russian President Vladimir Putin. [source]
4.0 German Autumn
4.1 The Campaign Against Imperialism and Ulrike Meinhof’s Suicide
Once Baader and other members of RAF returned from training with the PLO in 1970, the group launched their crusade against facism and imperialism. The West German state was RAF’s primary target followed by the United States and NATO. During May 1972, RAF launched a series of symbolic attacks on West German media headquarters and US military sites in Germany. RAF attacks typically involved infiltrating premises and planting pipe or car bombs. RAF claimed that the May 1972 attacks against US personnel were in retaliation to the US mining of North Vietnamese ports. In June 1972, following an extensive manhunt, Baader, Meinhof and Ensslin were all arrested by West German Authorities. [source]
During the 1970s made extensive use of BMWs, being easy to break into and hotwire. The cars quickly earned the nickname “Baader-Meinhof-Wagens” in Germany. [source]
The captured RAF members were housed in a newly constructed high security wing of Stammheim Prison near Stuttgart. The detainees were also held in solitary confinement to mitigate the risk of another Baader-Meinhof style prison break. The treatment of the captured RAF inspired members outside of prison to launch kidnappings in a bid to free the founding generation. Throughout 1975, several hostage attempts were unsuccessful, including an incident where RAF seized the West German embassy in Stockholm. On 9 May 1976, Meinhof was found dead in her prison cell having taken her own life.
4.2 The German Autumn
The German Autumn was a series of Red Army Faction affiliated kidnappings, murders and hijackings that occurred between July and October 1977. Left-wing terrorist organisations hoped that their actions would force West German authorities to negotiate the release of RAF members still detained at Stammheim Prison. The events of the German Autumn forced the West German government under Helmut Schmidt to form a “Great Crisis Committee”. [source]
Helmut Schidt, Chancellor of West Germany in 1977. [source]
4.2.1 Kidnapping and Murder of Jurgen Ponto
The German Autumn got off to a bad start with the bungled kidnapping of Jurgen Ponto, the head of Dresdner Bank. On 30 July 1977, Red Morning, a West German left-wing terrorist organisation, attempted to kidnap Ponto but when he resisted they shot him dead. Despite the failure, Red Morning threatened to carry out more attacks unless the “political prisoners” held by the “exploiting class” were freed. [source]
4.2.2 Kidnapping and Murder of Hanns Martin Schleyer
Others have argued that the German Autumn truly began with the kidnapping of Hanns Martin Scheyler in September 1977. Despite serving as an SS officer during the Second World War, Scheyler avoided punishment and by 1977 had risen to President of the influential Confederation of German Employers Association. To Germany’s new left, Schleyer represented the failures of denazification and the underlying authoritarian structures of the West German state.
Hans Martin Schleyer in Red Army Faction captivity. [source]
Once kidnapped by RAF, Schleyer was placed in front of a video camera and forced to admit to his crimes as an SS officer as well as promote RAF’s message. The RAF demanded West Germany’s chancellor Helmut Schimdt release the founding generation of RAF in exchange for Schleyer’s life. When their demands were not met the RAF commando unit executed Schleyer. [source]
4.2.3 Hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 181
On 13 October 1977, militants from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) hijacked a Lufthansa flight with 91 passengers on board. The PFLP demanded the release of RAF members imprisoned at Stammheim Prison who they considered to be comrades in the struggle against imperialism.
On 17 October, Lufthansa Flight 181 was besieged by a team of GSG-9 whilst refuelling in Somalia. All four PFLP hijackers were killed by the German special forces unit whilst all 91 passengers remained unscathed. [source]
5.0 The Legacy of Left Wing Terrorism
The German Autumn failed to free RAF’s first generation and on 18 October 1977, Baader and Ensslin took their own lives. RAF’s second and third generations would continue to carry out high profile terror attacks in West Germany throughout the 1980s. RAF would however never top their peak in the 1970s. In fact, it could be argued RAF were a victim of their own success. RAF’s terror rampage in the 1970s catalysed a major modernisation of West Germany’s counterintelligence capabilities and anti-terror legislation. Rather than teardown the “authoritarian structures”, RAF’s terrorist actions did more to expand them.
“[Red Army Faction] led to a massive expansion and modernization of the police force. The German Federal Police got three huge new buildings. We could ask for anything we wanted!”
Wolfgang Steinke, German Federal Police Force Officer. [source]
RAF’s terrorist activity continued beyond the end of the Cold War but the group struggled to reconcile their Marxist-Leninist ideals with the fall of Communism in Europe. Following German reunification in 1991, RAF carried out the high profile assassination of Detlev Karsten Rohwedder, the man who had overseen the privatisation of the East German economy.
By 1992, RAF attacks became limited to breaking former members out of German prisons. Throughout the 1990s, RAF attacks became increasingly rare as the group agreed to de-escalate in exchange for the release of former members. In 1998, the group officially disbanded and published the following statement:
“Almost 28 years ago, on 14 May 1970, during a liberation operation, the RAF formed. Today we end this project. The urban guerrilla in the form of the RAF is history now.”
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