PowerPoint-esitys

1
Prof. Seppo Hentilä 14.2.2006 Fighting the Fat
Biedermeier Terrorist Insurrection in the Federal
Republic of Germany from the 1960s to the 1970s
(with an epilogue)
 
2
Why did I choose this kind of a
title? Biedermeier extreme conservative,
highly bourgeois and pompous style of arts,
architecture and culture during the first decades
of the 1900th Century Motorised Biedermeir
German upper middle classes after the Second
World War The Generation Gap in West
Germany The Generation of Survivors/ War
Generation, born between 1900 and 1925 The
Children of the War Generation, the Generation of
68ers, born during the 1940s
3

• http//www.baader-meinhof.com/about/sitemap.htm
• My questions to You
• The Baade-Meinhof terrorist movement was a direct
  successor of the leftist students movement in
  the Federal Republic of Germany. What kind of
  arguments can you find for and against this
  statement?
• 2. The most important cause to the terrorist
  insurrection in the Federal Republic of Germany
  was the generation gap between the war generation
  and their children, the so-called 68ers. What do
  you think about this explanation?
• These slides are available on my homepage
• http//www.valt.helsinki.fi/blogs/shentila/english
  /teaching.htm

4
Background
1960's Students protests Vietnam War,
Apartheid in South Africa, Visits of the Shah of
Iran, Reza Pahlavi in Germany and other European
cities in 1967-68 June 2, 1967 Demonstration in
West Berlin against the visit of the Shah of Iran
an innocent Student, Benno Ohnesorg, killed by
a policemans bullet The movement gets a martyr,
Bewegung 2. Juni/ Movement of June 2.
5
First Phase APO (Extra Parliamentary Opposition/
Außerparlamentarische Opposition) founded by
Rudi Dutschke, head of the SDS (Socialist
German Students Organization) 11 April 1968 -
attack on Rudi Dutschke, wounded by a right wing
extremist, injured in the head, causes serious
epilepsia
6
2 April 1968 - Frankfurt - first terrorist attack
on two department stores by Andreas Baader and
Gudrun Ensslin -14 May 1970 - Andreas Baader,
earlier jailed, is freed by three terrorists,
among them Ulrike Meinhof -- one person killed
(an innocent bystander)
Ulrike Meinhof Andreas Baader
Gudrun Ensslin
7
-Birth of the Red Army Faction (RAF) - otherwise
known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang -Sep. 1970 - RAF
robs banks to finance terrorist activities (DM
220,000 70,000 ) -End of 1971 - 2nd of June
Movement formed - RAF moves from West Berlin to
West Germany -May 1972 - RAF bombings on the
police building in Augsburg, on the I G Farben
Building in Frankfurt, on U.S. Army offices --
one U.S. officer killed, 13 wounded, on Axel
Springer Publishers in West Berlin, on U.S. Army
Europe Headquarters in Heidelberg - 4 U. S.
servicemen killed
8
-1 June 1972 - Andreas Baader, Holger Meins, and
Jan-Karl Raspe arrested in Frankfurt -2 June 1972
- bombing in West Berlin (probably 2nd of June
Movement) to mark fifth anniversary of the death
of Benno Ohnesorg -7 June 1972 - Gudrun Ensslin
arrested in Hamburg -15 June 1972 - Ulrike
Meinhof arrested in Hannover -Terrorist attacks,
directed from prison through Meinhof's attorney,
Horst Mahler -Years after Mahler was freed from
prison he became one of the leading spokesmen for
the Neo Nazi extreme right wing
9
The Black September 1972 attack in the Olympic
Games in Munich eleven Israeli athletes killed
by PLO terrorists on Sep. 5 (not related to RAF,
except in reaction to terrorist demands)
-Anti-terrorist force, GSG-9, formed -9 Nov.
1974 - Holger Meins dies in jail of
malnutrition -Feb., 1975 - Peter Lorenz, Chairman
of the conservative party CDU in Berlin kidnapped
by 2nd of June movement "Crisis staff" -- Lorenz
freed in exchange for 2 criminals and 5
terrorists (including Meinhofs attorney Horst
Mahler)
10
Second Phase --- and the Second Generation of the
RAF -24 April 1975 - West German embassy in
Stockholm attacked by the so-called Holger Meins
Commando - demands not met, all 4 terrorists
captured or killed, all hostages freed -21 May
1975 - beginning of trial of Baader, Meinhof,
Ensslin, Raspe -Trial held in Stammheim prison
outside of Stuttgart -- a prison and trial
facility built especially for the trial to be
terrorist-proof at the cost of about 4 million
-May 1976 Meinhof, Baader and Raspe commit
suicide in jail Nov. 1976 - 2 RAF terrorists
captured with plans to attack Stuttgart prison
11
Third Phase -7 April 1977 - attack on Siegfried
Buback, Attorney General of the FRG -30 July
1977 - attack on the banker Jürgen Ponto (one of
the terrorists is his goddaughter, Suzanne
Albrecht) -5 Sep. 1977 - Hans-Martin Schleyer,
top executive negotiator for German industry,
taken hostage his driver and three companions
killed Schleyer later killed when demands were
not met attack on Schleyer carried out by the
Siegfried Hausner Commando (named after one of
the terrorists killed in the Embassy attack in
Stockholm 2 years earlier)
12
Hans-Martin Schleyer
13
-13 Oct 1977 - Lufthansa plane hijacked by Arab
terrorists apparently in the employ of the RAF
pilot shot in Athens plane taken to Mogadishu,
Somalia - International co-operation between the
RAF and some palestinian groups, german
terrorists trained in a desert camp in Jordania
in 1977
WANTED!
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• So-called German Autumn, 44 days of terror
• Nov - Dec. 1977 - 20 members of the "hard core"
  of the RAF and 2nd of June group were captured,
  the End of the Second Generation
• Those who succeeded to hide disappeared to
  underground
• Later evidence was found that the GDR had given
  at least to 12 members of the RAF a new life and
  identity in East Germany

The Emblem of Stasi
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Fourth Phase and a long aftermath -Nov. 1989 -
Alfred Herrhausen, an influential banker, killed
by the RAF near Frankfurt - car bombing -July,
1990 - Susanne Albrecht, thought to have been in
hiding in Libya, was discovered under a new
identity in East Germany and was arrested. Other
prominent members of the RAF were also discovered
under assumed names in East Germany -February,
1991 - The U.S. Embassy in Bonn/Bad Godesberg was
fired upon with machine guns from 300 meters
across the Rhine. The RAF claimed responsibility
for the action to protest the U.S. involvement in
the Gulf War
16
-April, 1991- Martin Rohwedder, the head of the
Treuhand trustee organization, set up to sell off
the nationalized companies of the former G.D.R.,
was killed near his home the RAF took credit for
the murder -September, 1991 - Markus Wolf, the
former head of the East German secret police
(Stasi ), returns to Germany from the U.S.S.R. to
face charges against him --- The Stasi regularly
sponsored terrorist attacks against West Germany
and gave asylum to terrorists, such as Susanne
Albrecht
17
-One of the RAF terrorists, convicted of killing
in April 1977, Siegfried Buback, was released
after 17 years --- he was one of the former
terrorist who publicly regretted what he had done
and had helped the police to capture some of his
companions -February, 1997 - Is the RAF really
dead? Several articles in Der Spiegel claim that
this is the case - August 1998 - Still remaining
former members of the RAF declare that the RAF
has been disbanded
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Some conclusions and explanations Many of the
leading terrorists were children of so-called
good families born with a golden spoon in the
mouth About the Generation Gap in West
Germany East German aid to the terrorists the
G.D.R. was not officially supporting terrorism
and not even the New Left International
Networking of terrorism