Prof. Seppo Hentilä 14.2.2006

Fighting the Fat BiedermeierTerrorist Insurrection in the Federal Republic of Germany from the 1960’s to the 1970’s (with an epilogue)

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 1940’s

http://www.baader-meinhof.com/about/sitemap.htm

My questions to You:1. 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

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 policeman’s bullet

The movement gets a martyr, Bewegung 2. Juni/ Movement of June 2.

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

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)

Gudrun Ensslin

Ulrike Meinhof Andreas Baader

-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, onU.S. Army Europe Headquarters in Heidelberg - 4 U. S. servicemen killed

-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

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 Meinhof’s attorney Horst Mahler)

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 jailNov. 1976 - 2 RAF terrorists captured with plans to attack Stuttgart prison

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)

Hans-Martin Schleyer

-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!

So-called German Autumn, 44 days of terrorNov - 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

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

-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

-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

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