German Autumn

The German Autumn (German: Deutscher Herbst) is a set of events revolving around the abduction of Hanns-Martin Schleyer and the hijacking of the Lufthansa airplane Landshut by the Red Army Faction (RAF) and the PFLP respectively in autumn 1977.

Related Topics:
German - Hanns-Martin Schleyer - Hijacking - Lufthansa - Airplane - Landshut - Red Army Faction - PFLP - 1977

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On September 5, 1977, an RAF "commando unit" assaulted Hanns-Martin Schleyer, then president of the German employers' association, in Cologne. His driver and bodyguard were immediately killed, and Schleyer was held prisoner in a rented apartment in a rather anonymous residential neighborhood near Cologne. He was forced to appeal to the moderately-leftist German government of Helmut Schmidt for the "first generation" of RAF members (then imprisoned) to be exchanged for him. Police investigation to find out where Schleyer was being hidden met with no success.

Related Topics:
September 5 - 1977 - Cologne - Helmut Schmidt

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When it became clear that the government was unwilling to repeat a prisoner exchange after their experiences two years earlier following the kidnapping of Peter Lorenz, the RAF tried to exert additional pressure by hijacking the Lufthansa airplane Landshut on October 13 with the help of the allied Palestinian terrorist group PFLP. After a long odyssey through the Arabian Peninsula and the killing of Captain Jürgen Schumann the terrorists and their hostages landed in the capital of Somalia, Mogadishu.

Related Topics:
Peter Lorenz - Lufthansa - October 13 - PFLP - Arabian Peninsula - Somalia - Mogadishu

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After political negotiations with the Somali leader Siad Barre the German government was allowed to assault the plane. This happened on October 18 by the special task force GSG-9, which had been formed after the 1972 Munich Olympics' hostage crisis. All hostages were freed without injuries, only one terrorist aboard survived.

Related Topics:
Somali - Siad Barre - October 18 - GSG-9 - 1972 Munich Olympics' hostage crisis

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As a reaction to the recapture, Hanns-Martin Schleyer, brought to Belgium through the Netherlands, was shot and killed by his kidnappers. At the same time founding RAF members Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, and Jan-Carl Raspe, all imprisoned in Stuttgart-Stammheim, committed suicide. Irmgard Möller, who was imprisoned with them, survived with four knife wounds in her chest. She later claimed that the suicides were actually extrajudicial killings. Though all official inquiries on the matter suggest that this was not the case, the rumor persists in radical leftwing circles.

Related Topics:
Andreas Baader - Gudrun Ensslin - Jan-Carl Raspe - Irmgard Möller - Extrajudicial killings

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After the Landshut crisis, German government stated that it would never again negotiate with terrorists.

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