Red Army Faction

The Red Army Faction (in German: Rote Armee Fraktion; RAF), also known as the Baader-Meinhof Group, or the Baader-Meinhof Gang, which was one of the core groups within the RAF, was postwar Western Germany's most active left-wing terrorist organization. The RAF referred to its members as "urban guerrillas". It operated from the 1970s to 1998, causing great unrest (especially in the autumn of 1977, which led to a national crisis) and killing dozens of high-profile Germans in its more than 20 years of existence.

Custody and the Stammheim trial

The RAF members were jailed individually in solitary confinement, with no contact among themselves and allowed visits from their relatives only every two weeks. Still, Ensslin devised an "info system" with aliases for each member, and by circulating letters with the help of their defence counsels, they were able to communicate. To protest against their conditions, they went on several coordinated hunger strikes; eventually, they were force-fed. Meins died, however, on November 9, 1974. After public protests, their conditions were somewhat improved by the authorities.

Related Topics:
Hunger strike - November 9 - 1974

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The so-called second generation of the RAF emerged at the time, consisting of sympathizers independent of the inmates. This became clear when, on February 27, 1975, Peter Lorenz, the CDU candidate for mayor of Berlin, was kidnapped to force the release of several other detainees. Since none were on trial for murder, the state agreed, and those inmates (and therefore later Lorenz) were released. On April 25, 1975, the German embassy in Stockholm was occupied by another German group; two of the hostages were murdered as the German government under Chancellor Helmut Schmidt refused to give in to their demands. More people died when the explosives deployed by them were triggered later that night.

Related Topics:
February 27 - 1975 - Peter Lorenz - CDU - Berlin - April 25 - Stockholm - Helmut Schmidt

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On May 21, 1975, the Stammheim trial of Baader, Ensslin, Meinhof, and Raspe began, named after a city district of Stuttgart where it took place. Possibly the most tense and controversial German criminal trial ever, the Bundestag had earlier changed the Code of Criminal Procedure so that several of the attorneys who were accused of serving as links between the inmates and the RAF's second generation could be excluded.

Related Topics:
May 21 - 1975 - Stuttgart - Bundestag

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On May 9, 1976, Ulrike Meinhof was found dead in her cell, hanging from a rope made from jail towels. An investigation concluded that she had hanged herself, a result hotly contested at the time, spurring a plethora of conspiracy theories. Other theories suggest that she took her life because of being ostracized by the rest of the group.

Related Topics:
May 9 - 1976 - Conspiracy theories

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During the trial, more attacks took place; among them, on April 7, 1977, Federal Prosecutor Siegfried Buback and his driver were shot and killed by two RAF members while waiting at a red traffic light.

Related Topics:
April 7 - 1977 - Siegfried Buback

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Eventually, on April 28, 1977, the trial's 192nd day, the three remaining defendants were convicted of several murders, more attempted murders, and of forming a terrorist organization; they were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Related Topics:
April 28 - 1977

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