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.

The RAF in the 1980s and 1990s

In the early 1980s, new members of the RAF, sometimes referred to as the "third generation", established an alliance with the French group Action Directe. The collapse of Communism and the Soviet Union was a serious blow to left-wing groups, and by 1990 only the RAF remained.

Related Topics:
1980s - French - Action Directe - Communism - Soviet Union - 1990

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Well into the 1990s attacks were still being committed under the name "RAF". Among these were the killing of industrialist Ernst Zimmermann; another bombing at the US Air Force's Ramstein Air Base (near Kaiserslautern), which killed three; the death in a car-bombing of Siemens executive Karl-Heinz Beckurts; and the shooting of Gerold von Braunmühl, a leading official at Germany's foreign ministry.

Related Topics:
1990s - Ernst Zimmermann - US Air Force - Ramstein Air Base - Kaiserslautern - Siemens - Karl-Heinz Beckurts - Gerold von Braunmühl

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There were several other attacks which the government blamed on the RAF; despite these accusations, its responsibility for those attacks has never been proven. On November 30, 1989, Deutsche Bank chief Alfred Herrhausen was killed with a highly complex bomb when his car triggered a photo sensor, in Bad Homburg. On April 1, 1991, Detlev Karsten Rohwedder, leader of the government Treuhand organization responsible for the privatization of the East German state economy, was shot dead.

Related Topics:
November 30 - 1989 - Deutsche Bank - Alfred Herrhausen - Bad Homburg - April 1 - 1991 - Detlev Karsten Rohwedder - Treuhand - East German

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After German reunification in 1990, it was discovered that the RAF had received financial and logistic support from the Stasi, the security and intelligence organization of East Germany, which had given several members shelter and new identities. These could now be hunted down.

Related Topics:
German reunification - 1990 - Stasi - East Germany

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The last big action against the RAF took place on June 27, 1993. A "Verfassungsschutz" (internal secret service) agent named Klaus Steinmetz had infiltrated the RAF. As a result Birgit Hogefeld and Wolfgang Grams were to be arrested in Bad Kleinen. Grams and Policeman Rüdiger Newrzella died during the mission. The official investigation concluded that Grams committed suicide, others claim his death was in revenge for Newrzella's.

Related Topics:
June 27 - 1993 - Klaus Steinmetz - Birgit Hogefeld - Wolfgang Grams - Bad Kleinen

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In 1992 the German government assessed that the RAF's main field of engagement now were extrication missions of former RAF-members. To weaken the organization further the government declared that some RAF-inmates would be released if the RAF refrained from violent attacks in the future. Hereafter the RAF announced their intentions to "take back the escalation" and stop their attacks on people. The last action took place in 1993 with a bombing of a newly built prison in Weiterstadt by subdueing the officers on duty and planting explosives afterwards. Although noone was seriously injured this action caused property damage comprising 123 million Deutsche Marks (over 50 million euro).

Related Topics:
1992 - 1993 - Weiterstadt

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On April 20, 1998 an eight-page typewritten letter in German was faxed to the Reuters news agency, signed "RAF" with the machine-gun red star, declaring the group dissolved:

Related Topics:
April 20 - 1998 - German - Reuters

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"Vor fast 28 Jahren, am 14. Mai 1970, entstand in einer Befreiungsaktion die RAF. Heute beenden wir dieses Projekt. Die Stadtguerilla in Form der RAF ist nun Geschichte."

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("Almost 28 years ago, on May 14, 1970, the RAF arose in a campaign of liberation. Today we end this project. The urban guerrilla in the shape of the RAF is now history.")

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