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Germany and the Red Army Faction
A Chronology


2nd June 1967
The student Benno Ohnesorg is killed by police bullets in West Berlin during a demonstration against the Shah’s visit.
4th June 1967
In Lower Saxony, the neo-nazi NPD enters the state parliament, the Landtag, with ten representatives.
2nd April 1968
Gudrun Ensslin, Andreas Baader and others set fire to two department stores in Frankfurt as a protest against the Vietnam War.
28th September 1969
Changeover of power in Bonn: a social-liberal coalition governs the Federal Republic for the first time since it was founded. Willy Brandt is the new Federal Chancellor.
8th May 1970
Journalist Ulrike Meinhof liberates Andreas Baader from prison and goes underground together with him. The Red Army Faction is founded.
28th January 1972
The “radicals’ decree” is agreed by the Prime Ministers of Germany’s federal states. It is intended to keep enemies of the constitution out of the public sector.
11th May 1972
Bomb attack on the American headquarters in Heidelberg. One person dies,
13 are injured. The Red Army Faction (“Commando Petra Schelm”) releases a statement.
June 1972
The members of the first generation of the Red Army Faction (Baader, Meinhof, Ensslin, Jan-Carl Raspe and Holger Meins) are arrested.
5th September 1972

An Arabian commando unit attacks the Israeli Olympics team in Munich. The police’s attempt to free them ends in a bloodbath.
April/May 1974
The scandal about Günter Guillaume, the advisor to Willy Brandt in his Chancellery who was uncovered as an East German spy, brought about Brandt’s downfall. Helmut Schmidt is the new German Chancellor.
9th November 1974
Holger Meins dies in prison following his hunger strike. He had been protesting against solitary confinement.
27th February 1975
The head of the Berlin CDU, Peter Lorenz, is kidnapped by the Second of June Movement. The kidnappers demand the release of six prisoners. On March 3rd, Berlin vicar Heinrich Albertz flies with the prisoners towards South Yemen. Lorenz is released the next day.
8th May 1976
Ulrike Meinhof is found dead in her cell in Stammheim prison in Stuttgart. The official explanation is suicide.
18th August 1976
The “Anti-terrorism Law” is passed. “Forming terrorist associations” is now a statutory offence.
7th April 1977
Chief Federal Prosecutor Siegfried Buback is shot dead in his official car on his way to the Federal Court in Karlsruhe. The Red Army Faction, the “Ulrike Meinhof Commando”, claims responsibility for the attack.

30th July 1977
Susanne Albrecht, Christian Klar and Brigitte Mohnhaupt try to kidnap Jürgen Ponto (head of the Dresdner Bank and a close friend of Albrecht’s parents) from his house in Oberursel. Ponto is shot dead during his attempt to defend himself.
5th September 1977
The Red Army Faction (“Siegfried Hausner Commando") kidnaps the President of the Employers’ Association, Hanns-Martin Schleyer. In exchange, they demand the release of Baader, Ensslin and Raspe, all serving sentences in Stammheim.
30th September 1977
A law forbidding contact between Red Army Faction prisoners is passed.
13th-18th October 1977
A Palestinian commando kidnaps the Lufthansa plane Landshut to Mogadishu.
A GSG-9 commando frees the passengers using violence.
18th October 1977
Baader, Ensslin and Raspe commit “suicide” in their cells in Stammheim.
19th October 1977
Hanns-Martin Schleyer is found murdered.
1st October 1982
The social-liberal coalition is ended by a constructive vote of no confidence. Christian Democrat leader Helmut Kohl is voted in as new Federal Chancellor with the votes of the liberal Free Democrats.
November 1982
Christian Klar, Brigitte Mohnhaupt and Adelheid Schulz (second Red Army Faction generation) are arrested.
30th November 1989
Alfred Herrhausen, Managing Director of Deutsche Bank, falls victim to an assassination attack. A few days later the Red Army Faction (“Wolfgang Beer Commando”) claims responsibility.
1st April 1991
Detlev Karsten Rohwedder, head of the body overseeing privatisation in the former East Germany, the Treuhand, is shot dead through the window of his house. The Red Army Faction (“Ulrich Wessel Commando”) claims responsibility.
10th April 1992
The Red Army Faction declares that they are renouncing “attacks on leading representatives from business and the state.”
27th June 1993
Police arrest Birgit Hogefeld in Bad Kleinen. Wolfgang Grams and a GSG-9 officer die in an exchange of fire.
March 1998
The Red Army Faction announces its voluntary liquidation in an eight-page declaration.
May 2001
The federal public prosecutor declares that former Red Army Faction commando cadre have established a new terror group. Daniela Klette and Ernst Volker Staub are said to be amongst the members.