Members of the Red Army Faction (RAF) can be split up into three generations. The first (founding) generation existed from 1970 onwards. The second generation emerged from 1975 and included people from other groups such as the Socialist Patients' Collective (SPK) and the 2 June Movement. The third generation began in 1982. The group announced its dissolution in 1998.
The Red Army Faction (RAF) existed in West Germany from 1970 to 1998, committing numerous crimes, especially in the autumn of 1977, which led to a national crisis that became known as the "German Autumn". The RAF was founded in 1970 by Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, Ulrike Meinhof, Horst Mahler, and others.[1] The first generation of the organization was commonly referred to by the press and the government as the "Baader-Meinhof Gang", a name the group did not use to refer to itself.[2]
The RAF was responsible for 34 deaths, including many secondary targets such as chauffeurs and bodyguards, and many injuries in its almost 30 years of activity.
Eileen MacDonald stated in Shoot the Women First (1991) that women made up about fifty percent of the membership of the Red Army Faction and about eighty percent of the RAF's supporters.[3] This was higher than other similar groups in West Germany, in which women made up about thirty percent of the membership.
The RAF announced its dissolution in 1998 with the paper Die Stadtguerilla in Form der RAF ist nun Geschichte (The Urban Guerilla in the form of the RAF is now history).[4]
First generation Red Army Faction (1970–75)
Founding first generation members
Founding first generation members of RAF
Name
Dates
Notes
Brigitte Asdonk
1947-
Arrested in 1970, released from prison 1982.[5]:345
Involved in the 1968 Frankfurt department store firebombings, founded the RAF, and was arrested during the 1972 May Offensive.[5]:345 Seen by the German state as a leader of the first generation alongside Ensslin, Meinhof, Meins and Raspe.[5]:250 Visited in jail by Jean Paul Sartre.[5]:267 Allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself in the back of the head in Stammheim prison on 18 October 1977.[5]:41
Involved in the 1968 Frankfurt department store firebombings, founded the RAF, and was arrested during the 1972 May Offensive.[5]:349 Seen by the German state as a leader of the first generation alongside Baader, Meinhof, Meins and Raspe.[5]:250 Allegedly committed suicide in Stammheim prison on 18 October 1977.[5]:41
Founding member of the RAF, broke with the RAF after participating in the training camp in Jordan. Went with Stefan Aust to Sicily and took Ulrike Meinhof's children to their father, whereas Meinhof wanted them to go to her sister.[4]
Lawyer who joined the RAF and was arrested in 1970. By 1974 he had been expelled from the RAF. After his release from prison in 1980, he went on to join the neo-Nazi Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands and to found a holocaust denial group.[5]:355
A well-known radical journalist who was editor of konkret. She was married to Klaus Rainer Röhl then divorced him. She became friends with Baader and Ensslin, then helped free Andreas Baader from imprisonment on 14 Mai 1970. Arrested with Gerhard Müller in 1972 and seen by the German state as a leader of the first generation alongside Baader, Ensslin, Meins and Raspe.[4][5]:250 She was found hanged in her prison cell on 9 May 1976. The International Investigatory Commission into the Death of Ulrike Meinhof announced in 1978 that she had been sexually assaulted and murdered.[4]
Arrested in 1971 and released to hospital in 1973 due to health conditions caused by solitary confinement. She escaped and went to England, where she was re-arrested in 1978.[5]:358
Founding member and amongst the first group of RAF members to be arrested alongside Asdonk, Berberich, Goergens and Mahler. Allegedly committed suicide in a Munich prison on 13 November 1977, two weeks after the deaths of Baader, Ensslin and Raspe.[4]
Other first generation members
Other first generation members of RAF
Name
Dates
Notes
Christa Eckes
1950-
Arrested on 4 February 1974 when the police raided RAF safehouses simultaneously in Hamburg and Frankfurt together with Kay-Werner Allnach, Wolfgang Beer, Eberhard Becker, Helmut Pohl, Margrit Schiller and Ilse Stachowiak.[4][6] On 28 September 1977, she was sentenced to seven years in prison. After her release she was arrested again on 2 July 1984 in Frankfurt, when a gun was accidentally discharged into the apartment below a safe house. The others arrested were Helmut Pohl, Stefan Frey, Ingrid Jakobsmeier, Barbara Ernst and Ernst-Volker Staub.[4]
First involved with the Blues-Scene and West Berlin Tupamaros, but in July 1971, she met with some RAF members, and together with Thomas Weissbecker she expressed interest and started working with the RAF. On 12 May 1972 she participated in the bombing of a police station in Augsburg together with Irmgard Möller, and on 24 May 1972 she was involved in the bombing of the officers club and the Campbell Barracks in Heidelberg[citation needed]
A leftistcinematography student in West Germany, he joined the Baader-Meinhof gang quite early on along with Beate Sturm and was seen as a leading member. In 1971 he was arrested alongside Raspe and Baader during a shoot-out with the police in Frankfurt. In prison the Baader-Meinhof gang called for a hunger strike, as they felt they were being treated unfairly by the government. Meins died on 11 November 1974 as a result of the hunger strike. He weighed less than 100 pounds at the time of his death; he was over six feet (1.8 m) tall. His death sparked rage amongst RAF members everywhere.[citation needed] Seen by the German state as a leader of the first generation alongside Baader, Ensslin, Meinhof and Raspe.[5]:250
Bombed the Campbell Barracks in Heidelberg on 24 May 1972.[7] She claimed responsibility in the name of the Commando 15 July (the date of Petra Schelm's death) in honour of Schelm.[8]
An early member of the RAF, captured a short while before both Holger Meins and Andreas Baader were arrested in Frankfurt in 1972 (he had been the driver of their Porsche Targa). Alongside Baader, Ensslin and Meinhof he was sentenced to life imprisonment at Stammheim. Raspe supposedly committed suicide in his cell using a 9 mmHeckler & Koch handgun on 18 October 1977, however, it is also claimed that he was murdered in an extrajudicial killing.[citation needed] Seen by the German state as a leader of the first generation alongside Baader, Ensslin, Meinhof and Meins.[5]:250
Beate Sturm
1950-
Joined the RAF in 1970 with Holger Meins when she was a 19-year-old student. She experienced difficulties imagining that innocent people could be affected by RAF actions and left the group in 1971. She later gave some newspaper interviews.[9]
An associate of Horst Mahler and a minor member of the RAF. He was first involved with the Blues-Scene and West Berlin Tupamaros but in July 1971 he met with some RAF members and together with Angela Luther he expressed interest and started working with the RAF. In 1971 he was charged and acquitted with assaulting a Springer journalist. Later, on 2 March 1972, Weissbecker, along with Carmen Roll, was stopped by police outside a hotel in Augsburg. Weissbecker was shot dead by the police when he reached into his pocket, supposedly to grab his gun. However Stefan Aust claims that he was simply reaching into his pocket to produce ID. On 12 May 1972, over two months after Weissbecker's death, RAF members bombed a police station in Augsburg and a Criminal Investigations Agency in Munich. They claimed responsibility for the bombings in the name of the 'Tommy Weissbecker Kommando'.[citation needed]
Second generation Red Army Faction (1975–1982)
By 1972 a large number of the core members of the Baader-Meinhof Gang had been captured and imprisoned. However, new members swelled the dwindling ranks of the Gang. These revolutionaries mostly had similar backgrounds to the first generation, e.g. they were middle class and frequently students. Most of them joined the Gang after their own groups dissolved e.g. the Socialist Patients' Collective (SPK) and Movement 2 June (J2M).[citation needed]
Former SPK members
The SPK, the leftist 'therapy-through-violence' group, dissolved in 1971, and those members who had turned militant forged links and joined with the Baader-Meinhof Gang. Brigitte Mohnhaupt, Klaus Jünschke Carmen Roll, and Gerhard Müller had already joined as part of the first generation of the RAF but originally started in SPK.
Former SPK members
Name
Dates
Notes
Elisabeth von Dyck
1951–1979
Member of the SPK and then RAF.[10] She was born in Nuremberg. She was the girlfriend of Klaus Jünschke and later of lawyer Klaus Croissant. She was involved with the 'committees against torture' in 1974. In 1975 von Dyck, along with Siegfried Haag, was arrested on suspicion of smuggling weapons out of Switzerland and served six months in a detention centre in Cologne before being released. However, a warrant went out for her arrest in 1977. von Dyck went underground, and Monika Helbing stated that around this time she fled to Baghdad for a while with Friederike Krabbe. von Dyck returned to West Germany sometime between 1977 and 1979, and on 4 May 1979, von Dyck entered a Nuremberg house, thought to have been an RAF hideout, which was under police surveillance. The police shot von Dyck through the back, killing her. A gun was found on her body. von Dyck was shot even though she was only suspected of being involved with the RAF, and was not a high-priority on the wanted list. However, it was alleged that the police shot her after she first drew a pistol and aimed it at them.[citation needed]
An important figure of the second generation RAF and was personally involved in the kidnap and murder of Hanns-Martin Schleyer, his driver and three accompanying policemen.[citation needed]
Hanna-Elise Krabbe
1945-
Member of the IZRU (the group which succeeded the SPK) and was the elder sister of Friederike Krabbe, another member. Hanna-Elise Krabbe took part in the West German embassy siege in Stockholm. She was the only female member involved in the siege. Her role during the siege was to guard the hostages. She was arrested when the siege failed and was sentenced on 20 July 1977, to twice life imprisonment. She was released from prison in 1996, after serving 21 years.[citation needed]
Friederike Krabbe
1950-
Younger sister of Hanna-Elise Krabbe. She is believed to have been one of the RAF members who kidnapped Hanns Martin Schleyer. Afterwards she fled to Iraq, living in Baghdad with Elisabeth von Dyck and Monika Helbing. She left the RAF and is thought to still live in the Middle East.[9][4]
A leader amongst the second generation RAF and was involved in some of their most serious crimes (such as the murder of Jürgen Ponto) and was a key perpetrator during the German Autumn.[citation needed]
Klaus Jünschke
1947-
Student member of the SPK, who managed to escape arrest when police came after certain members of the SPK in 1971. He joined the RAF with his militant girlfriend Elisabeth von Dyck and was involved in at least one bank robbery (in December 1971 in Kaiserslautern – alongside Ingeborg Barz and Wolfgang Grundmann).[citation needed]
Carmen Roll
Involved in 'working circle explosives' in which she achieved limited success with Siegfried Hausner when they managed to manufacture a small amount of TNT in December 1970 in the University Institute of Physiology. In February 1971 Roll, along with Hausner, planned to bomb the President of the Federal Republic's special train in Heidelberg station, but she arrived too late with the explosives, and the plot failed. On 2 March 1972, Roll was confronted by police outside a hotel in Augsburg. Tommy Weissbecker was shot dead and Roll was arrested. Two weeks later to sedate her when she resisted fingerprinting she was given a near-fatal dose of ether by prison doctors. In 1976 Roll was freed from prison. She moved to Italy and became a nurse.[citation needed]
Lutz Taufer
1944-
Protested against the supposed torture of political prisoners in West Germany in 1974.[11] In 1975, he joined the RAF and took part in the West German embassy siege in Stockholm. He was arrested and sentenced to two life terms, before being released in 1995.[5]:363
Ulrich Wessel
1946–1975
Son of a rich Hamburg businessman. Wessel was described as a dandy, and he was a millionaire by inheritance. He was involved with the SPK and took part in the West German embassy siege in Stockholm. He died during the siege when the TNT was accidentally exploded; the force of the explosion startled him so much that he dropped a grenade he was holding and it exploded on him. He died soon afterwards.[citation needed]
Former M2J members
The Movement 2 June was founded in 1972 and was allied with the RAF but was ideologically anarchist as opposed to the Marxist RAF. In the early 1980s, the movement disbanded and many members then joined the RAF.
Became acquainted with Brigitte Mohnhaupt in the late 1960s and first became a member of the Munich Tupamaros and later joined the RAF together with his ex-wife Mohnhaupt, but he was also closely acquainted with the Movement 2 June. On 13 April 1971 he was involved in a bank robbery in Munich but was arrested. In 1972 he was sentenced to a six-year imprisonment. On 3 March 1975, he was released as part of the Peter Lorenz kidnapping and exchange together with Rolf Pohle, Verena Becker, Ina Siepmann and Gabriele Kröcher-Tiedemann and ended up in South Yemen. In October 1976 he returned undetected to Germany. According to Peter-Jürgen Boock, Heißler and Stefan Wisniewski shot Hanns Martin Schleyer. On 1 November 1978 he and Adelheid Schulz shot two Dutch customs officers, Dionysius de Jong and Johannes Goemans, at a passport control in Kerkrade and seriously injured two more. de Jong died instantly, and Goemans died on 14 November 1978. When he was arrested on 9 June 1979 in Frankfurt, Heissler was seriously injured by a shot in the head but survived. On 10 November 1982, he was sentenced to two life terms plus 15 years for murders and membership in the RAF. On 25 October 2001, he was released on probation.[citation needed]
Member of Movement 2 June, arrested then freed after the Lorenz kidnapping. Involved in the 1976 OPEC siege led by Carlos the Jackal.[13]:299,300
Juliane Plambeck
1952–1980
Member of Munich Red Aid and co-founded Movement 2 June. Arrested in 1975 for involvement in the Lorenz kidnapping, then escaped from detention the following year and went underground. After the dissolution of M2J, she and Inge Viett joined the RAF in 1980. The same year, Plambeck and Wolfgang Beer died in a car crash after stealing a BMW.[4][5]:132,133
First arrested on 17 December 1971 when he attempted to buy thirty-two firearms in a gun shop in Neu-Ulm which the police claimed were meant for the RAF. In 1974 he was sentenced to four years in prison because of membership in a criminal organisation, weapon possession and support activities for the RAF. On 3 March 1975, he was released as part of the Peter Lorenz kidnapping and exchange together with Rolf Heissler, Verena Becker, Ina Siepmann and Gabriele Kröcher-Tiedemann and ended up in South Yemen. On 21 July 1976, he was arrested again in Athens but first extradited to Germany on 1 October after a lengthy negotiation with Greece. On top of his original conviction, he was given a further three years and three months. He was released in 1982 and returned to Greece two years later. Until the outbreak of cancer, he worked as a teacher and translator. Pohle himself continued to deny any profound relations with the RAF. He died on 7 February 2004.[citation needed]
Arrested in 1974 then released the following year. She is thought to have lived in Lebanon and to have been killed during the Sabra and Shatila Massacre.[5]:362
The Haag/Mayer Group
The Haag/Mayer Group was a minor group of members within the second generation of the RAF. They were recruited by Siegfried Haag, who organised the regrouping of the RAF in the mid-1970s together with Roland Mayer before Brigitte Mohnhaupt took over the leadership after their arrest in 1976. Knut Folkerts from SPK and Verena Becker from J2M were also part of this group.[citation needed]
Lawyer for the first generation of the RAF, then member by 1975. He was arrested in 1976 then went underground before being arrested again; he was sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment. In detention, he distanced himself from the RAF and he was released in 1987.[5]:105,350
Roland Mayer
Arrested in 1976 and sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment, then released in 1988.[5]:355
Günter Sonnenberg
1954-
Joined the RAF in 1976 and was arrested the following year with Verena Becker in Singen, after he was recognised from a wanted poster. He had been shot in the body and head; hunger-striking prisoners demanded his release in both 1979 and 1981. He was sentenced to two life terms and was mainly held in solitary confinement until his release in 1992.[5]:35,363,373,377,380,384
Convicted of robbing a gun shop with Willi-Peter Stoll and involvement with the assassination of Siegfried Buback in 1977. Denied the charges and was released in 1995. Also convicted for shooting dead a Dutch policeman during his arrest in Utrecht.[4]
Uwe Folkerts
1948-
Arrested on 5 May 1977 together with Johannes Thimme in connection with the Siegfried Buback assassination. In late 1978 he was found guilty of lending his car to Adelheid Schulz and Sabine Schmitz and sentenced to sixteen months imprisonment.[citation needed] Brother of Knut.[4]
Husband of Waltraud Boock. Joined the RAF in 1976, left in 1980, arrested in 1981. In 1992, Boock admitted participating in the kidnap of Schleyer, pardoned 1998.[5]:347
Waltraud Boock
1951-
Wife of Peter-Jürgen Boock, was arrested on 13 December 1976 following an unsuccessful bank raid in Vienna together with Sabine Schmitz. On 4 February 1977 she was sentenced to 15 years.[citation needed]
Karl-Heinz Dellwo
1952-
Took part in the 1975 West German embassy siege in Stockholm. Imprisoned for life in 1977, released 1995.[5]:348
Monika Helbing
1953-
Joined the RAF in 1974 and was involved in the occupation of the Amnesty International offices in Hamburg. In 1976 she went underground and with Christian Klar and other members form the "Southern German cell" of the RAF. She was involved in the preparation and follow-up of the kidnapping of Hanns Martin Schleyer in fall 1977. In 1980 she left the RAF and received asylum and a new identity in East Germany. She was arrested on 14 June 1990 in Frankfurt an der Oder and later on 24 February 1992 she was sentenced to seven years in prison. After her arrest, she cooperated with the police and prosecutors and testified extensively. She was released in 1995 and today lives under a different name.[citation needed]
Hans-Peter Konieczny
Recruited by lawyer Jörg Lang and had just joined the RAF in February 1972, when he on 7 July the same year was cornered by the police in Offenbach. He was persuaded to cooperate and set up Klaus Jünschke and Irmgard Möller, who was easily captured by the police. Konieczny was released from custody two months later.[citation needed]
Minor involvement in the kidnap of Hanns-Martin Schleyer and broke away from the RAF in 1979. She escaped into East Germany to avoid arrest and lived there until her capture in 1990. She served five years in jail before going on to work as a peace activist in Kosovo.[14]
Moved to Hamburg in 1971 and met Susanne Albrecht, Silke Maier-Witt, Karl-Heinz Dellwo, Monika Helbing and Bernhard Rössner. In 1977 she joined the RAF and went underground. In 1980 she left the RAF and received asylum and a new identity in East Germany. She was arrested on 15 June 1990 in Schwedt together with her husband, Ralf Baptist Friedrich. After her arrest, she cooperated with the police and prosecutors and on 22 June 1992 sentenced to eight and a half years in prison due to her participation in a murder attempt on Alexander Haig and the assassination of Hanns Martin Schleyer. Today she lives under a different name in Northern Germany.[citation needed]
Willi-Peter Stoll
1950–1978
A RAF member directly involved with the kidnapping of Hanns-Martin Schleyer. He was said to have changed mentally after the event, and he became depressed and withdrew from the RAF. On 6 September 1978, Stoll was having dinner in a Chinese restaurant in the Red Light District in Düsseldorf when he was approached by police. He drew his gun and a shoot-out followed that resulted in Stoll's death.[15]
Johannes Thimme
1956–1985
Served two prison sentences before dying in 1985, when the bomb that he was leaving at the Association for the Development of Air and Space Industries in Stuttgart went off.[4][5]:364
Christof Wackernagel
1951-
Joined RAF in 1977 and arrested same year in Amsterdam together with Gert Schneider. Released from prison in 1987, moved to Mali.[5]:364
Joined RAF 1976, arrested after bank heist in Switzerland, imprisoned for life then pardoned in 2003.[5]:364365
Claudia Wannersdorfer
Wounded by the explosion of a bomb she and Johannes Thimme were leaving outside the Association for the Development of Air and Space Industries in Stuttgart in 1985. She was sentenced to eight years in prison.[4]
Considered a leader of the third generation. Arrested in Bad Kleinen in 1993, during a botched operation in which Grams died.[16][17] After being sentenced for her involvement in the assassination of Detlef Rohwedder, Hogefeld remained in prison until 2011.[19]
Suspected perpetrator of a bungled attempt to rob an armoured security van near Bremen in June 2015,[20]
References
↑ Buchar, Robert (2010). And reality be damned: undoing America: what media didn't tell you about the end of the Cold War and the fall of communism in Europe. Durham, Conn.: Eloquent Books. p.245. ISBN978-1-60911-166-3.
↑ Martin, Gus; Kushner, Harvey W (2011). The SAGE Encyclopedia of Terrorism. Gus Martin, Harvey W. Kushner (2nded.). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications. p.385. ISBN9781412980166.
↑ Mahan, Sue; Griset, Pamala L. (2013). Terrorism in Perspective (3rded.). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications. p.259. ISBN978-1-4522-2545-6.
↑ Schiller, Margrit (1999). "Es war ein harter Kampf um meine Erinnerung": ein Lebensbericht aus der RAF. Konkret Literatur Verlag. p.256. ISBN3-89458-181-6.
↑ Aust, Stefan (2017). Der Baader-Meinhof-Komplex (1. Auflage der Neuausgabe, erweiterte und aktualisierte Ausgabeed.). Hoffmann und Campe. p.710. ISBN978-3-455-00033-7.
Dartnell, Michael York (1995). Action directe: ultra-left terrorism in France, 1979–1987. Routledge. ISBN0-7146-4566-4.
Schiller, Margrit (1999). "Es war ein harter Kampf um meine Erinnerung": ein Lebensbericht aus der RAF. Konkret Literatur Verlag. ISBN3-89458-181-6.
Strassner, Alexander (2003). Die dritte Generation der "Roten Armee Fraktion": Entstehung, Struktur, Funktionslogik und Zerfall einer terroristischen Organisation (in German). VS Verlag. ISBN3-531-14114-7.
Vague, Tom (1994). Televisionaries: The Red Army Faction Story, 1963–1993. Rev Update edition (August 1994). AK Press. ISBN1-873176-47-3.
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