Synopsis
On 13 October 1977, Lufthansa Flight 181, a Boeing 737-230 Adv named Landshut, is on its way from the vacation island of Mallorca to Frankfurt when it is hijacked by a team of four terrorists representing the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. They demand the release of several leaders of the Red Army Faction (RAF) who are imprisoned in Germany. German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt refuses to negotiate with terrorists, aware that he is endangering not only the lives aboard the Landshut, but also that of German business leader Hanns Martin Schleyer, who is being held hostage by the RAF.
The plane makes its way through several stops to Aden in South Yemen, where the captain, Jürgen Schumann, is murdered by the hijackers. The plane continues on its way, eventually landing in Mogadishu, Somalia. As flight attendant Gabriele Dillmann and the surviving crew try their best to keep their passengers safe and calm, Colonel Ulrich Wegener leads the German federal police's newly formed counter-terrorism unit, GSG 9, in preparations to storm the Landshut.
In the night between 17 and 18 October, Schmidt gives Wegener the order to storm the plane and free the hostages. Somali ranger units create a fire as a distraction, allowing members of GSG 9 to approach the Landshut from behind. Operation "Feuerzauber" is successful, with all hostages rescued. Three hijackers are gunned down and killed, the fourth is seriously injured. One GSG 9 member and a flight attendant are injured. Schmidt is informed by phone that "the job is done."
The Red Army Faction, also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang, was a West German far-left militant group founded in 1970 and active until 1998. The RAF described itself as a communist and anti-imperialist urban guerrilla group. It was engaged in armed resistance against what it considered a fascist state. Members of the RAF generally used the Marxist–Leninist term faction when they wrote in English. Early leadership included Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin, and Horst Mahler. The West German government considered the RAF a terrorist organization.
GSG 9 der Bundespolizei, formerly Grenzschutzgruppe 9, is an elite special forces unit of the German Federal Police (Bundespolizei) to combat terrorism and violent and organized crime. In addition to its headquarters location in Sankt Augustin-Hangelar near Bonn, it has a second location in Berlin. Since 1 August 2017, it has been subordinate to the Federal Police Directorate 11. The state police (Landespolizei) maintain their own regional tactical units known as the Spezialeinsatzkommando (SEK). The GSG 9 unit is made up of approximately 400 highly trained police officers and the identities of GSG 9 members are classified. The specialised unit operates not only within Germany on a federal level, but also safeguards German interests located worldwide, such as embassy property and personnel. Alongside the KSK military special forces of the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr), the GSG 9 can also be authorized to rescue citizens abroad in hostage situations.
Berndt Andreas Baader, was a West German communist and leader of the left-wing militant organization Red Army Faction (RAF) also commonly known as the Baader-Meinhof Group.
Ulrich Klaus "Ricky" Wegener was a German police officer of the Federal Border Guard and founding member of the counter-terrorist force GSG 9.
The German Autumn was a series of events in Germany in 1977 associated with the kidnapping and murder of industrialist, businessman, and former Schutzstaffel member Hanns Martin Schleyer, president of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations (BDA) and the Federation of German Industries (BDI), by the Red Army Faction (RAF), a far-left militant organisation, and the hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 181 by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The hijackers demanded the release of ten RAF members detained at the Stammheim Prison plus two Palestinian compatriots held in Turkey and US$15 million in exchange for the hostages. The assassination on 7 April 1977 of Siegfried Buback, the attorney-general of West Germany, and the failed kidnapping and then murder of the banker Jürgen Ponto on 30 July 1977, marked the beginning of the German Autumn. It ended on 18 October, with the liberation of the Landshut, the deaths of the leading figures of the first generation of the RAF in their prison cells, and Schleyer's death.
Hans-Jürgen Wischnewski was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD).
Lufthansa Flight 181 was a Boeing 737-230C jetliner named Landshut that was hijacked on 13 October 1977 by four members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who called themselves Commando Martyr Halima. The objective of the hijacking was to secure the release of imprisoned Red Army Faction leaders in German prisons. In the early hours of 18 October, just after midnight, the West German counter-terrorism group GSG 9, backed by the Somali Armed Forces, stormed the aircraft in Mogadishu, Somalia, with 86 passengers and four of the total five crew rescued. The rescue operation was codenamed Feuerzauber. The hijacking is considered to be part of the German Autumn.
Souhaila Sami Andrawes Sayeh is a former terrorist and Lebanese member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Landshut is a city in Bavaria, Germany.
The Baader Meinhof Complex is a 2008 German drama film directed by Uli Edel. Written and produced by Bernd Eichinger, it stars Moritz Bleibtreu, Martina Gedeck, and Johanna Wokalek. The film is based on the 1985 German best selling non-fiction book of the same name by Stefan Aust. It retells the story of the early years of the West German far-left terrorist organisation the Rote Armee Fraktion from 1967 to 1977.
Nadja Uhl is a German actress.
El Al Flight 426 was an El Al passenger flight hijacked on July 23, 1968 by three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), setting off a wave of hijackings by the PFLP. Scholars have characterized the hijacking as significant in the advent of modern international air terrorism.
Gabriele von Lutzau is a German heroine and sculptor. She is remembered as the "Angel of Mogadishu" for her role in a notorious hijacking, and is also noted for her abstract beechwood sculptures. She is by marriage a member of the Russian-German Lutzau family who was ennobled in Imperial Russia.
The Hanns Martin Schleyer Foundation is a German foundation that promotes research in economics, law and cultural sciences. It was established in 1977 by the Confederation of German Employers' Associations (BDA) and the Federation of German Industries (BDI).
Jürgen Schumann was a German pilot. In 1977 he was the flight captain of the Lufthansa plane Landshut when it was hijacked. He was murdered by PLFP terrorists.
The hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 615 was an aircraft hijacking that occurred on 29 October 1972 and aimed at the liberation of the three surviving perpetrators of the Munich massacre from a West German prison.
The hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 649 was an act of terrorism committed by a Palestinian group that took place between 22 and 23 February 1972. Eventually, all hostages on board the seized Boeing 747-230B were released when the West German government paid a ransom of US$5 million.
Events in the year 1977 in Germany.
The kidnapping and murder of Hanns Martin Schleyer marked the end of the German Autumn in 1977.
Germany–Somalia relations have intensified since 2012 after the political and security situation in Somalia improved, according to information from the German Foreign Office. Germany has not had an ambassador to Somalia since 1989, and the German Ambassador in Nairobi is responsible for relations with Somalia instead.
