The Baader Meinhof gang: This section tells its own story because it is about terrorists. Considered the most notorious urban guerrilla group, the Baader-Meinhof gang rose to its height of terror in the 70’s. It’s rain of terror on the German elite and U.S. military personnel began as early as the 1960’s. It was also referred to as the “Red Army Faction” and lead by Andreas Baader. Andreas Baader was captured and imprisoned but in 1970, during a library visit at the prison, he escaped with the help of a left-wing campaigning journalist, Ulrike Meinhof. Thus, the name they were known as during the 1970’s. With help from the Palestine Liberation Organization in Jordan, they trained on how to use a Kalashnikow (an assault rifle). In the beginning, when young West Germans expressed some sympathy for the group, many condemned them and their tactics. Their critics considered them murderous nihilists. (1*) desperate for a cause but with no political goals. In 1968 Andreas Baader set off two bombs in two Frankfurt department stores. After that 1970 visit to Jordan, the organization spent two years robbing banks and bombing buildings in Germany. After a Frankfurt shootout, Baader was captured with accomplices Jan-Carl Raspe and Hoger Meins on June 1, 1972. Baader’s girlfriend, Gudrun Ensslin was arrested around the middle of June. Luckily for the German society, member Ulrike Meinhof was found hanged in her jail cell from a rope made of towels . The gangs terror rocked West Germany and made life difficult at times for the American soldiers and their families to travel in Europe and have a normal life. And of course the terror continued for West German citizens, especially those in government or positions within the government. The trials against the members began in 1975. They are dubbed as the most expensive trials in West Germany’s history. Even after the trials, and the subsequent death of the prominent members, the terror continued. In April 1977, a chief public prosecutor named Siegfried Buback was killed in Karlsruhe by a motorcycle hit squad. Just three months later, the chief executive of Dresdner Bank, Juergen Ponto, was killed at his home in Frankfurt. After hijacking a plane full of German tourist bound to Frankfurt from Majorca, German elite commandos stormed the plane killing three of the hijackers and freeing the people aboard the plane. On hearing the news, Baader, Ensslin and Raspe, all of whom was imprisoned, committed suicide. The attacks of terror continued until the 1980’s but never again gained the strength it once had in the 1970’s. But, for service personnel of the United States there was always the possibility that the gang would target them anywhere they would gather.
Posted on: Sat, 07 Sep 2013 16:47:52 +0000