Germany > Cinema > Topic Index > Terrorism Update > Alfred Herrhausen
The RAF and Baader-Meinhof
Before and after September 11, 2001
The events of September 11, 2001 have given the word “terrorism” an entirely new meaning. As more is learned about the incredibly barbaric acts of that day, and as stories about terrorist strikes around the world dominate the news, it seems even more important than before to know the history of terrorism. There was also a German connection to the horrific attacks in New York and Washington, DC. Several of the alleged Arab attackers lived in Hamburg and had other German contacts. But then they also lived quietly in Florida while preparing for their deadly project.
As I re-read the words below, written years before the 9/11 attacks, it struck me that, although we are now in a new age of terrorism, there is something to be learned from the previous varieties. The root cause is still fanaticism; only the level of killing and destruction has changed.
While Germany has had its home-grown terrorists, most notably the RAF (Red Army Faction, see below), terrorism in Germany is not always “German.” When the Americans still had a large military presence in Germany, they sometimes became the target of terrorists. The worst example is the 1986 bombing of the La Belle nightclub in Berlin that was frequented by U.S. soldiers stationed in the city. Although the Libyans were at the top of the suspect list, it now seems there was also complicity by the former East German government in helping carry out that deadly attack. In October 1996 several Palastinians were arrested in that case.
The deadly 1972 anti-Israeli terrorist attack at the Munich Olympics was also carried out by non-Germans. (See Steven Spielberg’s film Munich for one view.) Other more recent terrorist incidents—airline office or consulate bombings and the like—have resulted when conflicts between foreign resident groups errupted into violence. The Kurds (PKK workers party) and Turks in Germany have created several recent disturbances in their ongoing power struggles.
Another example of “foreign” terrorism occurred in Osnabrück in northern Germany. This part of Germany was the British Zone following World War II, and some 5,000 British troops are still stationed there. In the last week of June 1996 suspected Irish Republican Army (IRA) terrorists left behind a three-meter-wide crater from an explosion directed at British soldiers and facilities in Osnabrück. No one was hurt, but there was considerable property damage to the barracks, a Catholic church, and surrounding residences. The attackers used home-made mortar grenades in carrying out the shelling of the British base. A right-hand drive vehicle with fake markings was later found and is believed to have been used by the terrorists. This was not the first such attack against the British in Osnabrück. In 1989 a similar assault was carried out by the IRA.
Fortunately, terrorist assaults in Germany tend to be against targets such as foreign military installations, foreign businesses, and locations that are rarely frequented by travelers. Although there was a bomb attack at the Frankfurt airport terminal years ago, the armed guards that travelers often notice there and other security measures that go undetected have so far prevented any repeat.
In Austria in recent years, terrorism has had a definite rightest tinge. Attacks have taken the form of letter bombs addressed to prominent people, including the mayor of Vienna. A pipe bomb killed several Roma gypsies in 1996 in the Austrian province of Carinthia (Kärnten). The provincial police were slow to find the perpetrators of any of these attacks.
The “Terrorism” chapter in The German Way explores the topic of German terrorism in more detail, especially the so-called Rote Armee Fraktion or RAF (Red Army Faction). The German student rebellions of the 1960s (led by Rudi Dutschke) and their "antiautoritär" attitudes helped foster a unique brand of German anti-establishment terrorism that continued sporadically into the 1990s. Names like Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, the leaders of the notorious Baader-Meinhof gang (also known as the RAF) are still vivid in the German memory. In recent years, incidents like a police shoot-out with suspected RAF terrorist Wolfgang Grams, and the assassinations of prominent Germans such as banker Alfred Herrhausen (1989) and Treuhand head Detlev Rohweder (1991) have kept the memories all too fresh. The possible release or parole of imprisoned RAF members was particularly disturbing to many Germans in the late 1990s. The book also touches on something that is perhaps of even more concern: the wave of right-wing, neo-Nazi terrorism in Austria and Germany in recent years. — For more about the Baader-Meinhof gang, the Herrhausen car-bombing, and other terrorist information, see the links below.
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Related Pages
This Site
- Alfred Herrhausen, a Deutsche Bank director, became a terrorist victim in 1989.
- The German Way book’s “Terrorism” chapter explores this issue in more detail. (Baader-Meinhof, RAF, Rudi Dutschke, Wolfgang Grams; rightist terror, etc.) - From Amazon.com.
- Famous Germans, Austrians, Swiss - Includes lesser-known people
The Web
- Baader-Meinhof Gang - Richard Huffmann’s site about this infamous German terrorist group and German terrorism in general offers an “extensive exploration of '70s German terrorism.”
- Andreas Baader biography from DHM (in German).
- The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008) - Official site for this 2008 German film
- Black Box BRD (2001) is a German movie about the RAF, Germany in the 1980s and Alfred Herrhausen.
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