The Rote Armee Fraktion (RAF)

This group officially was formed in 1970, with Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, Horst Mahler, and Ulrike Meinhof.  After them came two more generations of the group.  The second operated in the mid to late 1970s, and the third in the 80s and 90s.  They claimed to have been dissolved on the 20th of April, 1998.

The group began forming in the late 1960s, when student protests began.  The students were arguing against the conservative groups running the government and media at the time.  There were many people running the government that had been involved in the NAZI regime. They felt that the governement was too authoritarian. Then, peaceful protests against the government turned into riots.  The RAF then formed.  They were put in jail but granted pardon by the government.  However, the government soon revoked this pardon and only one of the group obeyed.  The rest went underground, fleeing first to France, then to Italy.  Mahler visited them there and encouraged them to come back to work as urban guerrilas.  The group was eventually caught and arrested in 1972.

The group had many things happen to them while they were in prison.  They went on hunger strikes to protest the treatment they had received.  One of the members died of hunger, Ulrike Meinhof killed herself in her cell, the rest were on trial.  The trial was one of the biggest, most controversial trials in the history of Germany.  Eventually, the rest of the group was convicted to life in prison.  They also were responsible for the hijacking of Lufthansa flight 181 on October 13, 1977.  The hijackers demanded that the 10 prisoners be released.  After the hijacking failed, the prisoners were found dead in their cells. 

I wonder, as I learn about this, how the people of Germany felt as this was going on.  Was there a fear, as there is today?  Many people in America, especially after September 11, 2001, had a great fear.  Was there this fear as they walked out of there house that the RAF could be planning another attack?  It seemed, however, that many of the population were sympathetic to what they stood for.  So was it just the government that was afraid of them?