NCJ Number
88222
Date Published
1981
Length
17 pages
Annotation
The Red Army Faction (Baader-Meinhof group) and the Movement Second June emerged from the New Left and the Student Protest Movement of 1967, based in a commitment to violence and a leftist revolutionary posture, but the government's refusal to submit to blackmail and persistent police efforts destroyed the groups.
Abstract
In the 1960's, Federal Germany, like many other countries, experienced widespread student protests against the Vietnam war and other manifestations of what were considered to be fascist, authoritarian, and repressive government tactics deemed to be yoked to capitalist systems. Although mass student involvement in such protests waned, some few ideologues remained committed to revolutionary change, notably Gudrun Ensslin and Ulrike Meinhof. These ideologues came under the influence of Andreas Baader, who was driven by the need to challenge all authority without reference to moral values. Opposition to various institutions in Federal Germany and Europe were espoused, with the vague notion that the forceful overthrow of these institutions would usher in a new and glorious age, which was not specifically delineated. Guerilla training for the German terrorist groups was obtained under the sponsorship of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and a strategy of urban guerilla warfare was adopted. While bombings, bank robberies, and kidnappings were perpetrated in an effort to intimidate the government and the general public, the revolutionary cause espoused by the groups did not gain widespread supports, and the government did not submit to the blackmail tactics used. The careers of the terrorist leaders ended either in prison or suicide. Twenty-eight notes are provided.