by J. Smith
December 6, 1985
The Stuttgart OLG sentences RAF supporter Claudia Wannersdorfer to eight years in prison.
1986
January 1986
The RAF releases Die revolutionäre Front aufbauen (Build the Revolutionary Front), an assessment of their 1984-1985 offensive and a call for the further development of the revolutionary front in West Germany and West Europe.
January 31–February 4, 1986
The Anti-Capitalist and Anti-Imperialist Resistance in Western Europe Conference in Frankfurt, organized by RAF supporters to advance the Front concept, draws thousands from all over West Europe and around the world.
March 1986
All over West Germany there are actions against the Reinhard Hauff film, Stammheim, based on the Stefan Aust book, Der Baader-Meinhof Komplex. Both are seen as counterinsurgency pieces.
July 9, 1986
The RAF’s Mara Cagol Commando assassinates Karl Heinz Beckurts, the President of Siemens and a key figure in Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars) development, and his chauffer Eckhard Groppler.
October 10, 1986
The RAF’s Ingrid Schubert Commando assassinates Foreign Department Director Gerold von Braunmühl in Bonn for his role in restructuring West Europe into a unified imperialist bloc geared towards destabilizing the Eastern Bloc and rolling back the anti-imperialist movement in the Third World. The murder has never been solved.
November 28, 1986
Peter-Jürgen Boock, who has broken with the RAF, has his sentence of three times life plus fifteen years reduced to a single life sentence.
1987
February 25, 1987
Action Directe members Nathalie Ménigon, Joëlle Aubron, Jean-Marc Rouillan, and Georges Cipriani are arrested in a farmhouse outside Orleans.
1988
June 17, 1988
An attempted bombing of a discotheque popular with US military personnel in Rota, Spain is disrupted when a police patrol happens upon the scene.
The would-be bombers escape following a firefight. RAF member Horst Meyer and alleged RAF member Andrea Klump are sought in connection with the action.
September 1988
The RAF releases a joint statement with Italy’s Red Brigades calling for greater cooperation between guerilla groups in West Europe. Within days, there are raids across Italy, with six Red Brigades safehouses being discovered and twenty militants arrested.
September 20, 1988
The RAF’s Khaled Aker Commando attempts to assassinate Secretary of State for the Minister of Finance, Hans Tietmeyer, but their automatic pistol jams.
November 30, 1988
President Bernhard Vogel pardons former RAF members Klaus Jünschke and Manfred Grashof, both of whom have publicly distanced themselves from the RAF.
1989
February 1–May 14, 1989
Political prisoners participate in the RAF’s 10th collective hunger strike, demanding improved prison conditions and the right to communicate between themselves.
November 9, 1989
The Berlin Wall falls.
November 30, 1989
The RAF’s Wolfgang Beer Commando assassinates Deutsche Bank Chairman Alfred Herrhausen in Bad Homburg. His chauffer is also injured. The murder is never solved, and the sophistication of the bomb, containing armour piercing projectiles and triggered by a laser, leads many to suspect the involvement of the East German Stasi.
1990
June 6, 1990
Susanne Albrecht is arrested in East Berlin, in the GDR.
June 12, 1990
Inge Viett is arrested in Magdeburg, in the GDR.
June 14, 1990
Werner Lotze and Christine Dümlein are arrested in Seftenbeck, in the GDR.
Ekkehard von Seckendorff and Monika Helbing are arrested in Frankfurt an der Oder, in the GDR.
June 15, 1990
Sigrid Sternebeck and Ralf Friedrich are arrested in Schwedt, in the GDR.
June 18, 1990
Silke Maier-Witt and Henning Beer are arrested in Neubrandenberg, in the GDR.
Of the above listed arrestees, Dümlein and von Seckendorf are quickly released, the charges against them being moot due to the statute of limitations. Nonetheless, they, like all of the arrestees, with the exception of Viett, provided prosecutors with testimony against other former guerillas. All those charged, with the exception of Viett, would, as a result, receive relatively short sentences. Their testimony would be used to increase the sentences of Eva Haule, Christian Klar, Adelheid Schulz, and Sieglinde Hofmann during trials in 1994 and 1995.
July 27, 1990
The RAF’s José Manuel Sévillano Commando fails in an assassination attempt against State Secretary of the Minister of Interior Affairs, Hans Neusel. The attempted murder has never been solved.
August 1990
The final issue of the illegal RAF support newspaper Zusammen Kämpfen comes out.
October 3, 1990
Germany is officially reunited, with the German Democratic Republic being absorbed into the Federal Republic of Germany, again collectively known simply as Germany.
1991
January 16–April 12, 1991
Following the occupation of Kuwait by Iraq, the U.S. Air Force and ground troops attack Iraq, in what will become known as the first Gulf War.
February 13, 1991
The RAF machineguns the U.S. Embassy in Bonn. First they call the commando the Vincenzo Spano Commando. In a statement released on February 24, they will call it the Ciro Rizatto Commando.
April 1, 1991
The RAF’s Ulrich Wessel Commando assassinates Karsten Rohwedder, the Chairman of the Treuhandstalt, the organization responsible for privatizing industry in the former East Germany. He is shot through the window of his home in Düsseldorf by a sniper. His wife is injured by one of the three shots. In 2001, DNA evidence from hair found at the scene will implicate Wolfgang Grams, but by that time Grams is dead.
June 3, 1991
The Stuttgart OLG sentences former RAF member Susanne Albrecht, arrested in the former GDR, to twelve years in prison.
July 3, 1991
The Koblenz OLG sentences former RAF member Henning Beer, arrested in the former GDR, to 6 years in a minimum-security prison.
October 8, 1991
The Stuttgart OLG sentences Silke Maier-Witt, arrested in the former GDR, to 10 years in prison.
November 30, 1991
President Richard von Weizsäcker pardons former RAF member Verena Becker. She began cooperating shortly after her arrest.
December 23, 1991
A bus carrying Russian Jewish refugees on their way Israel is bombed in Budapest, Hungary. RAF member Horst Meyer and alleged RAF member Andrea Klump are sought in connection with the action, carried out by a fringe Palestinian guerilla group, the Movement for the Freedom of Jerusalem.
December 26, 1991
The U.S.S.R. is dissolved.
1992
January 6, 1992
The Kinkel Initiative, a government proposal for the gradual decarceration of RAF prisoners, is launched. By September of 1993, eight prisoners from the RAF and its support movement have been released: Günter Sonnenberg, Bernd Rössner, Karl-Friedrich Grosser, Claudia Wannersdorfer, Thomas Thoene, Angelica Goder, Barbel Hofmeier, and Christian Kluth. The initiative is harshly criticized by Chancellor Helmut Kohl, the BAW, the Verfassungsschutz, and the BKA Terrorism Unit.
February 24, 1992
The Stuttgart OLG sentences former RAF member Monika Helbing, arrested in the former GDR, to 7 years in prison.
March 11, 1992
The Bavaria OLG sentences former RAF member Werner Lotze, arrested in the former GDR, to 11 years in prison.
April 10, 1992
The RAF issues the Zäsurerklarung (Ceasefire Statement), also known as the April Paper, announcing a unilateral de-escalation, indicating that it will no longer assassinate leading figures of the state or industry. The paper calls for the decarc
eration of RAF prisoners who have already served lengthy sentences and for all who are ill. This paper is generally seen as a response to the Kinkel Initiative.
April 15, 1992
RAF prisoner Irmgard Möller, who has been in prison since 1972, issues a statement voicing her support to the RAF’s ceasefire decision and calling for the immediate release of two seriously ill RAF prisoners, Günter Sonnenberg and Bernd Rössner.
May 15, 1992
RAF prisoner Günter Sonnenberg is released from prison.
May 18, 1992
Spiegel publishes an interview with RAF prisoner Irmgard Möller.
June 1992
konkret publishes an interview with RAF prisoners being held in Celle, Lutz Taufer, Karl-Heinz Dellwo, and Knut Folkerts.
June 22, 1992
The Stuttgart OLG sentences former RAF members Sigrid Sternebeck and Ralf Baptist Friedrich, arrested in the former GDR, to eight-and-a-half and six-and-a-half years in prison, respectively.
June 29, 1992
The RAF releases a statement expressing their solidarity with protests being planned for the IMF World Economic Summit to take place in Munich from July 6 to July 8. In the document, also sometimes known as the June Paper, the RAF also reaffirms its April de-escalation.
July 6–8, 1992
Extremely violent protests involving tens of thousands of people greet the IMF World Economic Summit in Munich.
August 1992
The RAF releases a statement, sometimes known as the August Paper, pronouncing the end of the Front concept first developed in the May Paper of 1982 and calling for a broad-based discussion to determine the next step to be taken by the movement.
August 26, 1992
The Koblenz OLG sentences former RAF member Inge Viett, arrested in the former East Germany, to thirteen years in prison.
September 30, 1992
The RAF writes a letter to konkret regarding the June interview with the RAF prisoners in Celle.
November 3, 1992
The Stuttgart OLG reduces RAF prisoner Christian Klar’s sentence to a single life sentence.
1993
Early 1993
Attorney Hans-Christian Ströbele mediates a meeting between RAF prisoners in Celle, Karl-Heinz Dellwo, Lutz Taufer, and Knut Folkerts and the President of Daimler-Benz, Edzard Reuter and Chairman of the Central Council of Jews, Ignatz Bubis, to explore ways of preventing a new upsurge of violence in Germany. The RAF prisoners request that Reuter put pressure on the federal government.
March 9, 1993
The Düsseldorf OLG decides that as a result of the extreme gravity of his crimes, RAF prisoner Stefan Wisniewski will only be eligible for parole after twenty years.
March 30, 1993
The RAF’s Katharina Hammerschmidt Commando detonates thirty-four 200 kg bombs at a new High Security prison outside of Darmstadt shortly before it is to open, causing 123 million DM in damages and setting back the opening four years.
June 27, 1993
RAF members Wolfgang Grams and Birgit Hogefeld are lured into an ambush in Bad Kleinen by police infiltrator Klaus Steinmetz. Following a shootout, both GSG-9 agent Michael Newrzella and Wolfgang Grams lie dead. As evidence mounts of gross irregularities in all aspects of the operation, including eyewitness reports that Grams was executed on site after he had been subdued, Minister of the Interior Rudolph Seiters resigns and Attorney General Alexander von Stahl is fired.
October 18, 1993
The Stuttgart OLG sentences former RAF member Ingrid Jakobsmeier to fifteen years in prison.
October 28, 1993
RAF prisoner Brigitte Mohnhaupt, speaking for herself and fellow RAF prisoners Hanna Krabbe, Irmgard Möller, Christine Kuby, Sieglinde Hofmann, Rolf Heissler, Rolf Clemens Wagner, Eva Haule, Adelheid Schulz, Christian Klar, and Helmut Pohl, releases a statement announcing a split with the Celle prisoners and the RAF on the outside.
November 2, 1993
The RAF releases statement responding to Brigitte Mohnhaupt, requesting that the prisoners she represented reconsider their decision to break with the RAF.
November 24, 1993
The Düsseldorf OLG sentences RAF member Rolf Clemens Wagner to 12 years for the attempted assassination of Alexander Haig, largely on the basis of testimony by Werner Lotze.
1994
March 6, 1994
The RAF releases a statement assessing their relationship with police infiltrator Klaus Steinmetz and the killing of RAF member Wolfgang Grams. They again reiterate their decision not to carry out attacks against representatives of the state and industry and call for a broad-based debate to determine the next step to be taken by the movement. They also demand association for political prisoners.
April 28, 1994
The Frankfurt OLG sentences RAF member Eva Haule to life in prison.
April 29, 1994
RAF prisoner Bernd Rössner is pardoned by President Richard von Weizsäcker.
July 27–August 3, 1994
RAF prisoners Manuela Happe, Eva Haule, Rolf Heissler, Sieglinde Hofmann, Christian Klar, Hanna Krabbe, Christine Kuby, Irmgard Möller, Brigitte Mohnhaupt, Helmut Pohl, Adelheid Schulz, Rolf Clemens Wagner, and Birgit Hogefeld engage in a limited hunger strike demanding the release of Irmgard Möller who has been imprisoned since 1972. Although they refer to it as the RAF’s 11th collective hungerstrike, a number of prisoners do not participate, a further sign of the gravity of the split in the group.
December 1, 1994
RAF prisoner Irmgard Möller is released from prison.
1995
February 21, 1995
RAF prisoner Christine Kuby is released from prison.
April 25, 1995
RAF prisoner Manuela Happe is released from prison.
April 26, 1995
RAF prisoner Lutz Taufer is released from prison.
May 10, 1995
RAF prisoner Karl-Heinz Dellwo is released from prison.
September 5, 1995
On the basis of testimony from former RAF members arrested in the former GDR, the Düsseldorf OLG sentences RAF member Adelheid Schulz to life in prison in connection with the attack on U.S. General Frederick Kroesen.
September 26, 1995
On the basis of testimony from former RAF members arrested in the former East Germany, the Stuttgart OLG sentences RAF member Sieglinde Hofmann to life in prison for her role in the Schleyer kidnapping and execution.
November 13, 1995
RAF prisoner Knut Folkerts is released from prison.
1996
May 10, 1996
RAF prisoner Hanna Krabbe is released from prison.
November 5, 1996
Birgit Hogefeld is sentenced to life in prison, with no possibility of parole for fifteen years.
November 19, 1996
The Frankfurt OLG sentences PFLP (EO) member Souhaila Andrawes, the sole survivor of the Mogadishu hijacking, to twelve years in prison. After serving a year in prison in Somalia, Andrawes had moved to Oslo with her husband and daughter. Tracked down by German police in 1994, she was arrested and extradited to Germany in 1995. She serves six years of her sentence before being released due to ill health.
December 9, 1996
The left-wing daily newspaper junge Welt prints a letter from the RAF addressing the split in the RAF.
1997
January 1997
RAF prisoner Inge Viett is released from prison.
1998
March 13, 1998
Former RAF member Peter-Jürgen Boock is released from prison.
April 20, 1998
The RAF issues a document entitled Die Stadtguerilla in Form der raf ist nun Geschichte (The Urban Guerilla in the Form of the RAF is Now History) announcing its dissolution. The document is dated March 1998.
June 1, 1998
RAF prisoner Helmut Pohl, who had suffered as stroke in May, is pardoned by President Roman Herzog and released from prison.
October 19, 1998
RAF prisoner Adelheid Schulz is released from prison due to ill health.
October 27, 1998
The SPD/Green party coalition government is formed with former Jusos leader Gerhard Schröder (SPD) as Chancellor, former sponti leader Joschka Fischer (Green Party) as Minister of Foreign Affairs, and former RAF lawyer Otto Schily (SPD) as Minister of the Interior.
1999
March 1, 1999
RAF prisoner Stefan Wisniewski is released from prison. He continues to be subjected to parole conditions.
May 5, 1999
RAF prisoner Sieglinde Hofmann is released from prison. She continues to be subjected to parole conditions.
July 20, 1999
In Duisburg, an armoured car is attacked with a bazooka and robbed of an estimated one million DM. DNA evidence ties Daniela Klette and Ernst Volker Staub, RAF members still living underground, to the robbery. Another RAF member still at large, Burkhard Garweg, is also sought in connection with the robbery. The three remain at large.
September 15, 1999
In a shootout with police in Vienna, RAF member Horst Meyer is shot and killed and alleged RAF member Andrea Klump is arrested.
2001
May 15, 2001
The Stuttgart OLG sentences alleged RAF member Andrea Klump to nine years in prison in connection with an action in Spain and an action in Hungary, neither of which were carried out by the RAF. She remains in prison, but is not generally considered a RAF prisoner.
October 26, 2001
RAF prisoner Rolf Heissler is released from prison. He continues to be subjected to parole conditions.
2002
February 26, 2002
President Johannes Rau pardons RAF member Adelheid Schulz. Schulz, who was released from prison in 1998 for health reasons, remains in poor health.
2003
December 10, 2003
RAF prisoner Rolf Clemens Wagner is released from prison.
2007
January 13, 2007