Left-wing extremism: German police step up search for former RAF terrorists

Times of News

8 years ago

After decades of searching for three former members of the leftist Red Army Faction (RAF) militant group, German police published new videos and photos of the suspects on Monday in the hopes of getting a concrete lead.

Ernst-Volker Staub, Burkhard Garweg and Daniela Klette are suspected of carrying out nine robberies in northern Germany after years hiding from authorities.

Read more: The legacy of the 1977 German Autumn of left-wing terror

Police released these photos of Burkhard Garweg (L) and Ernst-Volker Staub (R)

Lower Saxony’s state criminal police office circulated videos which allegedly depict 63-year-old Staub and 49-year-old Garweg carrying out an armed robbery at a supermarket in the northern German town of Hildesheim last May.

Another video shows the two men riding a bus in the city of Osnabrück, with police drawing attention to the types of bags the men were carrying with them. Police did not provide any updated images of 59-year-old Klette.

One of the police videos shows Garweg (front) getting on a bus with Staub (behind) carrying heavy bags

The Lower Saxony police said that although the suspects could still be in Germany, the possibility that they may be hiding in another European country “could not be ruled out.”

They said the trio could be in the Netherlands, Italy, France or Spain, using their former leftist ties to evade police.

Read more: Germany: Terror casualty Hanns Martin Schleyer – sacrificed by the state?

Ernst-Volker Wilhelm Staub, Daniela Klette and Burkhard Garweg

String of robberies

The total haul from the robberies, which took place between 2011 and 2016, is estimated to be worth hundreds of thousands of euros.

The group tended to mostly target grocery stores, although businesses and armored cars were robbed as well.

Police said the ex-RAF members most recent robbery took place in a central German town last June where two men and a woman robbed an armored car while wielding automatic weapons and a bazooka.

After three decades of carrying out a campaign of bombings, assassinations, kidnappings and bank robberies across Germany, the RAF disbanded in 1998.

Films about far-left German terrorist group RAF

The harsh reality on the big screen

Whether it was the murder of business executive and industry representative Hanns-Martin Schleyer, the early RAF court trials or the hijacking of a Lufthansa airplane, the far-left militant group Red Army Faction (RAF) brought a wave of terror onto West Germany in the 1970s. Their actions have since inspired a number of filmmakers.

Films about far-left German terrorist group RAF

Collateral damage

In “The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum,” a young woman played by Angela Winkler has an affair with an alleged terrorist, drawing the attention of the police, the judiciary system and the press. The 1975 film by Volker Schlöndorrf, based on a book by Heinrich Böll, is a fictional story based on the left-wing terrorism that took place in Germany in the 1960s and 1970s.

Films about far-left German terrorist group RAF

11-part reflection of the times

“‘Germany in Autumn’ is not a ‘good’ film, but an important one,” wrote Die Zeit. The 1978 film, comprised of 11 episodes, brought together top German directors including Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Volker Schlöndorff. Reflecting the socio-political climate of West Germany in the 1970s, this film was also based on a work by Nobel Prize-winning author Heinrich Böll.

Films about far-left German terrorist group RAF

A question of violence

“Knife in the Head,” starring Bruno Ganz as Dr. Hoffmann, was a 1978 blockbuster in West Germany. During a police raid, he is shot in the head but survives. But is he a victim of police brutality or terrorism? No one seems to know – not even Hoffmann, who loses his memory in the shooting.

Films about far-left German terrorist group RAF

Sisters on the front lines

Margarethe von Trotta’s 1981 film “Marianne and Juliane” is a fictionalized account based on the biographies of two real-life sisters and pastor’s daughters, Christiane and Gudrun Ensslin. Both are active in politics. While one is a quiet pragmatist, the other joins the RAF and is later found dead in her prison cell. The film helped von Trotta make her international breakthrough.

Films about far-left German terrorist group RAF

A 192-day trial

About 10 years after the Stammheim trial of RAF co-founders Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, filmmaker Reinhard Hauff devoted a new film to the subject of RAF terrorism. Based on authentic protocols, “Stammheim” (1986) reconstructs the 192-day trial in 1975. The narrative is limited to the protocol reproduction and does not include any commentary.

Films about far-left German terrorist group RAF

Life after RAF?

“The State I Am In” is a 2000 film by Christian Petzold about life after being part of the RAF. A couple who defied the German state in the 1970s lives underground with their daughter for years out of fear of being caught. While the parents are plagued by paranoia, the daughter decides to break out of hiding.

Films about far-left German terrorist group RAF

Crossing borders

Another story of life in hiding, this time in the former East Germany, is Volker Schlöndorff’s “The Legend of Rita.” In the film from 2000, left-wing terrorists go underground in East Germany in the 1970s with the help of the Stasi. After German reunification, their cover is blown and they are shot and killed while trying to escape. Several RAF members really did attempt to hide in East Germany.

Films about far-left German terrorist group RAF

A true story of two deaths

The documentary film released in 2001 by director Andres Veiel, “Black Box BRD” offers a counter-narrative in which surprising parallels open up. On the one side there is Alfred Herrhausen, spokesperson for Deutsche Bank’s board of directors, who was murdered by the RAF. On the other side is RAF member Wolfgang Grams, whose violent death also raises questions.

Films about far-left German terrorist group RAF

The Baader-Meinhof Complex

Perhaps the best-known film about the RAF, “The Baader-Meinhof Complex” (2008) provides the terrorist group’s back story and their actions based on a book of the same name written by Stefan Aust. The film received mixed reviews, with some critics claiming it mystified the RAF – in part due to a star cast including Moritz Bleibtreu as Andreas Baader and Martina Gedeck as Ulrike Meinhof.

Films about far-left German terrorist group RAF

The lawyers behind the far-left

In “Die Anwälte – Eine deutsche Geschichte” (The Lawyers – A German Story) from 2009, the careers of Otto Schily, Hans-Christian Ströbele and Horst Mahler are traced from their days as attorneys for the left-wing political opposition in the 1970s to the present. Schily (right) became interior minister; Ströbele (left) joined the Greens party; Mahler is a right-wing extremist and Holocaust denier.

Films about far-left German terrorist group RAF

A complex love triangle

Andres Veiel made his feature film debut in 2011, in “If Not Us, Who?” The story of an emotional and sexual love triangle follows RAF co-founder Gudrun Ensslin and Bernward Vesper, son of a Nazi poet, as they fall in love, get married and have a child. But then Ensslin leaves the family and follows Andreas Baader into the RAF underground.

Author: Anna Seibt (kbm, ct)