by J. Smith
April 10, 1978
The trial of 2JM members Ralf Reinders, Fritz Teufel, Ronald Fritzsch, Gerald Klöpper, Andreas Vogel, and Till Meyer in connection with the Drenkmann assassination and the Lorenz kidnapping begins in West Berlin under Judge Geus, the same judge who acquitted police officer Karl-Heinz Kurras in the shooting of Benno Ohnesorg. Reinders, Teufel, and Fritzsch assault their court-appointed attorneys.
April 26, 1978
The Stuttgart OLG sentences Günter Sonnenberg to two life terms in prison.
May 11, 1978
RAF member Stefan Wisniewski is arrested at Orly Airport in Paris. He is in possession of a letter from Karl-Heinz Dellwo, a prisoner from the RAF, and forty capsules of narcotics for RAF member Peter-Jürgen Boock.
May 12, 1978
RAF members Sieglinde Hofmann, Brigitte Mohnhaupt, Rolf Clemens Wagner, and Peter-Jürgen Boock are detained in Yugoslavia.
May 27, 1978
Two armed women pretending to be attorneys and calling themselves the Nabil Harb Commando break 2JM member Till Meyer out of Moabit Prison in West Berlin. Plans to break 2JM member Andreas Vogel out at the same time are thwarted.
June 1, 1978
The law establishing that meetings between political prisoners and their attorneys will take place through a glass partition comes into force.
June 5, 1978
2JM member Klaus Viehmann is arrested in West Berlin.
June 8, 1978
Gerhart Baum (FDP) replaces Werner Maihofer as minister of the interior.
June 21, 1978
2JM members Till Meyer, Gabriele Rollnick, Gudrun Strumer, and Angelika Goder are arrested by heavily armed West German police in Varna, Bulgaria. Bulgarian police do not intervene and the four are flown back to West Germany.
June 27, 1978
2JM members Inge Viett, Regina Nicolai, and Ina Siepmann are detained in Prague, Czechoslovakia. After several days, the East German MfS intervenes to gain their release.
July 10, 1978
The Hamburg OLG sentences attorney Kurt Groenewold to two years’ probation and a fine of 75,000 DM for supporting a criminal organization.
July 25, 1978
In what will come to be known as the Celle Hole scandal, intelligence agents blow a hole in the wall of Celle prison in an effort to break Sigurd Debus, a captured guerilla, but not a RAF member, out of prison in the hope that he will establish contact with the underground while under police surveillance.
August 1978
Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Khaddafi travels to the FRG for medical treatment; he meets with Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and agrees to deny sanctuary to members of the West German guerilla, and to pressure the PLO to do the same.
RAF members Christian Klar, Heidi Schulz, and Willy Peter Stoll narrowly escape police after chartering a helicopter to check out possibilities for a prison break.
August 4, 1978
RAF member Wolfgang Beer is released from prison.
September 6, 1978
RAF member Willy Peter Stoll is shot dead by police in a Chinese restaurant in Düsseldorf.
September 21, 1978
Karl-Heinz Dellwo begins a hunger and thirst strike demanding transfer to another prison and integration into the general prison population.
September 24, 1978
In a shootout in a wooded area outside of Dortmund, police officer Hans-Wilhelm Hansen is killed and RAF member Michael Knoll suffers fatal injuries, dying on October 8.
Angelika Speitel is injured and arrested. Werner Lotze manages to escape.
October 1978
Prisoners from the RAF being held in Holland, Knut Folkerts, Gert Schneider, and Christof Wackernagel, go on hunger strike; the Dutch state secretary of justice responds by extraditing the three to the FRG.
November 1, 1978
RAF members allegedly shoot and fatally injure Dutch border guards Dionysius de Jong and Johannes Goemans at the Kerkade border crossing in Holland.
November 6, 1978
Eleven people calling themselves the “Willy Peter Stoll and Michael Knoll Commando” are arrested after occupying the offices of the deutsche presse-agentur (dpa) in Frankfurt in an attempt to send out a message about the prisoners’ conditions, especially those of Werner Hoppe and Karl-Heinz Dellwo. The eleven will receive one-year prison sentences as a result of this occupation.
November 17, 1978
When the West German government refuses to exchange them for eight exiled Croat fascists being held in Germany, Yugoslav authorities release RAF members Sieglinde Hofmann, Brigitte Mohnhaupt, Rolf Clemens Wagner, and Peter-Jürgen Boock, who were arrested on May 12. They depart to the Middle East.
December 14, 1978
The Stuttgart OLG sentences Volker Speitel to three years and two months in prison and Hans-Joachim Dellwo to two years in prison for supporting a terrorist organization. Both decide to cooperate with the police in exchange for reduced sentences, new identities, and relocation to another country.
December 15, 1978
The International Investigatory Commission into the Death of Ulrike Meinhof releases its findings, which indicate that Meinhof was dead before being hanged.
1979
January 1979
The Russell Tribunal holds a second round of hearings, this time addressing political censorship, prison conditions, and the power wielded by the Verfassungsschutz in the FRG.
The beginning of the “second oil shock.”
Representatives of the PLO, including the organization’s security chief Ali Hassan Salameh, meet with West German officials in Austria, hammering out an agreement to cooperate to prevent guerilla attacks in Western Europe and to help locate members of the RAF abroad.
January 16, 1979
The Shah of Iran flees the country; the monarchy will collapse in the coming weeks as rebel forces overwhelm troops loyal to the old regime.
January 22, 1979
Ali Hassan Salameh, PLO security chief and liaison with the CIA, is assassinated by the Mossad in Beirut.
February 1979
Amnesty International sends a Memorandum on Prison Conditions of Persons Suspected or Convicted of Politically Motivated Crimes in the FRG deploring the ongoing use of isolation on political prisoners.
February 8, 1979
Werner Hoppe, whose health has been seriously damaged by years of isolation, is released from prison on compassionate grounds.
February 16, 1979
The Stuttgart LG sentences attorney Klaus Croissant to two and a half years in prison and four years of Berufsverbot for supporting a terrorist organization.
March 31, 1979
Days after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in the United States, 100,000 people demonstrate in Hannover against the Gorleben nuclear waste disposal facility.
April 20, 1979
More than seventy prisoners participate in the seventh collective hunger strike, demanding the end of isolation, the application of the minimum guarantees of the Geneva Convention, and the release of Günter Sonnenberg.
May 2, 1979
The Hamburg OLG sentences RAF member Christine Kuby to life in prison.
May 4, 1979
RAF member Elisabeth von Dyck is shot in the back by the police in Nuremberg, dying instantly.
Margaret Thatcher becomes Conservative prime minister of the United Kingdom.
May 31, 1979
The Heidelberg LG sentences Irmgard Möller to life in prison for her role in the RAF’s May 1972 offensive.
June 1979
The Internationale Kommission zum Schutz der Gefangenen (IKSG) evolves out of several parallel prisoner support initiatives, including the International Investigatory Commission into the Death of Ulrike Meinhof, the remnants of the Committees Against Torture, and the FRG Relatives Committee. The IKSG will fill the void left by the IVK, which had essentially been forced to disband by the repression that followed the German Autumn.
June 6, 1979
M
onika Berberich, Angelika Goder, Gabriele Rollnik, and Gudrun Stürmer, announce they are escalating to a thirst strike, calling for Irmgard Möller to be immediately granted association.
June 9, 1979
RAF member Rolf Heißler is shot in the head without warning and arrested in Frankfurt.
June 15, 1979
Amnesty International contacts the Baden Württemberg and federal authorities about reports that the hunger strike has reached a critical stage for a number of prisoners, especially Irmgard Möller.
June 25, 1979
The RAF’s Andreas Baader Commando attempts to assassinate the NATO supreme allied commander, U.S. General Alexander Haig.
June 26, 1979
Prisoners from the RAF call off their hunger strike.
July 17, 1979
President Anastasio Somoza of Nicaragua is overthrown by the Sandinistas and flees to Miami, where he is denied entry by President Jimmy Carter. He finally receives asylum in Paraguay.
September 25, 1979
RAF member Helmut Pohl is released from prison.
November 19, 1979
RAF members Christian Klar, Rolf Clemens Wagner, Henning Beer, and Peter-Jürgen Boock rob a bank in Zurich of an estimated 548,000 Swiss francs. Making their getaway, they shoot two police officers, and passer-by Edith Kletzhändler is killed by a ricocheting bullet. Another civilian is shot. Rolf Clemens Wagner is arrested in Zurich later the same day.
November 30, 1979
RAF member Angelika Speitel is sentenced to life in prison.
December 10, 1979
NATO agrees to deploy medium-range Cruise and Pershing II missiles in Europe.
December 24, 1979
Former student leader and Green Party founder Rudi Dutschke drowns in his bath in Århus, Denmark, after suffering a seizure as a result of brain damage sustained when he was shot in the head on April 11, 1968.
Soviet troops enter Afghanistan.
1980
An interview with RZ representatives addressing the antinuclear struggle is published.
January 4, 1980
U.S. President Carter suspends ratification of SALT II.
January 23, 1980
U.S. President Carter declares the oil crisis to be the “moral equivalent of war” and expounds the “Carter Doctrine,” declaring that “Any attempt by an outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.”
January 31, 1980
On the basis of testimony supplied by former RAF supporters Volker Speitel and Hans-Joachim Dellwo, the Stuttgart OLG sentences attorneys Arndt Müller and Armin Newerla to four years and eight months and three years and six months respectively for smuggling weapons and explosives into Stammheim.
February 1980
Christine Kuby, Christa Eckes, Inga Hornstein, Anne Reiche, and Brigitte Asdonk are all strip searched and moved to a new high-security unit in Lübeck-Lauerhof. The women respond by going on hunger strike, demanding their transfer out of the dead wing.
February 6, 1980
The America House in Frankfurt is occupied in solidarity with the prisoners from the RAF.
March 4, 1980
The roof of the America House in Hamburg is occupied in solidarity with the prisoners, especially the women at Lübeck-Lauerhof.
May 5, 1980
2JM members Ingrid Barabaß and Regina Nicolai, RAF member Sieglinde Hofmann, and two other Germans (Karola Magg and Karin Kamp-Münnichow) are arrested in Paris. They are immediately placed in strict isolation in Fleury-Mérogis prison.
May 6, 1980
Massive rioting occurs against a military swearing-in ceremony in the city of Bremen.
May 16, 1980
The America House in West Berlin is occupied in solidarity with the prisoners from the RAF.
June 1980
Der Minister und der Terrorist (The Minister and the Terrorist), a book-length conversation between Federal Minister of the Interior Gerhart Baum (FDP) and former RAF member Horst Mahler is released.
June 2, 1980
The 2JM members remaining at large release a communiqué announcing the organization’s dissolution and merger with the RAF. Some 2JM members in prison will release a document distancing themselves from this fusion later in the month, but the 2JM will never claim responsibility for another action.
July 11, 1980
Ingrid Barabaß, Karin Kamp-Münnichow, Karola Magg, Regina Nicolai, and Sieglinde Hofmann are extradited from France to the FRG.
July 12, 1980
The Paris offices of the Bundesbahn, the West German railway company, are bombed in protest against the previous day’s extraditions. Jean Paul Gérard, Michel Lapeyre, and Frédéric Oriach of the NAPAP are arrested shortly afterwards.
July 25, 1980
RAF members Juliane Plambeck, formerly of the 2JM, and Wolfgang Beer are killed in a traffic accident outside of the town of Unterriexingen.
July 31, 1980
The Düsseldorf OLG sentences RAF member Knut Folkerts to life in prison for three murders.
August 25, 1980
Sixteen-year-old Olaf Ritzmann is hit by a tram while fleeing a police attack on a demonstration against an appearance by CSU leader Franz Josef Strauß in Hamburg. He will die of his injuries four days later.
September 1980
The first meeting of Women Against Imperialist War is held in Hamburg.
September 5, 1980
The Düsseldorf OLG sentences RAF members Christoph Wackernagel and Gert Schneider to fifteen years in prison for attempted murder and membership in a terrorist organization.
September 12, 1980
NATO generals seize control of Turkey in a coup d’état. Over 600,000 people will soon be arrested, most will be tortured, and hundreds will be sentenced to death.
September 17, 1980
A Sandinista commando assassinates ousted President Anastasio Somoza in Paraguay, where he had received asylum.
September 26, 1980
The Düsseldorf OLG sentences RAF member Rolf Clemens Wagner to life in prison.
October 1980
Susanne Albrecht, Werner Lotze, Christine Dümlein, Monika Helbing, Ekkehard von Seckendorff-Gudent, Sigrid Sternebeck, Ralf Baptist Friedrich, and Silke Maier-Witt leave the RAF. They are provided with new identities and sanctuary in East Germany.
NATO Review publishes an article by Paul Johnson, an advisor to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, declaring that governments must not concede “to terrorist convicts the privileged status of political prisoners,” or yield “to demands… for official enquiries, or international investigations, into alleged ill-treatment of terrorist suspects or convicts.”
October 5, 1980
Helmut Schmidt is reelected chancellor; Social Democrats continue to rule West Germany in coalition with the Free Democratic Party.
November 4, 1980
Republican Ronald Reagan wins the U.S. presidential election.
December 12, 1980
A squatters’ demonstration in West Berlin evolves into a major riot, with over one hundred arrests.
1981
At some point during the year, Verena Becker begins cooperating with the Verfassungsschutz. She will inform the secret police that Knut Folkerts could not have been the shooter in the Buback assassination, information that remains suppressed for decades.
January 19, 1981
Lawyer Hans-Christian Ströbele receives a suspended sentence for supporting a terrorist organization.
January 20, 1981
Ronald Reagan is sworn in as president of the United States. Alexander Haig will be his first secretary of state.
January 22, 1981
RAF defector Peter-Jürgen Boock is arrested in Hamburg.
February 6–April 16, 1981
More than 100 political prisoners participate in the eighth col
lective hunger strike of prisoners from the RAF, demanding association, treatment in accord with the Geneva Convention, and the release of seriously ill prisoner Günter Sonnenberg.
March 1–October 3, 1981
Irish Republican political prisoners embark upon a hunger strike. By the time it is called off, ten of their number will be dead.
March 4, 1981
Members of the FRG Relatives Committee occupy the offices of Spiegel magazine, in an attempt to force the media to begin reporting on the hunger strike.
March 8, 1981
On International Women’s Day, Women Against Imperialist War march on Lübeck-Lauerhof prison in support of the prisoners.
March 13, 1981
The first national squatters’ congress takes place in Münster.
March 15, 1981
A group of West German doctors signs an open letter supporting the prisoners’ demands and condemning isolation conditions for political prisoners and force-feeding.
March 23–29, 1981
During Women’s Week, 300 women march on NDR, a public broadcaster, to call attention to the hunger strike.
March 31, 1981
Following public disagreements with Minister of the Interior Gerhart Baum, Horst Herold resigns as head of the BKA.
April 16, 1981
The hunger strike is called off in response to a government guarantee that prison conditions will be improved. Hours later the news comes through that Sigurd Debus, a political prisoner participating in the hunger strike, died of a brain hemorrhage as a result of being force-fed. As news of his death reaches the streets, rioting breaks out in West Berlin. There will be numerous retaliatory bombings and protests throughout the FRG in the weeks to come.
August 4, 1981
French police officer Francis Violleau is shot and seriously injured in a confrontation with Inge Viett in Paris. Viett is one of the 2JM members who had joined the RAF when the organizations fused.
August 26–September 19, 1981
The Tuwat Conference is held in West Berlin.
August 31, 1981
The RAF’s Sigurd Debus Commando bombs the headquarters of the U.S. Air Force in Ramstein injuring twenty people and causing 7.2 million DM in damage.
