Background: Unsolved murders: The last mysteries of the RAF

For over three decades, the Red Army Faction (RAF) has murdered leading figures in the state and business. In some cases attributed to left-wing terrorists, however, it remains unclear who exactly had their finger on the trigger or detonated the bombs. An overview:

Siegfried Buback

To this day it is unclear who killed Federal Prosecutor General Siegfried Buback and two companions on the journey to the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe on April 7, 1977. When the company vehicle stops at a red light, two terrorists from a motorcycle fire at the car with automatic weapons. A faceless “Commando Ulrike Meinhof” of the second generation of the RAF claims responsibility for the crime. At the beginning of the 1980s, Brigitte Mohnhaupt, Christian Klar and Knut Folkerts were sentenced to life imprisonment, but decades later their perpetrators were questioned through new publications. The judges also assume Günter Sonnenberg was an accomplice. His signature is found on the rental agreement of the motorcycle rented under a false name. Former terrorist Verena Becker was sentenced to four years in prison in 2012 for aiding and abetting murder.

Hanns Martin Schleyer

The participants in the RAF “Siegfried Hausner Command” never revealed the identity of the shooter in the murder of employer president Hanns Martin Schleyer. Six weeks after the abduction in Cologne, Schleyer’s body was found in Alsace on October 19, 1977 with three bullets in the back of the head. Reason for the kidnapping: The second generation wants to free RAF prisoners from the founding group. The federal government is not addressing this. To support their demands, Palestinian terrorists hijacked the Lufthansa plane “Landshut”. After the anti-terrorist unit GSG 9 frees the hostages, Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe kill themselves in the Stuttgart-Stammheim prison. Stefan Wisniewski, Brigitte Mohnhaupt and Christian Klar, among others, were sentenced to life imprisonment for their involvement in the kidnapping. A late realization: The revolver used to shoot Schleyer in 1977 was also used to fire the fatal shots at Bonn’s top diplomat Gerold von Braunmühl on October 10, 1986. Here too, the perpetrator remains unclear.

Karl Heinz Beckurts

The Siemens manager was killed with a bomb near Munich on July 9, 1986. The RAF “Mara Cagol Command”, which belongs to the third generation of the terrorist group, is responsible for the crime. Who exactly was behind it still remains a mystery today. The suspected Horst Ludwig Meyer was shot dead in Vienna in 1999. According to the authorities, the unidentified Beckurts murderers were responsible for the fatal attack on the industrialist Ernst Zimmermann on February 1, 1985 in Gauting near Munich. The head of the Motor and Turbine Union dies tied up in his house after being shot several times in the back of the head. Here too, the traces of the perpetrators come to nothing.

Alfred Herrhausen

Mystery remains even after the murder of Alfred Herrhausen, the head of Deutsche Bank. Investigators still don’t know exactly who blew up his armored limousine in Bad Homburg on November 30, 1989. The manager leaves his house around 8:30 a.m. Accompanied by security guards in two other limousines, the entourage moves towards Frankfurt am Main. Suddenly there is a loud bang. Several kilos of explosives, placed on a children’s bicycle, explode. The bomb hits the top manager who is sitting in the back of the car. The “Wolfgang Beer Command” of the third generation of the RAF claimed responsibility for the attack. The investigation against a suspect, Andrea Klump, who was arrested in 1999, has to be stopped due to a lack of evidence.

Detlev Karsten Rohwedder

The head of the trust was shot dead at his desk in his Düsseldorf home on April 1, 1991. The sniper, who is still unknown today, hits the target with a rifle bullet from a distance of 63 meters. The murder weapon remains missing and the motive is still unknown to this day. The RAF “Ulrich Wessel Command” claims responsibility for the attack. Hair analyzes link Wolfgang Grams, who was shot in Bad Kleinen in 1993, with the crime. The Rohwedder assassination is considered one of the last of the RAF’s more than 30 murders. Ten of these are attributed to the third generation of the RAF, most of which remain unidentified. One reason: the command level is hardly known by name. This anonymity also led to a number of theories flourishing. This means that the unsolved murders may not even be the responsibility of the RAF.