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| Red Army Faction | |
|---|---|
| Rote Armee Fraktion | |
 | |
| Founders | Andreas Baader Ulrike Meinhof Gudrun Ensslin Horst Mahler |
| Dates of operation | 14 May 1970 – 20 April 1998 |
| Ideology | Revolutionary Socialism Anti-Fascism factions: Marxism-Leninism Maoism |
| Allies |  GDR |
| Opponents |  FRG NATO |
The Red Army Faction (German: Rote Armee Fraktion; RAF) was a communist urban guerrilla organization in West Germany. They participated in many actions against Imperialist and Capitalist forces, including the bombings of US Army bases and police stations, an attack on the West German embassy in Sweden, the killing of Nazi lawyer and federal prosecutor general Siegfried Buback and prominent Nazi Hanns-Martin Schleyer. After the imprisonment of many of their leaders, many of their allies and supporters around the world took action to try to free them, including the hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 181, in which the freedom of RAF prisoners was a demand. In order to stop these efforts, the West German government, possibly with the help of allies in Nato, murdered Ulrike Meinhof in 1976 and later on 17 October 1977 murdered Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe, with Irmgard Möller surviving. These deaths were all called suicides.[1] After the deaths of these members the Red Army Faction continued to carry out attacks until it was dissolved in 1998.[2][3]
References
- ↑ Jutta Ditfurth (2007). Ulrike Meinhof: The Biography (German: Ulrike Meinhof: Die Biographie). [PDF]
- ↑ "Rise and Fall of the Red Army Faction". Britannica.
- ↑ Kate Connolly (2008-9-10). "Terrorist chic or debunking of a myth? Baader Meinhof film splits Germany" The Guardian.