Baader-Meinhof Gang

Baader-Meinhof Gang, popular name for the West German left-wing guerrilla group the Rote Armee Fraktion (Red Army Faction), active from 1968 against what it perceived as United States imperialism. The three main founding members were Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, and Ulrike Meinhof.

The Baader-Meinhof gang robbed banks, kidnapped and assassinated business and political leaders, and raided United States military installations in West Germany during the 1970s. Members of the gang also cooperated with Palestinian terrorists, notably in the murder of the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics and the hijacking of an El Al plane in 1976. The group claimed responsibility in 1990 for the murder of Detlev Rohwedder, the government agent responsible for selling off state-owned companies of the former East German regime.

A former student activist, Baader was sentenced to life imprisonment in April 1977. He took his own life in October of that year, following the failure of the faction's hostage swap attempt at Mogadishu airport in Somalia. See also Terrorism.