B aader‐ M einhof G roup ( OR B aader‐ M einhof G ang)

Abstract

Abstract The Baader‐Meinhof Group (or Gang) was one of postwar West Germany's most violent and prominent left‐wing militant groups and its beginnings can be traced to the 1960s. Over the course of its existence, the Gang consisted of approximately 30 dedicated members (including leaders such as Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof, Gundrun Ensslin, and Jan‐Carl Raspe) and up to 200 supporters (including such prominent individuals as politicians Horst Mahler and Silke Maier‐Witt). In the 1980s, reports surfaced that the West German Red Army Faction (RAF), the second generation of the Baader‐Meinhof Gang, had sought to acquire biological weapons. Coinciding with these claims were reports in both German and French newspapers that French Police had raided a Paris RAF safe house in October 1980, and discovered vials containing Clostridium botulinum (the bacteria for producing botulinum toxi) and a basic biological laboratory. All further investigations into the incidents and those persons reportedly involved in the case turned up nothing, which suggests the incident was fabricated and never occurred. The terrorist activities of successive generations of RAF members continued until 1998, when the RAF sent a formal communiqué to the Reuters wire service declaring the group had officially disbanded.