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Today marks the anniversary of Andreas Baader being freed from prison by communists led by Ulrike Meinhof. The action carried out on May 14, 1970 is considered the founding moment of the RAF (Rote Armee Fraktion). Baader had been sentenced to prison alongside Gudrun Ensslin, who would later become one of the RAF’s founders, and two comrades for carrying out arson attacks on two department stores in Frankfurt as a protest against the Vietnam War. Meinhof and her group obtained permission to meet Baader in prison under the pretext of conducting “research.” Carrying silenced weapons and disguised with wigs, the group overpowered a staff member, exchanged fire with police, and escaped by jumping out of a window. The RAF published its first statement on June 5, 1970. In the declaration, they announced their intention to win over the “potentially revolutionary sections of the people” and to “build the Red Army.” With its position paper titled “The Concept of the Urban Guerrilla,” the RAF introduced a strategy of armed communist urban struggle that would resonate internationally. The emergence of the RAF laid the foundation for an armed struggle against the West German state that would last for nearly thirty years. In the shadow of global radical uprisings and the country’s nazi past, the organization received significant support from sections of the population. The group mainly targeted NATO and the West German state in its attacks. One of its most well known actions was the kidnapping and killing of former nazi SS officer and businessman Hanns Martin Schleyer. In 1998, the RAF announced its dissolution and stated that 26 of its own members had died throughout its existence.

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