Andreas Baader
| Berndt Andreas Baader | |
|---|---|
Andreas Baader, at the time of his imprisonment in Stuttgart-Stammheim.
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| Born |
6 May 1943 Munich, Nazi Germany |
| Died | 18 October 1977 (aged 34) Stuttgart, West Germany |
| Organization | Red Army Faction |
Berndt Andreas Baader (6 May 1943 – 18 October 1977) was one of the first leaders of the German left-wing militant organization Red Army Faction, also commonly known as the Baader-Meinhof Group.
Andreas Baader was born in Munich on 6 May 1943. He was the only child of historian and archivist Dr. Berndt Phillipp Baader. Berndt Baader served in the German Wehrmacht, was captured on the Russian Front in 1945, and never returned. Andreas was raised by his doting mother, aunt, and grandmother.
Baader was a high school dropout and criminal before his Red Army Faction (RAF) involvement. He was one of the few members of the RAF movement who did not attend a university.
In 1968 Baader and his girlfriend Gudrun Ensslin were convicted of the arson bombing of a department store in Frankfurt am Main to protest what they regarded as the public's "indifference to the genocide in Vietnam". DM675,000 in damage was caused; no-one was injured or killed.
After being sentenced, Baader and Ensslin fled in November 1969. They were smuggled out of West Germany by sympathizers and made the tour of the left-wing communities of France, Switzerland, and Italy before re-entering West Germany covertly.
Baader was later caught at a traffic stop for speeding on 4 April 1970. He produced a fake driver's license in the name of famous writer Peter Chotjewitz, but was placed under arrest when he failed to answer personal questions like the names and ages of Chotjewitz's children.
Ensslin masterminded an escape plan. Journalist Ulrike Meinhof and Baader's lawyers concocted a false "book deal" in which Meinhof would interview Baader. A few weeks later, in May 1970, he was allowed to meet her at the library of the Berlin Zentralinstitut outside the prison, without handcuffs but escorted by two armed guards. Meinhof was allowed to join him. Confederates Irene Goergens and Ingrid Schubert entered the library carrying suitcases, then opened a door to admit a masked gunman armed with a pistol and then drew pistols out of suitcases. They then fired shots that wounded a 64-year-old librarian, hitting him in his liver. Baader, the masked gunman, and the three women then fled through a window.
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