Socialist Patients Collective Gerhard Müller

Gerhard Miller was the bête noire of the Red Army Faction; a loyal member who later testified against the group during their spectacular trial on the grounds of Stammheim prison in Stuttgart.

Müller was born in 1948, in Saxony West Germany. In the late sixties he was an active participant and follower of the student movement, and later joined the Socialist Patients Collective in Heidelberg.

As with many other members of the SPK, Müller went underground and joined the RAF in 1971.

On October 22, 1971, Hamburg policeman Norbert Schmid was shot and killed during a shootout. Almost all accounts and eyewitnesses indicated that Müller was the shooter; Schmid was the very first murdered victim of the Red Army Faction.

Müller was arrested the following year along with Ulrike Meinhof at a Hannover safehouse.

Müller was never tried for the murder of Schmid; and was ultimately convicted on the lesser charge of membership in a terrorist organization. Müller clearly was given preferential treatment in exchange for testifying against the other members of the RAF at the Stammheim trial in 1976, though the nature of the deal he received has never been publicly released. Müller testified extensively about the inner workings of the RAF during the trial.

Müller was released from prison in 1979. Some claim that following his release Müller was given a new identity in the United States along with $500,000 to start a new life, though there is little to substantiate this claim. Müller’s former lawyer claimed in 2007 that he was now dead.