1971 July 25, 1971 Federal Republic of Germany

A remarkable poll by the respected Allensbach Institute is published. One in five Germans under thirty expresses “a certain sympathy” for the members of the Red Army Faction. The survey also asked “Assuming that someone from this group would ask you for shelter for the night, would you take him/her in the one night?” Five percent of all Germans said “yes,” they would harbor a member of the RAF, while and another nine percent said they would consider it, meaning that eight and a half million Germans out of 60 million expressed a willingness consider housing a member of an organization who were dedicated to the violent overthrow of their own government. The members of the RAF, hoping to expose what they saw as a fascist underbelly of the German state and cause ordinary Germans to rise up and revolt, are greatly encouraged by the poll results.