Podcast 31: Trading Terrorists for Hostages
What happens when you decide to trade imprisoned terrorists for hostages? What message are you sending to other terrorists? [display_podcast]
4-25-1975 GermanTerroristCaptured (UPI)
A virually identical article to the previous post. PDF: 4-25-1975 GermanTerroristCaptured (UPI)
4-25-1975 German Terrorist Captured (AP)
Report on the fall out following the Stockholm siege, including the conviction of June 2nd Movement member Ronald Augustin. PDF: 4-25-1975 German Terrorist Captured
4-25-1975 German Terrorists Captured After Embassy Bomb Attack (UPI)
United Press International story in the April 25, 1975 edition of the Montreal Gazette, providing coverage of the aftermath of the disastrous Red Army Faction takeover of the West German Embassy in Stockholm. As with many article of the era, it perpetuates common misconceptions about the group (such as Ulrike Meinhof being the leader). PDF: German Terrorists [read all]
Mid-Summer, 1975 West Berlin
Members of the Movement 2 June steal thousands of U-Banh (subway) tickets and freely distribute them to grateful Berliners upset at recent price hikes in the tickets. Movement 2 June members also participate in two bank raids in which they distribute chocolate kisses to the customers and bank staff. By September, however, most of the [read all]
February 27, 1975 West Berlin
At about 9:00 AM, Peter Lorenz leaves his home in the Zehlendorf district. Lorenz is the CDU (Christian Democrat Union) candidate for mayor in the West Berlin city elections to be held in three days. Less than half a mile from his house, his Mercedes is blocked by a large truck, and a Fiat rams [read all]
June 4, 1974 West Berlin
Ulrich Schmücker, a member of the June 2nd Movement, is shot by his fellow terrorists in the Grunewald, the large forested park on the Western edge of Berlin’s Dahlem neighborhood. Some believe Schmücker was executed because his fellow terrorists believed that he was an informant, others believe that he was accidentally shot during a “mock” execution [read all]
February 13, 1974 West Berlin
The trial for the bombing of Berlin’s British Yacht Club by members of the Movement 2 June begins. Verena Becker, Wolfgang Knupe, and Willi Rather are the defendants. Students and radicals riot outside the courtroom.
November 13, 1973 West Berlin
Movement 2 June member Till Meyer escapes from Castrop-Rauxel prison.
August, 1973 West Berlin
Movement 2 June member Inge Viett escapes from her prison cell by sawing through her bars with a smuggled saw.
July 27, 1973 West Berlin
Movement 2 June raids a Berlin bank, netting DM 200,000.
July 7, 1973 West Berlin
Movement 2 June member Gabi Kröcher-Tiedemann is arrested after a shootout.
December 11, 1972 West Berlin
Till Meyer of Movement 2 June is sentenced to three years in prison for the attempted murder of a policeman.
June 9, 1972 West Berlin
Baader-Meinhof Gang member (and original member of the SPK) Brigitte Mohnhaupt and Movement 2 June member Bernhard Braun are captured in Berlin.
March 29, 1972 Bielfield
Till Meyer, Movement 2 June member, is arrested after a shootout in Bielfield. No one is injured.
February 2, 1972 West Berlin
A bomb explodes in West Berlin’s British Yacht Club, killing an elderly German boatbuilder, Irwin Beelitz. Movement 2 June claims responsibility, indicating that the attack was in support of the Irish Republican Army.
December 4, 1971 West Berlin
June 2nd Movement members Georg von Rauch and Bommi Baumann are pulled over by a police officer. The cops lines them up on the war, but when the cop is momentarily distracted, von Rauch pulls out his own gun and begins shooting. The cop shoot von Rauch dead. Baumann gets away.
Early December, 1971 Federal Republic of Germany
Police dragnets nab Movement 2 June member Rolf Pohle and RAF member Marianne Herzog.
July 8, 1971 West Berlin
Two Berlin radicals, Thomas Weissbecker (loosely connected to the RAF and future members of Movement 2 June) and Georg von Rauch (soon to help form Movement 2 June), are in a Berlin courtroom, charged with beating a journalist from the hated Springer Press. Von Rauch is convicted and Weissbecker is acquitted, but in the confusion [read all]
February 27, 1969 West Berlin
American president Richard Nixon visits Berlin. Among the many Berliners waiting to greet him are Kommune I members Dieter Kunzelmann and Rainer Langhans. They attempt to bomb Nixon’s motorcade, but the bomb is discovered before it can be triggered. Kunzelmann and Langhans, apparently now members West Berlin Tupamaros (a precursor of Movement 2 June), are [read all]
September 29 1970, West Berlin
Three banks are robbed simultaneously in the early morning (a fourth bank job is canceled when the bank proves to be filled with construction workers). The robberies net over 200,000 DM. The newly-formed, yet still-unnamed “Red Army Faction” had partnered with Berlin-based revolutionary group “The June 2, Movement” to conduct the robberies.
Podcast 13: Chuck Huffman and Vicki Burkholder Interview
Chuck Huffman and Vicki Burkholder, parents of the creator of baader-meinhof.com, talk about Chuck’s experience defusing West German terrorist bombs in the early 1970s. [display_podcast]
Podcast 1: Author Jennifer Egan Interview
Celebrated author Jennifer Egan has been writing compelling fiction for years; her works appearing in the New Yorker, the New York Times and other outlets, and her celebrated novels garnering considerable critical and public acclaim. Her first novel, 1995’s The Invisible Circus, features a young American woman who travels to Europe to trace the footsteps of [read all]