The Red Army Faction, a Documentary History (24 page)
Read The Red Army Faction, a Documentary History Online
Authors: J Smith
In retrospect, ideological factors can be discerned in this change of tackâespecially in the exhortation to “Build the anti-imperialist front in the metropole!”âbut the significance of this would only become clear in the years to come. For the time being, it was enough that the RAF was back. Just carrying out an attack after â77 was a major achievement, even though in military terms it was a failure, with Haig escaping unscathed.
However, this failure would soon be compounded.
After the Haig action, the RAF was broke. The money from Darmstadt and Nuremberg had been used up renting safehouses in Brussels and Paris, as well as on food, clothing, and travel. It was decided to acquire more funds in Switzerland, with the hope that police would be caught unawares, as the RAF had never been active there in the past. At first, there were some discussions about kidnapping a Swiss businessman, however the group still did not have the capacity for such an operation.
46
Instead, the decision was made to hit a bank.
The RAF had been robbing banks since its earliest days, initially alongside the 2JM, but thereafter on its own. This was considered a relatively low-risk way of acquiring necessary funds: as Monika Berberich later explained, “It was not about redistributing wealth, it was about getting money, and we weren't going to mug grannies in the streets.”
47
Or as the RAF had put it to supporters in its 1972 document
Serve the People:
For revolutionary organizations, it mainly represents the solution to their financial problems. It makes logical sense, because there is no other solution to the financial problem. It makes political
sense, because it is an expropriation action. It makes tactical sense, because it is a proletarian action. It makes strategic sense, because it finances the guerilla.
48
This was made all the more palatable by the fact that no civilian had ever been killed in an expropriation by the West German guerilla. The 2JM had decided early on that they would try to scare bank employees into cooperating, and would potentially be open to roughing up the bank managers, but that they would not shoot people for money. On one occasion they even called off a robbery when they saw a pregnant woman enter the premises, as they feared their smoke grenade might damage her unborn child.
49
In fact, in nine years of struggle, the only person to have ever been killed during a guerilla expropriation was police officer Herbert Schoner, who was shot dead after stumbling upon the RAF robbing a bank in Kaiserslautern in 1971.
50
This long run of good luck came to an end on November 19, 1979.
On that day, four guerillas robbed the Swiss People's Bank in Zurich. After stuffing 548,000 Swiss Francs (roughly $237,000) into shopping bags, they walked out into the crowded street, hopped on bicycles, and sped off to the nearby central train station.
Right away, there was an unexpected complication, as a bank employee decided to play hero. Flagging down a car, he explained the situation and convinced the driver to take off in pursuit, apparently intending to snatch the money back. Somewhat comically, they were almost upon the guerillas, when a traffic light turned red and the car's driver screeched to a halt; he needed to be cajoled to roll slowly through the intersection, and insisted on leaning on the horn all the while. A guerilla heard the noise, and at that point realized someone was following: he turned around and shot at the car, not hitting anyone, but shattering the windshield, and thus putting an end to the pursuit.
51
The guerillas reached their destination, but things continued to go wrong when they were spotted by a cop. The result being that a firefight broke out in the train station's underground Shopville mall, during which a bullet ricocheted and struck a bystander in the neckâEdith Kletzhändler, described in all accounts as a housewife, would die almost instantly. Two policemen were also wounded, and a second
woman was shot as three guerillas forced her out of her car, which they promptly used to make their getaway.
52
Rolf Clemens Wagner was the only RAF member to be capturedâhe was found sitting on a bench not far from the mall where Kletzhändler lay dying. He offered no further resistance, and besides his weapon, police found he was carrying most of the money from the robbery.
53
He stood trial in Switzerland, charged with murder, five counts of attempted murder, bank robbery, and one count of threatening someone's life. In September 1980 he was found guilty of attempted murder and robbery.
54
He was then extradited to the FRG in 1982, where he stood accused of involvement in Schleyer's killing.
The Shopville shoot-out was more than just a snafu. For the first time, a civilian had been killed during an expropriation, and this can only have exacerbated the thoughts that some were already entertaining, that perhaps the armed path had played itself out.
55
It all marked an inauspicious end to the decade.
Shopville mall, Zurich, after the fatal firefight.
The starting point for the problem was that not enough thought had been given to our exit from the bank, so all it took was one unexpected development to create a situation where citizens felt encouraged to act on the bank's behalf. Such people also eventually mobilized the police in pursuit of the RAF group.
Up to that point, nobody had been injured. However, two police officers started shootouts in two different places in the context of which a woman passerby was shot dead and a second woman was seriously injured. However, contrary to the indictment, at no point during its escape did the RAF group intentionally shoot at civilians, not even at either of the women!
It cannot be established by the physical evidence whether the death of the woman passerby or the injuring of the woman who owned the car were caused by police bullets or bullets from the RAF group's guns. On the basis of the particular later reconstructions, there are only probabilities inferred from where people were standing and the directions of the shots. However, that does not make responsibility unclear. That lies with our action itselfâparticularly with the fact that when the skirmish with the police could no longer be avoided, weapons were used with a lack of caution, as well as to some degree with a grave recklessness that is unacceptable in such an environment. It is part of one's basic responsibility when using a weapon can no longer be avoided, that it must be done in way that does not endanger any nonparticipants.
These are essential revolutionary left principlesâand both as individuals and as an organization we must consistently abide by them, and implementing them must be part of the (self-)education of left-wing armed struggle organizations.
_____________
An excerpt from a 1992 trial statement: Christian Klar, “Die Situation der Gefangenen ist wie gehabt,”
Angehörigen Info,
September 10, 1992. This document has been translated in its entirety and is available online at
http://www.germanguerilla.com/red-army-faction/documents/92-09-klar.html
.
_____________
1
. Amnesty International,
Amnesty International's Work on Prison Conditions of Persons Suspected or Convicted of Politically Motivated Crimes in the Federal Republic of Germany: Isolation and Solitary Confinement
(London: Amnesty International, 1980), 17.
2
. “Portrait of Irmgard Möller, Imprisoned for 21 Years,” in Committee âSolidarity with the political prisoners in Germany' (ed.)
Time Is No Inexhaustible Resource
(Berlin: Committee âSolidarity with the political prisoners in Germany,' nd), 10.
3
. Jacco Pekelder, “The RAF Solidarity Movement from a European Perspective,” in Martin Klimke, Jacco Pekelder, and Joachim Scharloth (eds.),
Between Prague Spring and French May: Opposition and Revolt in Europe, 1960-1980
(New York, Oxford: Bergahn Books, 2012), 258, 260.
4
. Beatrice de Graaf (ed.),
Rode Jeugd in the Netherlands
(Leiden: 2009), 32-33.
5
. Pekelder, 260.
6
. RAF Prisoners,
Hungerstreikerklärung,
Hamburg, March 14, 1978.
7
. There were dozens of individual and small-group hunger strikes, most of which are not detailed in this study. For instance, between 1978 and 1985, Karl-Heinz Dellwo went on hunger strike twelve times, spending a total of fourteen and a half months combined on strike.
8
. As detailed in
chapter 2
, following her capture in Bulgaria, Rollnik had been placed in isolation in Cologne. See page 67-68.
9
. Moncourt and Smith Vol. 1, 474.
10
. Amnesty International (1980), 18.
11
. Gerd Klusmeyer, “23 Years of Solitary Confinement and Special Custodial Measures Against Political Prisoners in Germany,” in Committee âSolidarity with the political prisoners in Germany,' 6-7.
12
. “Interview mit den Gefangenen dpa-Besetzern im Winter 1978/79,” in Jean-Paul Marat,
Widerstand heiÃt Angriff!!: Erklärungen, Redebeiträge, Flugblätter und Briefe, 1977-1987
(Amsterdam: Bibliotheek voor Ontspanning en Ontwikkeling, 1988), 35.
13
. Associated Press, “11 Seized after Raid on Frankfurt Agency,”
European Stars and Stripes,
November 10, 1978;
Spiegel,
“Eigene Schlosser,” January 22, 1979; dpa, “Zwölf RAF-Anhänger überfielen dpa-Büro,”
Hamburger Abendblatt,
November 7, 1978.
14
. “Interview mit den Gefangenen dpa-Besetzern im Winter 1978/79” in Marat, 39.
15
.
Spiegel,
“Eigene Schlösser.” Wunschik (1997), 208-210, 225-226.
16
. In the years to come, Helga Roos, for instance, would serve years in prison due to bogus charges of being an “aboveground member” of the RAF, Peter Alexa would be arrested on a similar charge, while Ingrid Jakobsmeier would in fact join the RAF, and would be captured in 1984.
17
. rup, “Der Fall Hoppe wird das Parlament beschäftigen”
Hamburger Abendblatt,
December 1, 1978.
18
. Associated Press, “German Terrorist to Get Health Leave,”
European Stars and Stripes,
February 15, 1979.
19
. See Moncourt and Smith Vol. 1, 116-117.
20
. Hugh Mosley, “Third International Russell Tribunal on Civil Liberties in West Germany,”
New German Critique
14 (Spring 1978): 181-182.
21
. dpa, “Judos halten am Russell-Tribunal fest,”
Hamburger Abendblatt,
January 16, 1978.
22
. dpa, “Gegen-Kongreà zum Russell-Tribunal geplant,”
Hamburger Abendblatt,
March 29, 1978. Some of those involved in this counter-conference included Max Frisch, Jan Amery, Eugen Kogon, Günter Grass, and Carola Stern.
23
. Personal communication, May 25, 2012.
24
. asd, “Besetzte Kirche mit Plakaten beklebt,”
Hamburger Abendblatt,
March 30, 1978.
25
. For instance, Helmut Pohl's wife Gisela Pohl, alleged RAF supporters Dag Maaske, Karin Avdic, and Andrea Klump, and future RAF members Werner Lotze, Christine Dümlein, and Birgit Hogefeld all carried out work related to the Tribunal (Wunschik [1997], 381).
26
. Amnesty International,
Amnesty International Report 1980
(London: Amnesty International Publications, 1980), 273-274. For more on the Info System, see Moncourt and Smith Vol. 1, 344, 347.
27
. Amnesty International,
Amnesty International Report 1979
(London: Amnesty International Publications, 1979), 131.
28
. Amnesty International,
Amnesty International Report 1980,
275.
29
. To quote
Time Is No Inexhaustible Resource:
“Absolutely everything about and around this trial was illegal: although her wounds had not yet even properly healed she was dragged to the court bunker in Stammheim with force. It was impossible for her to partake in the proceedings: her complete records were at the federal office for months. Since she was secluded from all political informations [sic] and needed all her strength to resist the daily terror in the prison of Stammheim she could not prepare herself for trial.” Tried on the basis of statements made by Gerhard Müller, who had broken from the RAF during the 1974-1975 hunger strike, she would receive a sentence of life plus fifteen years. (Committee âSolidarity with the political prisoners in Germany,' 11)
30
. Amnesty International,
Amnesty International Report 1980,
275.
31
.
Pressemitteilung, Berlin, 20.6.79.
32
. Wunschik (1997), 304-309, 311.
33
.
Gemeinsame Erklärung anläÃlich des Todes von Elisabeth von Dyck,
May 8, 1979.
