The kidnapping and murder of Hanns Martin Schleyer was one of the left-wing terrorist attacks called

German Autumn The German Autumn () refers to the period and political atmosphere in the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) during September and October 1977. This period was marked by a series of attacks by the Red Army Faction (RAF), a far-left mili ...

in 1977. German industrial leader and former

Nazi SS The ''Schutzstaffel'' (; ; SS; also stylised with SS runes as ''ᛋᛋ'') was a major paramilitary organisation under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II. It bega ...

officer

Hanns Martin Schleyer Hans "Hanns" Martin Schleyer (; 1 May 1915 – 18 October 1977) was a German business executive, employer and industry representative, Schutzstaffel, Nazi SS officer, and Lobbying, lobbyist. He served as president of two powerful commercial org ...

was

kidnap Kidnapping or abduction is the unlawful abduction and confinement of a person against their will, and is a crime in many jurisdictions. Kidnapping may be accomplished by use of force or fear, or a victim may be enticed into confinement by frau ...

ped on 5 September 1977, by the

Red Army Faction The Red Army Faction (, ; RAF ),See the section "Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang ( ), was a West German far-left militant group founded in 1970 and active until 1998, considered a terrorist organisat ...

(RAF), also known as ''Baader-Meinhof Gang'', in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

. It was intended to force the West German government to release

Andreas Baader Berndt Andreas Baader (6 May 1943 – 18 October 1977) was a West German communist and leader of the far-left terrorist organization Red Army Faction (RAF), also commonly known as the Baader-Meinhof Group. Life Andreas Baader was born in Mu ...

and three other RAF members being held at the

Stammheim Prison Stuttgart Correctional Facility (), also known as Stuttgart Prison or Stammheim Prison, is located in the Stuttgart district of Stammheim, the northernmost district of the state capital of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the largest of a total ...

near the city of

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

. Later,

Lufthansa Flight 181 Lufthansa Flight 181, a Boeing 737-230C jet airliner (reg. D-ABCE) named ''Landshut'', was hijacked on 13 October 1977 by four militants of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine while en route from Palma de Mallorca, Spain, to Fr ...

was kidnapped and abducted to Somalia to support the terrorist demands. West German GSG9 forces liberated the hostages on 18 October 1977, this made the news on radio, after which three RAF leaders died in prison. Hanns Martin Schleyer was killed after being a hostage for 43 days.

Events

Kidnapping

Schleyer's abduction was planned by

Siegfried Haag Siegfried Haag (born 13 March 1945) was a member of the West German Red Army Faction (RAF). He became a leading figure of the second generation of the group. Early career After qualifying in 1973, Haag worked as a lawyer in Heidelberg and brief ...

, but he was arrested in 1976, so his replacement,

Brigitte Mohnhaupt Brigitte Margret Ida Mohnhaupt (born 24 June 1949) is a German convicted former terrorist associated with the second generation of the Red Army Faction (RAF) members. She was also part of the Socialist Patients' Collective (SPK). From 1971 until ...

, carried out the abduction. On 5 September 1977, an RAF "commando unit" attacked the

chauffeur A chauffeur () is a person employed to drive a passenger motor vehicle, especially a luxury vehicle such as a large sedan or a limousine. Initially, such drivers were often personal employees of the vehicle owner, but this has changed to s ...

ed car carrying former

officer Schleyer, then president of the German employers' association, in

, just after the car had turned right from Friedrich-Schmidt-Strasse into Vincenz-Statz-Strasse. His driver, Heinz Marcisz, 41, was forced to brake when a baby carriage suddenly appeared in the street in front of them. The

police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

escort vehicle behind them was unable to stop in time, and crashed into Schleyer's car.

Peter-Jürgen Boock Peter-Jürgen Boock (born 3 September 1951) is a German former terrorist of the Red Army Faction. Early life After completing secondary school, Boock began training as a mechanic but soon quit. Claiming that his father was a staunch Nazi, Boock ...

and

Sieglinde Hofmann Sieglinde Hofmann (born 14 March 1945) was a German militant and member of both the Socialist Patients' CollectiveWolfgang Kraushaar"Die RAF und der linke Terrorismus" Hamburger Edition, 2006, Volume 1, p. 473 and the Red Army Faction. Biography ...

had pushed the carriage on the street to appear as if they were friends meeting with a baby. After the car crash, about six masked RAF members jumped out of a yellow Mercedes parked next to the carriage and sprayed machine gun bullets into the two vehicles. The gunfire killed Marcisz and a police officer, Roland Pieler, 20, who was seated in the backseat of Marcisz's car. The driver of the police escort vehicle, Reinhold Brändle, 41 and a third police officer, Helmut Ulmer, 24, who was in the second vehicle were also killed. The hail of bullets riddled over twenty bullet wounds into the bodies of Brändle and Pieler. Schleyer was then pulled out of the car and forced into the RAF assailants' own getaway van.

Imprisonment and killing

Schleyer was hidden in a

highrise A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdiction ...

Erftstadt Erftstadt () is a town located about 20 km south-west of Cologne in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis, state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The name of the town derives from the river that flows through it, the Erft. The neighbouring towns are Brüh ...

(Liblar) near Cologne. The police came very close to finding him, but due to lack of internal communication could not rescue him. Several local police officers were convinced that Schleyer was held in the aforementioned highrise close to the

autobahn The (; German , ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. Much of t ...

. One investigator had rung the doorbell of the apartment in question, but nobody had conveyed this information to the crisis center of the federal police. The RAF demanded that the government release imprisoned members of their group. The government refused to give into RAF's demands or negotiate aside from strategical negotiations, hoping that the police would manage to free Schleyer in the meantime. The RAF sent the government a picture of Schleyer alive, in captivity, on 8 October 1977. On 13 October, the passenger-plane "Landshut" was kidnapped in order to support the demands to release imprisoned members of the RAF. After 43 days, the government had not given in to the demands of the kidnappers. Hours after the German

counterterrorism Counterterrorism (alternatively spelled: counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, relates to the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, businesses, and Intelligence agency, intelligence ...

unit

GSG 9 , formerly , is the police tactical unit of the German Federal Police (Bundespolizei). The unit is responsible for combatting terrorism and violent crime, including organized crime. In addition to its headquarters location in Sankt Augustin-H ...

ended the

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

hijack Hijack, Highjack, or High Jack may refer to: Film and television * ''Hijack'' (1973 film), an American television action film * ''Hijack!'' (1975 film), a British children's drama film * ''Hijack'' (2008 film), an Indian Hindi-language action f ...

, the imprisoned RAF members Baader,

Gudrun Ensslin Gudrun Ensslin (; 15 August 1940 – 18 October 1977) was a German far-left terrorist and founder of the West German far-left militant group Red Army Faction (, or RAF, also known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang). After becoming involved with co-fou ...

and

Jan-Carl Raspe Jan-Carl Raspe (24 July 1944 – 18 October 1977) was a member of the German far-left terrorist group the Red Army Faction (RAF). He was involved in five bomb attacks with four fatalities, was arrested in 1972 and committed suicide in custody ...

were found dead in their prison cells. After Schleyer's kidnappers received the news of the death of their imprisoned comrades, Schleyer was taken from

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

on 18 October 1977, and shot dead en route to

Mulhouse Mulhouse (; ; Alsatian language, Alsatian: ''Mìlhüsa'' ; , meaning "Mill (grinding), mill house") is a France, French city of the European Collectivity of Alsace (Haut-Rhin department, in the Grand Est region of France). It is near the Fran ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, where his body was left in the trunk of a green

Audi 100 The Audi 100 and Audi 200 (and sometimes called Audi 5000 in North America) are primarily mid-size/executive cars manufactured and marketed by the Audi division of the Volkswagen Group. The car was made from 1968 to 1997 across four generations (C ...

on the rue

Charles Péguy Charles Pierre Péguy (; 7 January 1873 – 5 September 1914) was a French poet, essayist, and editor. His two main philosophies were socialism and nationalism; by 1908 at the latest, after years of uneasy agnosticism, he had become a believing ( ...

Investigation

On 9 September 2007, former RAF member

mentioned that the RAF members Rolf Heissler and

Stefan Wisniewski Stefan Wisniewski (born 8 April 1953) is a former member of the Red Army Faction (RAF). Early life Wisniewski was born in 1953 in Klosterreichenbach, a part of Baiersbronn, Baden-Württemberg, in the Black Forest. He was the son of Gisela, ...

were responsible for Schleyer's death. Schleyer's widow, Waltrude Schleyer, campaigned against clemency for his kidnappers and other members of the RAF. She died on 21 March 2008, in

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schleyer, Hanns Martin 1977 murders in Germany 1977 murders in France 1977 in international relations 1977 mass shootings in Europe 1970s in Cologne 20th-century mass murder in Germany Assassinations in France Cold War history of France Cold War history of Germany Crime in Cologne Crime in Grand Est Deaths by firearm in France Deaths by person in France Kidnapping in the 1970s Kidnappings in Germany Mass murder in 1977 Mass shootings in Germany Murder in North Rhine-Westphalia 1977 crimes October 1977 October 1977 in Europe Red Army Faction September 1977 September 1977 in Europe Terrorist incidents in France in 1977 Terrorist incidents in Germany in 1977 Terrorist incidents in North Rhine-Westphalia 1977 crimes in France