Andreas Baader

--- created: 2026-05-15 updated: 2026-05-15 title: Andreas Baader aliases:

• Andreas Bernd Baader tags:
• Person
• Germany
• Terrorism
• RedArmyFaction
• 1970s category: "Political Figure" summary: "Andreas Baader was the co-founder and operational leader of the Red Army Faction who organized the RAF's bombing campaign of 1972, was imprisoned at Stammheim, and was found dead in his cell on October 18, 1977 following the West German government's successful rescue of Lufthansa Flight 181 hostages in Mogadishu - a death officially ruled suicide but disputed by the RAF." born: 1943-05-06 died: 1977-10-18 location: "Stuttgart-Stammheim Prison, West Germany"

Andreas Bernd Baader (May 6, 1943 - October 18, 1977) was a co-founder and operational leader of the Red Army Faction (RAF), the West German urban guerrilla organization whose first generation he led from its founding in 1970 until his arrest in 1972. Baader was a charismatic but theoretically unsophisticated figure whose organizational drive and willingness to act complemented the intellectual framework provided by Ulrike Meinhof and the political commitment of Gudrun Ensslin, the woman with whom he was romantically involved. He was found dead in his cell at Stammheim Prison on October 18, 1977, in a ruling of suicide by pistol that the RAF and supporters disputed as an impossible scenario in a maximum-security facility.¹

Early Life

Baader was born in Munich, Germany, the son of a historian who was killed on the Eastern Front in World War II. He grew up without a father in postwar West Germany and was by his own account more drawn to action and provocation than to political theory. He had no formal political education and, unlike Meinhof or Ensslin, came from outside the student movement's intellectual circles.

He moved to Berlin in the 1960s and became associated with the communal housing and protest culture that surrounded the West German student movement, though his relationship to formal political organizations was always marginal. He was arrested and convicted of arson in 1968 after he and Gudrun Ensslin set fire to two Frankfurt department stores as a protest against the Vietnam War - their statement of intent to escalate from demonstration to action.¹

Founding of the RAF

Released from prison pending appeal, Baader was re-arrested in April 1970. Ulrike Meinhof arranged for him to be given a supervised prison release to a Berlin institution to research a book, then organized the operation that freed him on May 14, 1970 - a confrontation in which a guard was shot. This event - the RAF's founding act - was followed by the group's training with the Palestine Liberation Organization in Jordan.

The RAF conducted bank robberies to fund operations, established a network of safe houses, and recruited additional members. Baader's leadership style was domineering and the group's internal culture was characterized by intense loyalty demands and harsh criticism of those who showed doubt. Several early members left or were expelled; some later testified against the organization.¹

1972 Bombing Campaign and Arrest

In May 1972, the RAF conducted a concentrated series of bombings against American military facilities in Frankfurt and Heidelberg, the Hamburg police headquarters, the Munich offices of the Axel Springer publishing company, and the car of Federal Judge Wolfgang Buddenberg. Several American soldiers were killed.

Baader was arrested on June 1, 1972, in Frankfurt. Meinhof was arrested June 15, Ensslin June 7. Their imprisonment did not end RAF activity; a second generation of members, operating outside, continued operations partly aimed at forcing the government to release the imprisoned founders.

Stammheim and Death

The trial of Baader, Ensslin, Meinhof, and Jan-Carl Raspe was conducted at Stammheim Prison, a new high-security facility built specifically to house and try them. The trial became a major political event, with the defendants conducting disruptive proceedings and maintaining contact with the outside through lawyers whom the prosecution alleged were conduits to the RAF network.

After Meinhof died in May 1976, the trial of the remaining three continued. Baader, Ensslin, and Raspe were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in April 1977.

In October 1977, RAF members kidnapped industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer and simultaneously coordinated with Palestinian hijackers who seized Lufthansa Flight 181. West Germany's GSG 9 commando unit stormed the aircraft at Mogadishu airport on October 18, 1977, freeing all hostages. Hours later, Baader, Ensslin, and Raspe were found dead in their cells. Baader had a pistol wound to his head; Ensslin had hanged herself; Raspe had a gunshot wound.

Prison authorities ruled the deaths suicides; the RAF and supporters argued it was impossible for firearms to have been smuggled into the maximum-security facility without guard involvement. Schleyer was murdered the following day. Official investigations upheld the suicide findings; the RAF's position was never accepted by any formal inquiry.²