LEADERSHIP AND LEADERSHIP STRUCTURE OF THE RED ARMY FACTION

The Red Army Faction (RAF) was a West German terrorist organization founded in 1970 The entire existence of the RAF can be categorized into 3 different “generations”. Each generation had different leaders, members, and goals.

1ST GENERATION The first generation of the RAF was lead by founders Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, Horst Mahler, and Ulrike Meinhof. Created the organization to combat German imperialism. Structurally, the organization split into two circles. In one circle: the leaders and commanders. The other circle was comprised of commando units containing between members This generation lasted until 1972 when all founding members were either imprisoned or dead.

2 ND GENERATION The 2 nd generation was mainly created to free the remaining members of the first generation from jail. Many of the leaders and members of the second generation were surviving members from a defunct radical therapy coalition called the Socialist Patients’ Collective. The 1975 bombing of the German embassy in Sweden is often seen as the moment the 2 nd generation was born. Historians credit Brigitte Mohnhaup and Christian Klar as the ringleaders of this new generation. This wave lasted until 1982 when most of their leaders, including Klar and Mohnhaup, were caught and imprisoned like their predecessors.

3 RD GENERATION The third and final wave of the RAF was created in 1984 when at-large members of the group decided to continue their terrorist actions. German authorities attribute main leadership to 2 members: Wolfgang Grams and Birgit Hogefeld. Only a few members of the third wave have ever been apprehended by German authorities and a safe house has never been discovered. After the incapacitation of both leaders in 1993, there was a hiatus in the group’s activities until they declared the organization’s end in an 8 page written statement in 1998.