1977 was the year in which in left-wing terrorism in the Federal Republic of Germany took on dimensions previously unknown. Take the murders of Dresdner Bank chief, Jürgen Ponto, Chief Federal Prosecutor Siegfried Buback and employers’ association boss, Hanns Martin Schleyer, add to it the hijacking of the ‘Landshut’ passenger flight and it is clear a second generation dedicated to extreme brutality had emerged. At the same time, the suicides in Stammheim prison of Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin und Jan Carl Raspe brought the first generation to a close which shook the whole country. Butz Peters tells of the dramatic events of1977, the crucial year when the RAF posed the power question. He sets his narrative against the background of the terrorist organisation’s beginnings and gives an overview of further attacks until the group dissolved in 1998.
