Red Army Faction

The Red Army Faction (RAF), also known as the Baader-Meinhof Group or Baader-Meinhof Gang, was a West German far-left militant organization active primarily from the 1970s through the 1990s. It pursued a revolutionary Marxist-Leninist and anti-imperialist agenda and aligned itself ideologically with armed struggle against the West German state, NATO, capitalism, and what it viewed as fascist continuity in postwar institutions. The group is widely regarded as one of the most significant left-wing terrorist organizations in postwar Europe. RAF conducted bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, armed robberies, and other violent attacks. Its operations targeted government officials, law enforcement, judicial figures, military personnel, business leaders, and symbols of the West German state and its Western allies. The organization used clandestine cells, safehouses, forged documents, weapons procurement, and operational security measures typical of urban guerrilla movements. It demonstrated capabilities associated with initial access to targets, reconnaissance, exfiltration from attack scenes, persistence through underground networks, and post-exploitation in the sense of sustaining covert militant infrastructure after attacks. The group evolved through multiple generations of members after the arrest or death of its early leadership. Founding figures included Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin, and others; later RAF generations continued the campaign with varying intensity. RAF maintained ties or solidarity links with other militant and Palestinian organizations in the broader international revolutionary milieu. Its campaign caused numerous deaths and injuries and had major political and security effects in West Germany, especially during the 1970s and 1980s. The organization formally dissolved in 1998.