Andreas Baader

Berndt Andreas Baader (6 May 1943 – 18 October 1977) was one of the first leaders of the German left-wing militant organization Red Army Faction, also commonly known as the Baader-Meinhof Group.

Life

Andreas Baader was born in Munich on 6 May 1943. He was the only child of historian and archivist Dr. Berndt Phillipp Baader. Berndt Baader served in the German Wehrmacht, was captured on the Russian Front in 1945, and never returned. Andreas was raised by his doting mother, aunt, and grandmother.

Baader was a high school dropout and criminal before his Red Army Faction (RAF) involvement. He was one of the few members of the RAF movement who did not attend a university.

RAF involvement

In 1968 Baader and his girlfriend Gudrun Ensslin were convicted of the arson bombing of a department store in Frankfurt am Main to protest what they regarded as the public's "indifference to the genocide in Vietnam". DM675,000 in damage was caused; no-one was injured or killed.

After being sentenced, Baader and Ensslin fled in November 1969. They were smuggled out of West Germany by sympathizers and made the tour of the left-wing communities of France, Switzerland, and Italy before re-entering West Germany covertly.