The kidnapping and murder of Hanns Martin Schleyer marked the end of the German Autumn in 1977. German industrial leader and former SS member

Hanns Martin Schleyer Hans "Hanns" Martin Schleyer (; 1 May 1915 – 18 October 1977) was a German business executive, and employer and industry representative, who served as President of two powerful commercial organizations, the Confederation of German Employers' A ...

was

kidnap In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the p ...

ped on 5 September 1977, by the

Red Army Faction The Red Army Faction (RAF, ; , ),See the section "Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang (, , active 1970–1998), was a West German far-left Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla group founded in 1970. The ...

(RAF), also known as ''Baader-Meinhof Gang'', in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 ...

. It was intended to force the West German government to release

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

and three other RAF members being held at the Stammheim Prison near the city of

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the Sw ...

. On 18 October 1977, on learning that three of their members had died in prison, the RAF killed Martin Schleyer.

Events

Kidnapping

Schleyer's abduction was planned by Siegfried Haag, but he was arrested in 1976, so his replacement, Brigitte Mohnhaupt, carried out the abduction. On 5 September 1977, an RAF “commando unit” attacked the

chauffeur A chauffeur is a person employed to drive a passenger motor vehicle, especially a luxury vehicle such as a large sedan or limousine. Originally, such drivers were often personal employees of the vehicle owner, but this has changed to special ...

ed car carrying Schleyer, then president of the German employers' association, in Cologne, just after the car had turned right from Friedrich Schmidt Strasse into Vincenz-Statz Strasse. His driver, Heinz Marcisz, 41, was forced to brake when a baby carriage suddenly appeared in the street in front of them. The

police The police are a Law enforcement organization, constituted body of Law enforcement officer, persons empowered by a State (polity), state, with the aim to law enforcement, enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citize ...

escort vehicle behind them was unable to stop in time, and crashed into Schleyer's car. Four (or possibly five) masked RAF members then jumped out and sprayed

machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles ...

and machine pistol bullets into the two vehicles, killing Marcisz and a police officer, Roland Pieler, 20, who was seated in the backseat of Marcisz's car. The driver of the police escort vehicle, Reinhold Brändle, 41 and a third police officer, Helmut Ulmer, 24, who was in the second vehicle were also killed. The hail of bullets riddled over twenty bullet wounds into the bodies of Brändle and Pieler. Schleyer was then pulled out of the car and forced into the RAF assailants' own getaway van.

Imprisonment and killing

Schleyer was hidden in a highrise in

Erftstadt Erftstadt () is a town located about 20 km south-west of Cologne in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis, state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The name of the town derives from the river that flows through it, the Erft. The neighbouring towns are Brüh ...

(Liblar) near Cologne. The police came very close to finding him, but due to lack of internal communication could not rescue him. Several local police officers were convinced that Schleyer was held in the aforementioned highrise close to the

autobahn The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track' ...

. One investigator had rung the doorbell of the apartment in question, but nobody had conveyed this information to the crisis center of the federal police. The RAF demanded that the government release imprisoned members of their group. The government refused to give into RAF's demands or negotiate. The RAF sent the government a picture of Schleyer alive, in captivity, on 8 October 1977. After 43 days, the government had not given in to the demands of the kidnappers. Hours after the German

counterterrorism Counterterrorism (also spelled counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, business, and intelligence agencies use to combat or ...

unit

GSG 9 , formerly (), is the police tactical unit of the German Federal Police ''( Bundespolizei)''. The state police (''Landespolizei'') maintain their own tactical units known as the '' Spezialeinsatzkommando'' (SEK). The identities of GSG 9 member ...

ended the

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

hijack of

Lufthansa Flight 181 Lufthansa Flight 181 was a Boeing 737-230C jetliner (reg. D-ABCE) named the ''Landshut'' that was hijacked on the afternoon of 13 October 1977 by four members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who called themselves Commando ...

, the imprisoned RAF members Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe were found dead in their prison cells. After Schleyer's kidnappers received the news of the death of their imprisoned comrades, Schleyer was taken from

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

on 18 October 1977, and shot dead en route to

Mulhouse Mulhouse (; Alsatian: or , ; ; meaning '' mill house'') is a city of the Haut-Rhin department, in the Grand Est region, eastern France, close to the Swiss and German borders. It is the largest city in Haut-Rhin and second largest in Alsace a ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, where his body was left in the trunk of a green

Audi 100 The Audi 100 and Audi 200 (and sometimes called Audi 5000 in North America) are primarily mid-size/executive cars manufactured and marketed by the Audi division of the Volkswagen Group. The car was made from 1968 to 1997 across four generations (C ...

on the rue

Charles Péguy Charles Pierre Péguy (; 7 January 1873 – 5 September 1914) was a French poet, essayist, and editor. His two main philosophies were socialism and nationalism. By 1908 at the latest, after years of uneasy agnosticism, he had become a believing b ...

Investigation

On 9 September 2007, former RAF member Peter-Jürgen Boock mentioned that the RAF members Rolf Heissler and Stefan Wisniewski were responsible for Schleyer's death. Schleyer's widow,

Waltrude Schleyer Waltrude Ketterer Schleyer (21 January 1916 – 21 March 2008) was the widow of Hanns Martin Schleyer, a high-ranking German business executive and former member of the SS, who was murdered by the Red Army Faction in 1977. Biography She married ...

, campaigned against clemency for his kidnappers and other members of the RAF. She died on 21 March 2008, in

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schleyer, Hanns Martin 1977 murders in Germany 1977 murders in France 1977 in international relations 1977 mass shootings in Europe 1970s in Cologne 20th-century mass murder in Germany Assassinations in France Cold War history of France Cold War history of Germany Crime in Cologne Crime in Grand Est Deaths by firearm in France Deaths by person in France Kidnapping in the 1970s Kidnappings in Germany Mass murder in 1977 Mass murder in Germany Mass shootings in Germany Murder in North Rhine-Westphalia October 1977 crimes October 1977 events in Europe Red Army Faction September 1977 crimes September 1977 events in Europe Terrorist incidents in France in 1977 Terrorist incidents in Germany in 1977 Terrorist incidents in North Rhine-Westphalia 1977 crimes in France