As well as Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia, Western European far-left militant groups like the
Baader-Meinhof Gang took inspiration from Maoism as they attacked the political establishment.
Terrorism 1.0 in the modern era was in the 1980s-Red Brigades of Italy,
Baader-Meinhof gang of Germany, Sendero Luminoso of Peru and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, among others.
Set in a divided Berlin, the story takes place against the backdrop of the October 1977 hijacking of Lufthansa flight 181 by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a group that sought the release of members of the Red Army Faction (aka the
Baader-Meinhof Gang).
Baader-Meinhof gang member Astrid Proll was arrested in London.
Critics of radical chic feminized the notion with the (admittedly clever) label "Prada Meinhof"--a play on the alternative appellation for RAF's first generation: the
Baader-Meinhof Gang. (Andreas Baader, together with Meinhof and Ensslin, led the group until their capture, convictions, and prison suicides in the mid-to-late 1970s.) All this, despite the fact that women probably made up only about one-third of West Germany's far Left, according to Charity Scribner's After the Red Army Faction.
Then, the IRA, Red Brigade in Italy and
Baader-Meinhof Gang in Germany carried out much more widespread violence than today.
1975: A stand-off at the West German embassy in Stockholm ends in violence as the
Baader-Meinhof gang blows up the building.
Former member of the Red Army Faction, known in its early days as the
Baader-Meinhof gang Christof Wackernagel will be on a panel of experts speaking at the debate.
On the one hand: marriage, a PhD, going to work in Uganda, children, and a great job; on the other: widespread social and industrial strife, three-day weeks, unburied bodies, nuclear superpower tensions, the Red Brigades and the
Baader-Meinhof Gang, wars everywhere, and famine, dreadful fashions, digital watches, dubious music, instant mashed potato, and the emergence of global concerns about the environment.
Later waves of fashion in terrorism included the European, Latin American and Japanese "urban terrorist" movements of the 1970s and 80s --
Baader-Meinhof Gang in Germany, Red Brigades in Italy, Montoneros in Argentina, Japanese Red Army and so on -- none of which has any political success at all.
Older readers may recall Germany's
Baader-Meinhof Gang of murderers and Italy's Red Brigades or the violent riots by French students, which soon drew the support of French workers, shook Paris in 1968, and contributed to President de Gaulle's departure from power in 1969.
1978: German terror suspect arrested in UK Astrid Proll, one of the most wanted members of the West German
Baader-Meinhof gang, has been detained in London.
