This article is about the series of events in 1977. For the film, see Germany in Autumn. For the 1947 book, see German Autumn (book).
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German Autumn
Part of the Cold War
Date
30 July – 18 October 1977
Location
West Germany
Result
West German victory
Belligerents
West Germany
Red Army Faction Revolutionary Cells
Commanders and leaders
Helmut Schmidt
Gudrun Ensslin † Jan-Carl Raspe † Andreas Baader †
Casualties and losses
7 dead, 4 injured
The German Autumn (German: Deutscher Herbst) was a series of events in Germany in 1977 associated with the kidnapping and murder of industrialist, businessman, and former Schutzstaffel member Hanns Martin Schleyer, president of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations (BDA) and the Federation of German Industries (BDI), by the Red Army Faction (RAF), a far-left militant organisation, and the hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 181 (known in Germany by the name Landshut) by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The hijackers demanded the release of ten RAF members detained at the Stammheim Prison plus two Palestinian compatriots held in Turkey and US$15 million in exchange for the hostages. The assassination on 7 April 1977 of Siegfried Buback, the attorney-general of West Germany, and the failed kidnapping and then murder of the banker Jürgen Ponto on 30 July 1977, marked the beginning of the German Autumn. It ended on 18 October, with the liberation of the Landshut, the deaths of the leading figures of the first generation of the RAF in their prison cells, and Schleyer's death.
The phrase "German Autumn" is derived from the 1978 film Deutschland im Herbst (Germany in Autumn), a German omnibus film whose segments covered the social atmosphere during late 1977, while offering different critical perspectives and arguments pertaining to the situation. The directors involved were Heinrich Böll, Hans Peter Cloos, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Alexander Kluge, Maxmiliane Mainka, Edgar Reitz, Katja Rupé, Volker Schlöndorff, Peter Schubert and Bernhard Sinkel. Kluge and Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus edited the film.[1]
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Global Information
West Germany
Red Army Faction
Revolutionary Cells
Helmut Schmidt