[motorcycle engines rev]
[woman] On April 1st, 1991, our Ulrich Wessel command
shot the president of the Treuhand in Berlin, Detlev Karsten Rohwedder.
Rohwedder had been in key positions in politics and industry for 20 years.
Being installed as Bonn's governor in East Berlin
was meant to crown his career.
[woman] Since its annexation,
the former GDR has become a de facto colony of West Germany.
The former GDR's economy is being systematically dismantled,
so that capitalism has free rein to rebuild the country
according to its needs and over the heads of its uprooted people.
The West German government chose Rohwedder to implement this plan.
And they picked the right man, with his brutality and arrogance.
Forty years of socialism on the former GDR's territory
had caused more damage than the Second World War,
he once remarked.
This from a man who only judges the world in terms of profits and productivity,
and for whom human lives don't count.
The Treuhand's doings cause more harm to people than just job loss.
It causes not only material distress for the millions of unemployed,
but it also impoverishes their hearts and minds.
[crowd chanting] If the Treuhand gets its way…
[Hofmeyer] "For most of the humiliated and insulted people
this development represents the destruction of their way of life.
They are to be confined to the suburbs,
which are designed to isolate people from one another."
[woman] At the same time, sexist behavior against women erupts openly.
Women are the first to be fired when former GDR firms are shut down.
Daycare facilities disappear.
And women are losing their right to choose how many, if any, kids to have.
For us in West Germany, this is nothing new.
We view our attack against one of the architects
of this new greater Germany
as an attack which targets this reactionary development at its roots.
["Warum Geht Es Mir So Dreckig" by Ton Steine Scherben playing]
♪ Why do I feel so lousy? ♪
♪ So lousy ♪
♪ Why do we feel so lousy? ♪
♪ So lousy ♪
[woman] Those who do not fight die little by little.
Freedom can only be gained through the struggle for liberation.
Red Army Faction,
Ulrich Wessel command.
[music ends dramatically]
In my opinion, this confession is the best the RAF has ever written.
It has everything.
GERMANY
[upbeat theme music playing]
A NETFLIX ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY SERIES
[Hitler] The German Reich…
[Ulbricht] Nobody has any intention of building a wall.
[reporter] West and East Germany, a divided nation.
♪ Unity and justice and freedom… ♪
Red Army Faction.
…insane attacks by barbaric terrorists.
♪ …Fatherland ♪
♪ Risen from ruins… ♪
[Reagan] Tear down this wall!
Our fatherland, reunited.
♪ Flourish, German fatherland ♪
CAPITALIST
[interviewer] Dr. Detlev Rohwedder, son of a bookseller,
studied law and economics.
In 1979, he became a member of the Board of Hoesch AG in Dortmund,
of which he has been chairman since 1980.
Mr. Rohwedder, nowadays you have a reputation
as a tough and determined manager.
Did your profession change you as a person?
I never doubted it was the RAF.
That they hold the political responsibility
and are guilty of committing the murder. That was clear to me.
ROHWEDDER TREUHAND BOSS ASSASSINATED
Treuhand boss Rohwedder was apparently murdered by terrorists.
[reporter] The Red Army Faction claims responsibility.
[reporter 2] This morning, police were looking for clues and finding one:
the trademark document left by the Red Army Faction,
the terrorist group which has often singled out economic targets in the past.
[Hofmeyer] This is one of the usual letters
the Red Army Faction issues after its attacks.
We, at the Federal Criminal Police Office,
had to analyze its authenticity.
For this, we had a couple of options.
[Fundermann] The RAF had its own printing gear.
They created their letters
with the red star, the submachine gun, and the letters RAF,
using so-called gravure printing.
Once our forensics team was able to compare such prints
under an electron microscope,
we could confirm they came from the same printing plate.
Then we knew it was an RAF original.
[reporter] What does this confession say?
It's a brief confession…
FEDERAL PROSECUTOR GENERAL VON STAHL
…written in typical RAF political gibberish.
"In the struggle against the reactionary plans
of Greater Germany and Western Europe
to suppress and exploit the people here…"
and so on and so forth.
[reporter 3] In a five-page letter, Rohwedder is accused
of being a capitalist strategist and brutal company restructurer.
[narrator] A pamphlet full of quirky, pseudo-revolutionary buzzwords.
At the same time, the criminal virility of these people has grown.
They hardly leave any usable traces or clues.
The Red Army Faction wasn't a Red Army.
It was…
If you look at the entire 28 years of their existence,
it was a faction at best,
meaning a relatively small group of people.
[Hofmeyer] There are people who distinguish
between several RAF generations.
Essentially, there was a constant influx of newcomers
being assimilated into the RAF.
They lived like fish in water.
They were urban guerrillas.
They lived underground.
[Ridder] But this group was daring enough to attack
West Germany's political and business elite
and the country's leading figures.
This daring was unprecedented on a historical scale.
[horn honks]
[reporter] Political bombing in West Germany.
A new form of political confrontation
has been frightening millions of Germans in recent weeks.
[reporter 2] The terrorism record could hardly look more frightening.
[reporter 3] Federal Prosecutor General Buback
was shot dead in Karlsruhe in the middle of the street.
PONTO ASSASSINATED
Jürgen Pronto, one of the most important German bankers,
died as a result of an assassination attempt.
[reporter 4] In the Schleyer abduction case,
evidence is increasing that the President of the Employers Association
was murdered by terrorists.
We warned them.
We predicted who would be the next victim.
But at the same time, I witnessed
Germany's operational security forces' helplessness
in the face of these predictable RAF's operations.
RED ARMY FACTION, 2ND GENERATION LUTZ TAUFER
[woman] Rohwedder has always been one of those desktop criminals
who would routinely stop at nothing
when it came to planning misery and desperation
for millions of people in the interest of power and profit.
[Woman on PA] Who's bearing the losses? We are!
[woman] In the '80s, Rohwedder made a name for himself
as a brutal company restructurer.
[woman on PA] Stop talking about "our" losses!
[interviewer] Mr. Rohwedder, do you think the workforce likes you?
No, I don't think so.
I also don't think this is what a company boss
should strive for or expect.
There needs to be a clear, how shall I put this,
not an idea of an enemy, but there needs to be a point person
upon whom frustration, existential worries,
disappointed expectations, low wages,
fear of unemployment and the like
can be unloaded.
[whistling]
[woman on PA] He eliminates jobs
without creating new opportunities for us!
This is a scandal in a city
which already has an unemployment rate of 18% and rising!
-[horn honks] -[cheering]
[woman] Within just a few years,
he threw out more than two-thirds of the Hoesch workforce
and led the bankrupt group back to new profits.
For this, he was elected Manager of the Year in 1983.
Being installed as Bonn's governor in East Berlin
was meant to crown his career.
[interviewer] Did you learn much in Dortmund for your Berlin job?
Absolutely, yes.
I also believe that this experience actually led to me being offered the job.
I had earned trust with my abilities,
because there will be a lot of conflict to deal with in the new Federal States.
And I believe you'll need someone who's not afraid
to stand up in front of workers and speak to them.
[Rohwedder] Let me repeat this to you.
We face a situation that has dramatically worsened.
Gentlemen, I am not the kind of conductor
who doesn't care which direction the train takes.
Laying off employees: is this easier
because you, as Chairman, don't know the workers personally?
That's certain.
If I knew them personally,
absorbed their individual fates,
this would make decisions more difficult.
But when a company's survival is at stake, things must be done.
[dramatic music playing]
In the Rohwedder case, I believe it is close to 100% certain
that the so-called third RAF generation was involved and responsible.
The murderers of Treuhand boss Detlev Rohwedder vanished into thin air.
No viable evidence was found
at the crime scene in Düsseldorf, no other clues.
Investigations have stalled.
[reporter] Minister of Justice Kinkel returned from his holiday in Switzerland.
His statement on the day after the murder resembles a declaration of bankruptcy.
[Kinkel] We estimate that it is a core group of about 15 members.
But frankly, we don't know who these people are.
That's simply due to the small size of the group,
and that they, in contrast to the past, do not leave any clues behind.
[reporter] It's true.
Since Hessian Finance Minister Karry was shot dead ten years ago,
and MTU Manager Zimmermann near Munich four years later,
there have been no more clues.
Also nothing in the case of Siemens' CEO Beckurts from 1986.
And also no evidence was found
after a similar attack on Secretary of State Hans Neusel.
The RAF issued confession letters, as always,
but gave no clues as to specific culprits.
[motorcycle engines rev]
[Ridder] The RAF's predictability, which I consider to be a key tenet,
also applies to their behavior towards the authorities.
There was never a case
in which the RAF provided intel to the authorities.
Rohwedder…
Let me put it this way,
capitalism was to blame.
But you can't shoot capitalism.
Otherwise someone would have a long time ago.
I am Lutz Taufer. Together with five other people,
I attacked the German embassy in Stockholm and we murdered two hostages.
Two people from our group also died there.
I spent 20 years in prison,
mostly in different levels of solitary confinement.
[ominous music playing]
The third generation…
I'm not quite sure who they were.
I did not have any contact with these people.
Maybe I've once met one of them without knowing.
RAF was, of course, communist,
socialist, leftist in some form.
We hoped to fight the global system
which gave rise to both fascism and colonialism.
We wanted to fight, overcome, and smash this system,
so that a different system,
a more humane society, could take its place.
I was part of the first post-war generation
in a country that had started two world wars.
I grew up in a culture
in which fascism was not yet unpopular.
One of my teachers came to class with a portable record player.
The records he made us listen to were Hitler's speeches.
This German people has grown strong again,
strong in spirit, strong in will…
[Maier-Witt] When I was 16, 17 years old, I became aware
that six million Jews had been killed during World War II.
Today I know that my dad was an SS member.
His only reaction was, "Who told you this nonsense?"
[Maier-Witt] This is where I got my motivation
to escape such narrow-mindedness.
Around the same time, the Vietnam War was going on.
[ominous music playing]
We took to the streets to demonstrate
for peace in Vietnam.
People should have applauded us.
But they spat on us.
They…
Exterminate them, I say!
That would be best,
eradicate them!
Shoot them.
They live off our hard-earned tax money.
Away with them. Up against the wall and shoot them!
People shouted at us, "They forgot to gas you!"
That was the situation back then.
[crowd chants]
[Taufer] We were in a country we couldn't breathe in.
Nobody wanted us.
We had no chance of starting a normal life in this atmosphere.
[crowd shouting and chanting]
[Taufer] We did everything we could to overpower the system.
[narrator] On April 24, 1975,
six terrorists occupy the German Embassy in Stockholm.
They demand the release of RAF prisoners.
When the West German government rejects their demands,
they shoot two embassy workers and detonate bombs.
[explosion]
[reporter] Put it on the air! Put it on the air! Put it on the air!
[reporter] We're at the German Embassy and just heard a massive explosion.
[Taufer] Our goal was to free 16 prisoners, I think.
And in the end, there were four dead
and four people with life sentences.
[man] Help!
Help!
[Taufer] There had never been such a violent attack before.
All our actions,
uh, were also meant to inspire others
to see us as an example and to join the armed struggle.
[upbeat music playing]
We had a lot of discussions back then:
violence, yes or no?
Is it a legitimate means or isn't it?
I always felt,
if I wanted to really fight the system,
I needed to do so with full conviction.
In my opinion, RAF members were willing to give up everything,
even risk their own lives.
And I thought, um…
I thought this was special.
So first, I burned all my papers
in order to become a member of the RAF.
The first thing that I was given was a gun.
[reporter] Silke Maier-Witt, 27 years of age,
is considered very dangerous.
She's accused of participating in several serious crimes.
Silke Maier-Witt is 1.71 meters tall with a slender build.
She has blue eyes and dark blonde hair.
Distinctive feature: several missing teeth.
[Maier-Witt] I was responsible for hiring cars.
I learned how to fake passports,
things like that.
POLICE
TERRORISTS, WANTED URGENTLY!
[narrator] Sixteen RAF members are on the run, but the police know who they are.
A manhunt is ongoing.
If you have any information, please report it to your nearest police station.
[siren wails]
[Ridder] By 1980…
the RAF was basically
on its knees due to a certain incident.
Coincidence led to a wave of arrests in Frankfurt.
The entire RAF leadership was caught.
[Fundermann] A great success, especially capturing Christian Klar.
I can't put it any other way, he was the RAF's main assassin.
He had ruthlessly killed several people.
[camera shutter clicks]
We definitely had the feeling, "Now we've got them. That's it."
With all those arrests, the RAF was practically dead.
We were literally…
"headless".
Then…
one of our group got in touch with the Stasi.
And they told us…
we were going to the GDR.
My next question was, "What do I actually know about the GDR?"
Nothing, really.
Also, I was disappointed at first,
because I thought, "What revolutionary things can I do in the GDR?"
ENTRY FOR CITIZENS OF THE FRG
AND OTHER COUNTRIES LONG-TERM STAY
[Maier-Witt] We then received our GDR ID cards
and became official GDR citizens.
[upbeat music playing]
[Hofmeyer] On the one hand, a great impudence,
but also my kudos to the Stasi
which handled this in a really professional way.
Their resumes were rewritten.
They were provided with accommodation
and suitable jobs.
Everything was done for them
so that they could settle in their new socialist homeland.
But at the same time, their every step was watched
with the greatest suspicion.
[Maier-Witt] It was like 24/7 care.
Someone used to drop by regularly.
And I thought,
"I'm really at the mercy of this organization."
But what was my alternative?
Go to prison for the same length of time?
[upbeat music playing]
[Ridder] The RAF developed a capability
rarely seen in terrorist organizations.
They managed to turn every defeat into a victory.
Whenever the state succeeded in weakening the RAF,
the RAF always succeeded in recruiting new members.
The last, the third RAF generation,
is characterized
by an unusual criminal energy
and discipline.
What's also striking is that,
to this very day, their biggest crimes
are nowhere near being solved
in terms of finding those responsible
and understanding their actions.
FEDERAL CRIMINAL POLICE OFFICE UNDERCOVER AGENT
[undercover agent] For all attacks launched since 1983,
many hold the so-called third RAF generation responsible.
I just don't believe this.
I don't think this third generation ever existed.
I have worked for the Federal Criminal Police Office for 35 years.
As a police officer, investigator.
I just don't believe the RAF…
from 1987 onwards,
or probably even earlier,
was able to carry out such precise attacks like the ones on Rohwedder
and also Herrhausen.
16 MONTHS UNTIL THE MURDER
[reporter] Good evening.
Deutsche Bank boss Alfred Herrhausen was murdered by terrorists today.
Good morning, everybody. A bomb blast
that killed the Chairman of Germany's largest bank this morning
has many Europeans wondering
if the terrorist wave of years ago is returning.
The bomb detonated early this morning
as Herrhausen was being driven from his home to Frankfurt,
the nation's financial capital.
[reporter] The attack has shaken German society,
because Herrhausen ruled a business empire.
[reporter 2] The terror group Red Army Faction may be behind the murder.
[narrator] Investigators call this high-tech terror
and blame what may be a third RAF generation.
Here you see our colleagues on site.
This officer is part of the Crime Scene Unit.
You can clearly see the force with which the RAF's bomb
burst into Herrhausen's armored vehicle.
[Fundermann] They used a self-made hollow charge,
set off by a photo sensor.
The sensor itself had to be primed by someone nearby.
First, the escort vehicle went past, then the sensor was primed,
and then the blast smashed right into the right rear door.
There are only a few people in Germany,
mostly military or professional blasters, who could build something like this.
It gave us a lot to contemplate.
Who could have pulled this off?
[Matschke] I was there myself at the Herrhausen crime scene.
I live nearby.
I heard this huge bang,
so I drove over there and saw what had happened.
[Matschke] It was a completely new way to carry out an assassination.
All prior attacks had been rather crude.
Drive-by shootings on motorcycles and things like that.
These were not typical for the RAF,
the Herrhausen assassination with a booby trap
and the Rohwedder assassination
with an excellent sniper shot.
These highly precise operations…
in my view, were military-style.
[ominous music playing]
[undercover agent] The Rohwedder case…
I have great doubts about who was behind that.
This precise shot from a distance of about 60 meters
in difficult lighting conditions, the light is broken by a window.
These are conditions only a professional can master.
[narrator] Karsten Rohwedder's study, where he was shot dead.
Using a laser beam,
the Federal Criminal Police Office tries to trace the ballistic curve
and the exact location from where the shots were fired.
-[investigator 1] Move towards the right. -[investigator 2] The right.
[investigator 1] Stop. This should be it. A little higher.
-[investigator 2] Lower. Now? -[radio] A little higher and to the right.
A little higher and to the right. Stop!
-[investigator 1] Yes. -[radio] This is the exact position.
-Yes. -Exactly.
We are pointing a laser beam through the window to trace the bullets
and to determine the exact location of the gunman in this garden.
We plan to do a second procedure to reconstruct what happened,
with a rifle of the type that was used, a G1 rifle.
[Fundermann] We never found the rifle.
But we found spent shells,
uh, which is essential to determine what kind of weapon was used.
[reporter] A microscopic analysis of the bullets showed
that the same rifle was used a few weeks earlier
to attack the U.S. embassy in Bonn.
7 WEEKS
UNTIL THE MURDER
ATTACK ON US EMBASSY
Our news office in Bonn reports that a terror attack was launched
against the U.S. Embassy in Bonn this evening.
The big building was apparently fired on with machine guns from across the Rhine.
[narrator] More than 200 shots were fired,
but not a single potential victim was in sight.
What an amateurish attack!
They shot at the U.S. Embassy from across the river.
We thought this was way too amateurish for RAF standards.
And just a few weeks later, the same rifle is used to kill Rohwedder?
And we had nothing. Absolutely nothing.
-[rifle shot] -[suspenseful music playing]
[undercover agent] It is striking
that after each precise attack, a very amateurish one would follow.
In my opinion, this only serves to obscure
the actual motives and perpetrators.
Let's assume the generation theory is true.
How can it be that no member of the third generation
has ever surfaced or become known to authorities?
[Ridder] How is it that this generation
virtually left no traces at all,
meaning there's no longer any kind of objective proof?
Indeed…
uh, this is a point one can make.
But I, who always tried to think in RAF categories,
I am certain that if the RAF says it was them,
then it was them!
[Taufer] In preparation for our talk,
I reread the old confession letters.
1985, '86, '87.
Uh, the attacks during that time and the letters
were all coherent.
However, the Rohwedder confession
is very different from the previous ones.
[woman] All of us who are fighting to live our lives with dignity
in a world free of rulers
should roll up our sleeves and become a common force.
[woman] The revolutionary movement
must develop a real and concrete human perspective.
[woman] The sprout of a new society must emerge,
one in which people start living together without rulers
in a self-determined manner.
We are prepared to work with anyone
who feels that this capitalist reality is suffocating them.
"The revolutionary movement must become an actual and noticeable political force."
This means the RAF…
wanted to show people a way out.
Of course, this is a well-thought-out political strategy,
but impossible to turn into reality.
Not even with violence.
The people in the GDR wanted something completely different.
MARCH 14, 1990
HELMUT KOHL IS COMING TO LEIPZIG
IN FRONT OF THE OPERA HOUSE WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 5:00 P.M.
[crowd chanting] Helmut!
[Maier-Witt] What bothered me back then already
was the idea that everything that came from the West was good.
That no one scrutinized this,
that no one said,
"Now this is capitalism,
and it isn't good."
[crowd chanting] Helmut!
On March 14, 1883,
Karl Marx died.
On March 14, 1990,
we lay his philosophy to rest.
[crowd cheering]
[Kohl] I want to tell our fellow Germans in the GDR,
no one will be worse off, but many will be better off.
[Maier-Witt] It was clear to me that nothing in the GDR would survive.
So the inevitable happened:
hardware stores opened.
And when the first Coca-Cola cans were thrown into the streets,
it was clear that all this stuff had arrived here.
I found it all very disgusting.
And in the supermarket, I thought,
"My goodness! This can't be real!
Who needs 50, 60 different types of yogurt?"
Before, in the GDR, we had one with strawberry flavor and one without.
That sufficed, too!
[woman] The free-market system pretends to offer people a chance
to secure a spot in a wealthy country called Greater Germany,
and be happy in the euphoria of consumption.
[crowd cheering]
[woman] When in reality, the system is designed
to make people ignorant and apathetic.
If security exists at all, it only exists for those who are prepared
to unconditionally sell themselves off to a greater degree than others.
For most of the humiliated and insulted people,
this development represents the destruction of their way of life.
[woman] It was and is state policy,
the notion of "Germany, our one and only fatherland,"
which made nationalism socially acceptable again,
especially in the former GDR.
This vitriolic mantra of "Now we are somebody again!
Finally, we are real Germans!"
[crowd chanting] Germany!
[woman] Since the dissolution of the GDR, openly racist attacks against refugees
and foreign residents have flared up.
[crowd chanting] Out! Foreigners out!
[woman] Fascist groups have gained in strength,
resulting in almost daily attacks against dormitories housing foreigners.
[crowd singing] ♪ Germany above all else ♪
♪ Above the whole wide world ♪
I'm impressed. Chapeau. What a comprehensive analysis.
And well-written, too.
But it doesn't fit in with the assassination, does it?
"The creation of revolutionary forces, uh…"
By killing Rohwedder, this is not a goal you could have…
uh, reached.
This doesn't make any sense.
[Maier-Witt] Why Rohwedder?
Why him, given all the ideology involved?
He, who wasn't really a hardliner in the strictest sense.
Nobody can answer this question.
Unless there's a different motivation behind all this.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Taufer] If this was done by the Stasi or someone else…
uh, as a copycat action, well, I'd be impressed.
[Matschke] The RAF was an ideal scapegoat.
The RAF was always blamed whenever an attack took place.
Whenever something happened back then, the word was: RAF.
But one must try to embrace
this endless adventure called thinking:
who benefits?
[ominous music playing]