On Wednesday, German investigators worked through hundreds of tips about two fugitive suspected ex-members of the radical left-wing militant Red Army Faction after one of their former comrades was arrested last month after decades in hiding, according to Breitbart.
Members of Hard-Left Terrorist Group Arrested in Germany After 30 Years on Runhttps://t.co/CbxQMRCWXP
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 27, 2024
Daniela Klette, 65, who had been living under a false identity in Berlin, was arrested on Feb. 26. She stands accused of taking part in a succession of robberies between 1999 and 2016. The robberies took place after the Red Army Faction was disbanded.
Along with two other suspected ex-members of the Red Army Faction — Ernst-Volker Staub, 69, and Burkhard Garweg, 55 — Klette is suspected of robbery and attempted murder. Staub and Garweg are still at large.
The Red Army Faction was the product of German students protesting the Vietnam War. The group killed 34 people while hundreds of others were injured.
For most of the 1970s, the Baader-Meinhof Gang — i.e. The Red Army Faction — robbed banks, bombed military bases and murdered policemen in West Germany. The goal was to overthrow what its members saw as “the fascist state,” according to The New York Times.
The gang drew a measure of support that violent leftists in the United States, like the Weather Underground, were never able to. Sadly, today violent leftist groups like Black Lives Matter enjoy widespread support in the U.S.
Baader, one of the founders, was a charismatic, spoiled psychopath, according to the Times. When the gang took to robbing banks, the media compared its members to Bonnie and Clyde.
A quarter of West Germans under 40 felt polled at the time had sympathy for the gang. A tenth of those polled said they would hide a gang member from the police.
The faction’s raison d’etre was what members saw as U.S. imperialism and capitalist persecution of workers. The group claimed it broke up in 1998.
Investigators believe Garweg was no stranger to Klette’s apartment and that he has lived at various locations in Berlin for years. Klette appears to have been in “very close contact” with Garweg.
Staub was also linked to Klette’s apartment, according to the investigators. Driver’s licenses and other identification found at the apartment showed that Klette had been using four aliases.
Police and prosecutors are examining approximately 760 new tips they have revived since Klette’s arrest.
