Editing Red Army Faction (section)

=== "Stammheim Death Night" ===

[[File:Grabstätte Baader, Raspe, Ensslin.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.7|Burial site of Baader, Raspe and Ensslin]]
After the conclusion of the Landshut hostage crisis was announced in the late evening of 17 October, all the RAF members incarcerated in Stammheim committed suicide during the following night. Their lawyer, Arndt Müller, had smuggled pistols into the prison.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}} Andreas Baader and Jan-Carl Raspe shot themselves with these weapons{{snd}}Baader in the back of his head<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aust |first1=Stefan |title=Baader-Meinhof |date=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=411 |url=https://thelul.org/library/stefan-aust-the-baader-meinhof-complex#toc164}}</ref>{{snd}} while Gudrun Ensslin hanged herself. [[Irmgard Möller]] tried to kill herself with a knife, but survived severely injured. The suicides went unnoticed until early next morning. Doctors were rushed in. Baader and Ensslin were already dead when found. Raspe was still alive and moved to the hospital where he died soon after. Möller recovered after being brought to a hospital.<ref>{{cite book |last=Terhoeven |first=Petra |year=2013 |title=Deutscher Herbst in Europa: Der Linksterrorismus der siebziger Jahre als transnationales Phänomen |trans-title=The German Autumn in Europe: The leftwing terrorism of the 70s as a transnational phenomenon |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3486855586 |language=de |pages=17–21}}</ref> Authorities claimed that the prisoners{{snd}}who had been held in isolation for weeks<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aust |first1=Stefan |title=Baader-Meinhof |date=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=346–347 |url=https://thelul.org/library/stefan-aust-the-baader-meinhof-complex#toc145}}</ref>{{snd}}learned of the failure of the hijacking through smuggled radio equipment, and coordinated the group suicide over an improvised electronic communication system between their maximum-security cells, which had been under surveillance during previous hostage crises.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aust |first1=Stefan |title=Baader-Meinhof |date=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=426–432 |url=https://thelul.org/library/stefan-aust-the-baader-meinhof-complex#toc168}}</ref>

The coordinated attempt sparked numerous [[conspiracy theories]]. It was alleged that the RAF members did not kill themselves, but instead were killed by the German authorities, the [[Federal Intelligence Service|BND]], [[CIA]], the United States and [[NATO]]. These theories were spread by RAF supporters and sympathizers, and some were taken up by the mainstream press. Available evidence shows that these suicides were planned and prepared for a long time by the RAF members.{{sfn|Terhoeven|2013|pp=17–21}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Kraushaar |first=Wolfgang |author-link=Wolfgang Kraushaar |year=2006 |volume=I |title=Die RAF und der linke Terrorismus |trans-title=The RAF and leftwing terrorism |publisher=HIS |isbn=978-3-936 096-65-1 |language=de |page=53}}</ref>

On the very same day, [[Hanns Martin Schleyer|Hanns-Martin Schleyer]] was shot to death by his captors en route to [[Mulhouse]], France. On 19 October, Schleyer's kidnappers announced that he had been "executed" and pinpointed his location. His body was recovered later that day in the trunk of a green [[Audi 100]] on Rue [[Charles Péguy]]. The French newspaper {{lang|fr|[[Libération]]}} received a letter declaring:
{{blockquote|After 43 days we have ended Hanns-Martin Schleyer's pitiful and corrupt existence{{nbsp}}... His death is meaningless to our pain and our rage{{nbsp}}... The struggle has only begun. Freedom through armed, anti-imperialist struggle.}}