Andreas Baron von Mirbach

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Andreas Baron von Mirbach (born April 9, 1931 in Riga , † April 24, 1975 in Stockholm , Sweden ) was a German officer and diplomat who was murdered by terrorists of the Red Army Faction (RAF) when Stockholm was taken hostage .

Life

Andreas Baron von Mirbach was the second of three sons of Ernst Baron von Mirbach (1888–1968) and Erica von Gernet (1899–1992).

From 1946 to 1952 he attended the Carl Hunnius boarding school in Wyk auf Föhr. After finishing school, von Mirbach began training as a poultry farmer in Nice and Ludwigsburg , after which he worked for a year at the State Agricultural Institute in Wiad (near Stockholm) from 1955 to 1956. During this time he learned Swedish . He left the profession of poultry farmer to join the newly founded Bundeswehr on February 1, 1956 as an officer candidate . After completing the general staff course and working in the Bundeswehr and NATO staff, he began training as a military attaché in January 1973 . In the summer of 1973 he took up his post at the German Embassy in Stockholm .

In July 1958 he married Christa von Roth. The twins Clais Oluv and Inga Verena come from the marriage.

As a military attaché he was murdered by terrorists of the Red Army Faction during the occupation of the FRG embassy in Stockholm . After the Swedish police had occupied the basement of the embassy, ​​the hostage-takers commissioned von Mirbach to negotiate. The negotiations lasted about an hour. One of the demands of the hostage takers was that von Mirbach should persuade the police officers to withdraw from the ground floor of the embassy building they were occupying, otherwise he would be shot. When the police did not comply with the request to withdraw after multiple extensions of the ultimatum, one of the hostage bombers shot von Mirbach from behind with five shots in the head, back, pelvis and legs and threw head first down the stairs. Only an hour later were two Swedish policemen stripped of their pants to rescue Mirbach, who died two hours later after an operation in the University Hospital of Stockholm. After the shooting, the police withdrew to an outbuilding. It is unclear who fired the shots from the RAF, as there were no neutral witnesses and the RAF terrorists have so far remained silent.

family

  • Since 1958 his wife Christa geb. von Roth (* 1933)
  • Children: the twins Clais and Verena (* 1963)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gerhard Brugmann (Ed.): Misdroy, Wyk, Hemmelmark. Three Christian conservative boarding schools. Chronosverlag, Berlin 2001. p. 410
  2. ↑ Dieter H. Kollmer, Murdered by Terrorists. Lieutenant Colonel Andreas Baron von Mirbach, in: Military history. Journal for historical education, 3/2019, pp. 18–21, here pp. 19–21.
  3. ↑ Dieter H. Kollmer, Murdered by Terrorists. Lieutenant Colonel Andreas Baron von Mirbach, in: Military history. Journal for Historical Education, 3/2019, pp. 18–21, here p. 20.
  4. ↑ What do we know about terrorism? Book author Anne Siemens spoke to relatives of victims of the RAF. In: FAZ . February 12, 2007.
  5. ^ Butz Peters : The Terror of Stockholm - Die Welt , April 25, 2005
personal data
SURNAME Mirbach, Andreas von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mirbach, Andreas Baron von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer and diplomat, victim of terrorism in the RAF
DATE OF BIRTH April 9, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Riga
DATE OF DEATH April 24, 1975
Place of death Stockholm , Sweden