Gert Schneider (RAF member)

Gert Richard Schneider (born December 10, 1948 in Berlin ) is a former German terrorist of the Red Army Faction (RAF). He was arrested on November 10, 1977 together with Christof Wackernagel in Amsterdam . He was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for attempted murder because of the shooting when he was arrested in Düsseldorf in 1980 . In 1983 he distanced himself from the RAF and was released early from prison in 1987.

Life

Schneider studied mathematics at the University of Kaiserslautern from 1970 . In 1971 he joined the SPD and was involved in the Socialist University Association . In the summer of 1972 he became a consultant for university questions for the general student committee (AStA) of the university. Unhappy with the policies of the Socialist Hochschulbund he joined the group "Anti-Fascist Struggle" "to. He was active against the solitary confinement of the RAF founding members and distributed before the District Court Kaiserslautern leaflets on which against the prison conditions Klaus Jünschkes protesting. In the spring of 1977 Schneider was on trial for forgery of documents . When the premises of the AStA in Kaiserslautern were searched in June 1977, he was involved in a dispute with the police. At the end of September 1977 he went into hiding, obtained a weapon and forged papers.

After the Schleyer kidnapping , Gert Schneider, as well as Christof Wackernagel and Monika Helbing , traveled to the Iraqi capital Baghdad , where the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine ran training camps. Also Susanne Albrecht , Friederike Krabbe , Elisabeth von Dyck , Brigitte Mohnhaupt and Peter-Jürgen Boock came to Baghdad.

In November 1977 Schneider and Wackernagel traveled to Amsterdam to get painkillers for Peter-Jürgen Boock. On the evening of November 10, 1977, they entered a conspiratorial apartment that was being observed by the Dutch police. That same evening, Schneider and Wackernagel were put at a telephone booth and arrested after an exchange of fire. Schneider ignited a hand grenade and was seriously injured by several shots. In October 1978 Schneider and Wackernagel were extradited to Germany and in 1980 sentenced by the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court to fifteen years' imprisonment for attempted murder . He mainly served the sentence in the Bochum correctional facility .

Schneider distanced himself from the RAF in 1983 and was released early from prison in 1987. He lived as a film clerk in Frankfurt am Main until he retired.

Publications

• MAW van de Hanegraaff Colff, Gert Schneider and Christof Wackernagel (eds.): The trial against Christof and Gert is a trial against the RAF. Documentation on the Düsseldorf RAF trial against Gert Schneider and Christof Wackernagel. Self-released; Political Buchh, Amsterdam, Bochum 1980.
• MAW van de Hanegraaff Colff, Gert Schneider and Christof Wackernagel: Declaration "on the matter". The "accused" is called the RAF. Self-released; Political Buchh, Amsterdam, Bochum 1980.
• Everything you always wanted to know about the RAF , in: Die Tageszeitung , January 31, 1984, p. 9.

literature

• Tobias Wunschik: Baader-Meinhof's children. The second generation of the RAF . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 1997, ISBN 9783531130880 .