Explosives attack on the Rhein-Main Air Base

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Access gate to the air base (photo 1980)

The bomb attack on the Rhein-Main Air Base took place on August 8, 1985 in Frankfurt am Main and was carried out by terrorists from the Red Army Faction (RAF) and Action Directe by parking and detonating a car with an explosive charge on the air base . Two people were killed and 23 injured in the explosion . The soldier Edward Pimental had been shot the night before in order to enter the air base area with his troop ID. The deeds sparked sharp criticism and continued discussion in the left-wing scene.

Execution of Edward Pimentals

In preparation for the attack, Birgit Hogefeld lured the US soldier Edward Pimental out of a Wiesbaden discotheque on the evening of August 7, 1985 with the prospect of a love affair; he was shot in the night. The perpetrators appropriated his troop ID (US Military ID).

Explosives attack

With the help of this ID, a male RAF member managed to smuggle a VW Passat through the controls and park it in the air base parking lot. At 7:19 a.m., five gas bottles and a box bomb with 126 kilograms of explosives exploded in the rear of the car. As a result, two people were so seriously injured that they died shortly afterwards: US soldier Frank H. Scarton (20), who tore open his face and stomach and who died on the spot, and civilian employee Becky Jo Bristol (25), who did the left side of the head was torn open and did not survive the ambulance. 23 other people were injured, including a German civil worker and another US soldier seriously; both suffered permanent damage. Everyone was on their way to work. The property damage amounted to about one million DM (today's value about 910,000 euros ).

classification

On August 9, 1985, two press agencies and the Frankfurter Rundschau received letters of confession with emblems of the RAF and Action Directe, in which a “ George Jackson command” claimed responsibility for the attack. On August 13, 1985, the Reuters news agency in Frankfurt am Main received a copy of the letter and Pimentals ID. To justify it, it referred to the military strategic importance of the air base: As one of the hubs for operations by the US air force around the Mediterranean Sea and in the Middle East , the US would fight against international terrorism here to enforce imperialist power interests. This pursued the strategy of the May 1982 paper , which is considered the basis of the actions of the third generation of the RAF , of taking action against military targets with international support. It was the only concrete collaboration between the two groups. Investigative authorities were surprised and alarmed by the attack because - as with the last attack on Ernst Zimmermann - the targets were no longer decision-makers in social institutions as symbolic figures, but rather people without a prominent position.

Consequences for the RAF

While the murder of the soldier Pimental was the subject of a heated debate that lasted for months, especially in the left-wing scene and among the supporters of the RAF (for details, see the article by Edward Pimental ), the explosive bomb itself and its effects were by no means as strongly present in the public discussion. In order to be able to better justify the shooting of Pimentals, the command level of the RAF tried to always place it in the context and in relation to the attack on the air base, which, however, did not let the accusation of the "functionalist" killing be softened. On August 27, 1985, the Frankfurter Rundschau received another letter of confession, this time written by the RAF alone. This justified the murder of Pimental in particular, as he was the source of most of the indignation. Five months later, the command level admitted in a statement that they had made a mistake with this “action”: “Today we say that the shooting of the Gi in the specific situation in the summer was a mistake that reduced the impact of the attack against the air-base and thus the disputes over the politico-military determination of the action, like the offensive in general. "

Legal processing

The RAF members Birgit Hogefeld and Eva Haule were identified as those involved. Both were put on trial for this reason and convicted as accomplices : Haule - already in custody for another offense - in a trial before the State Security Senate of the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main from 1993, in which she was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1994 , and Hogefeld after her Arrested during the GSG-9 mission in Bad Kleinen before the same Senate from 1994, which also sentenced her to life imprisonment in 1996. Hogefeld had been identified by witnesses and by comparing letters as the buyer of the vehicle, which is why the court found her complicity in the bomb attack as proven. As evidence against Haule, two receipts written by her were used, which had been found on the imprisoned RAF member Manuela Happe in 1990 and in which she had identified herself with the crimes.

literature

  • Alexander Straßner : The third generation of the “Red Army Fraction”. Formation, structure, functional logic and disintegration of a terrorist organization. Westdeutscher Verlag, Wiesbaden 2003, ISBN 3-531-14114-7 (also dissertation, University of Passau), chapter "The Rhein-Main-Airbase in Frankfurt", p. 137 f. (Preview) .
  • Butz Peters : Deadly mistake. The history of the RAF. Argon, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-87024-673-1 , chapter "Edward Pimental and the Rhein-Main-Airbase", pp. 609–614.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ To the details Butz Peters: Tödlicher Errtum. The history of the RAF. Argon, Berlin 2004, p. 610 f .; Terrorists: The P-Man. In: Der Spiegel , August 19, 1985; Matthias Naß : Terror against NATO. In: Die Zeit , 23 August 1985.
  2. ↑ Alexander Straßner: The third generation of the "Red Army Fraction". Formation, structure, functional logic and disintegration of a terrorist organization. Westdeutscher Verlag, Wiesbaden 2003, p. 137.
  3. ↑ Alexander Straßner: The third generation of the "Red Army Fraction". Formation, structure, functional logic and disintegration of a terrorist organization. Westdeutscher Verlag, Wiesbaden 2003, p. 303.
  4. ^ Butz Peters: Deadly error. The history of the RAF. Argon, Berlin 2004, p. 612.
  5. ↑ Alexander Straßner: The third generation of the "Red Army Fraction". Formation, structure, functional logic and disintegration of a terrorist organization. Westdeutscher Verlag, Wiesbaden 2003, p. 137 f.
  6. ^ Declaration by the RAF of August 25, 1985 .
  7. ^ Butz Peters: Deadly error. The history of the RAF. Argon, Berlin 2004, p. 614.
  8. ^ Sven Felix Kellerhoff : Eva Haule - The unknown face of the RAF. In: Die Welt , August 17, 2007. The procedure against Haule is described in detail in Klaus Pflieger's memoir : Against Terror. A prosecutor's memories. Verrai, Stuttgart 2016, pp. 272–280.

Coordinates: 50 ° 1 '47.4 "  N , 8 ° 35' 0.4"  E