Josef Erwin Bachmann (12 October 1944 – 24 February 1970) became widely known in Germany for his assassination attempt on the Marxist activist Rudi Dutschke, firing three bullets at him, on 11 April 1968.
Bachmann was born on 12 October 1944 in Reichenbach im Vogtland, Saxony and grew up in East Germany in a family situation that had been described as difficult.
[2] In 2009, it emerged that Bachmann had contact with an active cell of neo-Nazis in Peine starting in 1961 and that he participated in shooting practice with them.
[1] Bachmann left his place of work in Munich on 10 April 1968 and travelled by train to Berlin.
On Dutschke's confirmation, Bachmann pulled his gun and shot him with three bullets, calling him a "dirty communist pig".
[4] In the attempt on his life, Dutschke suffered brain damage and had to learn to speak again.