Kidnapping and murder of Hanns Martin Schleyer

German industrial leader and former Nazi SS officer Hanns Martin Schleyer was kidnapped on 5 September 1977, by the Red Army Faction (RAF), also known as Baader-Meinhof Gang, in Cologne, West Germany.

It was intended to force the West German government to release Andreas Baader and three other RAF members being held at the Stammheim Prison near the city of Stuttgart.

West German GSG9 forces liberated the hostages on 18 October 1977, this made the news on radio, after which three RAF leaders died in prison.

[citation needed] Several local police officers were convinced that Schleyer was held in the aforementioned highrise close to the autobahn.

[citation needed] One investigator had rung the doorbell of the apartment in question, but nobody had conveyed this information to the crisis center of the federal police.

[4] [citation needed] Hours after the German counterterrorism unit GSG 9 ended the Palestinian hijack of Lufthansa Flight 181,[relevant?]