At 10:19 p.m. on 26 September 1980, a bomb exploded in a rubbish bin near the main entrance to the Oktoberfest, killing seven people instantly; five others died of their injuries and a further 213 survivors were registered as injured,[6] many of whom lost limbs in the blast.

[2] Close to radical right-wing circles, Köhler had trained twice with the Wehrsportgruppe Hoffmann, a neo-Nazi militia;[10] a picture of Adolf Hitler was found hanging over his bed after the attack.

[2] However, during the initial Bavarian investigation led by the LKA, the crime was not regarded as politically inspired, and Köhler's motives were deemed to be primarily personal by the Federal Prosecution at the time.

Several elements have raised doubts among representatives of victims and some politicians regarding the conclusions of the 1980 investigations, particularly against the motive of the terrorist and the official theory of the lone wolf attack.

[8][7]Köhler was allegedly holding a small suitcase during the attack, which has been seen laying a few meters from the trashcan by some witness, but no trace of such an item was found by the police.

[7] One week prior the attack, another woman saw a car with 5 persons near the entrance to the Oktoberfest, reportedly with a large concealed object wrapped on the back seat.

A senior investigator told Süddeutsche Zeitung that "the perpetrator acted out of a right-wing extremist motive ... Gundolf Köhler wanted to influence the 1980 federal election.

One of the two friends told his lawyer that Köhler had shown him the grenade from which the bomb was made before the crime occurred, although investigators could not find evidence of their implication beyond mere knowledge of a possible terrorist plot.

[2] Despite the interrogation of some 1,008 witnesses and survivors, along with the extensive review of 300,000 documents from national authorities, including radical right-wing records from the 1970s, the federal prosecutor's office concluded in 2020 that "there were not sufficient indications for the involvement of other people either as accomplices, instigators or helpers", but that the hypothesis "[could] be ruled out".