ABSTRACT
For over fifteen years the Federal Republic of Germany has lived with terrorist attacks. The terrorists were looked upon as a new type of Robin Hood bandits. Self-isolation from normal prisoners on the part of the Rote Armee Fraktion (RAF) terrorists by means of their extreme unfriendly behaviour led to strong group cohesion. On 8 September 1977 the leader of the SPD, Willy Brandt, addressed the terrorist sympathizers in an appeal published in the media. The German Conference of Bishops published a statement on 21 September 1977 in which it said, inter alia: Numerous faculties in our high schools and universities have for many years taught and recommended theories of non-acceptance of and violence against developed industrial societies. On 19 October 1977 the kidnappers murdered Hanns Martin Schleyer. In their communique on the murder of Hanns Martin Schleyer, the RAF immediately stated that the death of the prisoners of Stammheim had been a 'massacre'.
