Hamburg's brand plan: solidarity with the RAF or a serious mistake?

Hamburg's brand plan: solidarity with the RAF or a serious mistake?

On October 6, 2025, there is an exciting process before the Verden district court, which arouses great public interest. Two men from Hamburg at the age of 36 and 38 are suspected of having planned an arson attack to have solidarity with former terrorists of the Red Army Group (RAF) to demonstrate. The verdict is expected on October 13, and the public prosecutor calls for a prison sentence of one year and four months as well as the payment of 1,000 euros each for each defendant.

The public prosecutor has raised severe guns. The defendants confessed to discussing a crime agree with an accomplice in 2018 while they were masked and traveling with petrol bottles in the city of Verden. Their declared goal was to move the former “Meyer building”, to which the public prosecutor's office has been planning since 2023. But the two men were discovered by a police patrol and their planned arson was prevented.

The background of the planned attack

A suspected letter of confession that was found when searching the apartments and a car of the accused expresses solidarity with former RAF terrorists. The content ends with the words: "From a spark of solidarity to a spark of hope". Despite the serious allegations, the accused emphasize that they never intended to actually set a building on fire, but only to light car tires on the street in order to send a sign against the persecution of the former RAF fighters.

The court negotiates in the context of a comprehensive procedure against former RAF terrorists who are accused of 13 robberies between 1999 and 2016. These raids result in a captured sum of 2.7 million euros, a huge amount that illustrates the dimension of the criminal machinations of the RAF. The well -known case of the arrested Daniela Klette, who has been on trial in Berlin since February 2024, suggests how far the topic remains in Germany.

The eternal shadow of the RAF

The Red Army Group was a center of left -wing extremist terror in Germany from the 1970s to their self -resolution in 1998. Originally founded in response to the Vietnam War, the RAF carried out numerous attacks, bank raids and kidnappings that shaped the image of the FRG in the world. Famous personalities such as Ulrike Meinhof and Andreas Baader were among their leading heads and still symbolically stand for this violent protest movement.

The current negotiation in Verden, which will continue until mid -November, underlines the persistent relevance of the RAF and its ideology in German society, even if the group itself has not been active for over two decades. It remains to be seen whether the accusations raised for the two Hamburg men prove to be serious enough to bring them behind grids. The tension before the verdict is literally noticeable.

In the event of conviction under certain conditions, probation penalties could also be pronounced, which shows how complex the legal assessment of such cases is. A third accused who did not appear in court are also in focus and could also be fined or custody.

The negotiation stands as an example of dealing with recent German history and raises questions about dealing with extremist ideologies and their aftermath. A topic that will also be discussed for a long time in Cologne and beyond.