Jan-Carl Raspe

Raspe was born in Seefeld in Tirol (then Germany, now Austria). He was described as gentle but had difficulty communicating with other people. His father, a businessman, died before his birth and Raspe and his two older sisters were raised by his mother and two aunts.{{Cite book |last=Post |first=Jerrold M. |title=The Mind of the Terrorist : The Psychology of Terrorism from the IRA to Al-Qaeda |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-230-60859-7 |location=New York |pages=127 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Aust |first=Stefan |title=Baader-Meinhof : The Inside Story of the R.A.F. |publisher=Oxford University Press |others=Translated by Anthea Bell |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-19-537275-5 |location=Oxford |pages=86 |language=en}} Although living in East Berlin, he went to West Berlin when the Berlin Wall was built in 1961, and stayed there, living with his uncle and aunt. He co-founded Kommune II in 1967{{Cite book |last=Walker |first=Ian |title=Zoo Station : Adventures in East and West Berlin |publisher=Secker & Warburg |year=1987 |isbn=0-436-56093-3 |location=London |pages=31 |language=en}} and joined the Red Army Faction, also known as the "Baader-Meinhof Group", in 1970.{{Cite book |last=Atkins |first=Stephen E. |title=Encyclopedia of modern worldwide extremists and extremist groups |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0313324857 |location=Westport, Conn. |pages=265 |language=en}}

Image:Grabstätte Baader, Raspe, Ensslin.jpg

Raspe had technical skills,{{cite web | url=https://www.gea.de/welt/politik_artikel,-der-bastler-_arid,444604.html | title=Der Bastler - Politik-Nachrichten - Reutlinger General-Anzeiger }} and is believed to have made the bombs for the {{ill|Mai-Offensive der Rote Armee Fraktion|lt=May 1972 offensive|de}}. In that year, Raspe was involved in five bomb attacks that killed four people{{cite web | url=https://www.stammheim-prozess.de/urteil/ | title=Urteil | date=9 November 2021 }} and injured over 50.

On 1 June 1972, Raspe along with Andreas Baader and Holger Meins had gone to check on a garage in Frankfurt where they had been storing materials used to make incendiary devices. Raspe had gone along as the driver (they were driving a Porsche Targa). However, as soon as they arrived at the garage, police began to swarm around the scene. Meins and Baader had already entered the garage and were surrounded but Raspe, who had remained by the car, fired a shot from his gun and tried to run away when he was rushed by police, but to no avail; he was caught and arrested in a nearby garden. Meins and Baader were arrested soon after.

Raspe was convicted on 28 April 1977 and sentenced to life imprisonment.{{Cite book |last=Hockenos |first=Paul |title=Joschka Fischer and the Making of the Berlin Republic : An Alternative History of Postwar Germany |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-19-804016-3 |location=Oxford |pages=123 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last1=Carlton |first1=David |title=Contemporary Terror : Studies in Sub-State Violence |last2=Schaerf |first2=Carlo |publisher=Taylor & Francis |others=International School on Disarmament and Research on Conflicts |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-317-42430-7 |location=Abingdon, Oxon |pages=135 |language=en}} On 18 October 1977, Raspe was found with a gunshot wound in his cell in Stammheim Prison, Stuttgart. He died shortly after being admitted to a hospital.{{cite web|author=Childs, David|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/hans-filbinger-443969.html|title=Hans Filbinger|newspaper=The Independent|date=9 April 2007|access-date=5 April 2009|archive-date=21 May 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110521093632/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/hans-filbinger-443969.html}}Hofmann, Paul (19 October 1977). [https://www.nytimes.com/1977/10/19/archives/new-jersey-pages-3-jailed-german-terrorists-reported-suicides-as.html "3 JAILED GERMAN TERRORISTS REPORTED SUICIDES AS HOSTAGES FROM HIJACKED PLANE FLY HOME"]. The New York Times. Retrieved 27 April 2019.{{cite web|url=https://www.dw.com/en/new-pictures-of-raf-terror-cell-events-unearthed-in-germany/a-3539419|title=New Pictures of RAF Terror Cell Events Unearthed in Germany|publisher=Deutsche Welle|date=5 August 2008|archive-date=27 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427183419/https://www.dw.com/en/new-pictures-of-raf-terror-cell-events-unearthed-in-germany/a-3539419|access-date=27 April 2019|url-status=bot: unknown}} Fellow RAF members and inmates, Baader and Gudrun Ensslin, were found dead in their cells the same morning. Irmgard Möller was found in her cell, wounded after supposedly stabbing herself in the chest, but survived. The official inquiry concluded that this was a collective suicide, but again alternative theories abounded.

The Red Army Faction created in 1984 the "Commando Jan Raspe" in solidarity and remembrance of him. The commando parked a car loaded with explosives in front of the NATO School in Oberammergau. The cadres for NATO's integrated staff were trained there. The car was noticed and the bomb was defused. RAF said the aim of the action was to eliminate the military there.{{Cite web |title=Kommando Jan Raspe {{!}} Social History Portal |url=https://socialhistoryportal.org/index.php/raf/text/307188 |access-date=28 February 2024 |website=socialhistoryportal.org}}

• Members of the RAF

• [http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/stammheim.htm The Stammheim Deaths]

{{Members of the Red Army Faction}}

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Category:1944 births

Category:1977 deaths

Category:1977 suicides

Category:People from Innsbruck-Land District

Category:Members of the Red Army Faction

Category:Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund members

Category:German prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment

Category:Suicides by firearm in Germany

Category:People convicted on terrorism charges

Category:Prisoners who died in German detention

Category:German people who died in prison custody

Category:People who died by suicide in prison custody

Category:Suicides in West Germany