The Lawyer Terrorist and His Comrades

Horst Mahler, a young lawyer who had fled to West Berlin, was the cofounder of the Red Army Faction. While imprisoned for committing acts of terror, he and other leading terrorists directed raids and kidnappings against the "system." His published interviews and "cell circulars" provide important insights into the multicausal factors in the making of a terrorist: (1) Apprehensions over the profound progress of scientific and technological progress exploited by the capitalist system. (2) Blame directed toward the father's generation for the horrors of the Hitler system and complicity with the expansionistic United States. (3) Inability to identify with an adequate father figure which led to anti-authoritarian stance and overcompensation when the terrorists exercised their own ruthless authority. Enclosure in the underground reinforced hostility. The psychological mechanisms caused by withdrawal from society fostered commission of dehumanized acts.