Young Jan-Carl Raspe, living in East Berlin, found himself on the west side of the Berlin Wall when the East Germans raised on the night of 12 August 1961. He decided to stay in the west, living with relatives. In 1967 he helped found Kommune II, an experimental Berlin commune that actually pre-dated the wild and raucous Kommune I, but was named later.

Raspe was with the Baader-Meinhof Gang from the day's of Andreas Baader's escape from police custody in 1970. He was captured along with Baader and Holger Meins by police in a bloody Frankfurt shootout 1 July 1972.

Raspe was tried with Ulrike Meinhof, Baader, and Gudrun Ensslin in a trial held on the grounds of Stuttgart's Stammheim prison. After the longest trial in German history, Raspe was convicted along with Baader and Ensslin (Meinhof committed suicide in 1976) of murder and other counts, and sentenced to life. Depending on whom you believe, Raspe either committed suicide or was murdered in prison early in the morning of 18 October 1977, on "Death Night."