Andreas Baader was one of the two namesakes of the Baader-Meinhof Group (Red Army Faction). A juvenile delinquent, Baader was drawn towards the leftist student movement because of the excitement, and the potential for violence. He was convicted of the 1968 arson bombing of a Frankfurt department store, along with his girlfriend Gudrun Ensslin. He escaped from police custody in May 1970 with the help of famous journalist Ulrike Meinhof, giving birth to the so-called "Baader-Meinhof Gang."

Baader spent the next two years on the run, robbing banks, and bombing buildings. He was captured, along with fellow gang members Jan-Carl Raspe and Holger Meins in a spectacular Frankfurt shootout on 1 June, 1972.

Baader spent the next four years in prison, being tried and convicted of many counts, including murder, in the longest and most expensive trial in German history.

Depending on whom you believe, Baader was either murdered or committed suicide in his prison cell early in the morning of 18 October, 1977, on "Death Night."

Ulrike Meinhof's parents both died early, leaving Ulrike and her sister Weinke in the care of Renate Riemack, a friend of their mother's. Riemack was a devoted socialist, and a profound influence on Meinhof.

Meinhof married Klaus Rainer Röhl, publisher of the left-wing student newspaper, konkret. After a few years Meinhof became konkret's editor. Röhl and Meinhof had twin girls, Bettina and Regine, on 21 September, 1962.

Meinhof drifted away from Röhl, and towards the radical fringe of the student movement. She left her husband in the late sixties. On 14 May, 1970, she participated in the freeing of Andreas Baader, giving birth to the so-called "Baader-Meinhof Group." Though partially named after her, Meinhof was not, as is often assumed, the co-leader of the gang (Baader, along with his girlfriend Gudrun Ensslin, led the group, with Meinhof, Jan-Carl Raspe, and others comprising a second tier of leadership). She spent the next two years on the run, robbing banks and bombing buildings, before being captured on 15 June, 1972.

While in prison over the next four years, Meinhof grew increasingly depressed as the other members ostracized her. She "comitted suicide" in her cell on 9 May, 1976, though many have questioned this official explanation and instead suspect that she, like Baader, was murdered by the state.

Contrary to what many people think, Gudrun Ensslin, not Ulrike Meinhof, was the real female leader of the Baader-Meinhof Group. Gudrun was a politically active student in the 1960s. She participated in the seminal 2 June 1967 Berlin protest where a young pacifist named Benno Ohnesorg was killed. After the protest she went to the local SDS office and screamed hysterically: "This fascist state means to kill us all! Violence is the only way to answer violence!"

The next year Ensslin and her new boyfriend Andreas Baader attempted to burn down two Frankfurt am Main department stores. After serving a year in jail, Ensslin and Baader, and their two co-defendants Horst Söhnlein and Thorwald Proll were released temporarily pending an appeal. When the appeal failed, Ensslin, Baader and Proll escaped to France as fugitives. Later they agreed to become part of the lawyer Horst Mahler's new urban guerrilla group. Baader was arrested soon thereafter and Ensslin convinces her friend Ulrike Meinhof to be part of a plan to break him out of jail in May of 1970.

Ensslin was captured on 7 June 1972 in Hamburg. She was tried and convicted in the longest and most expensive trial in German history. Depending on whom you believe, she either hung herself or was murdered early in the morning of 18 October 1977 in her prison cell in Stammheim Prison (Death Night).

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."

Ingeborg Barz, a young secretary, joined the Baader-Meinhof Group in December of 1971 along with her politically active boyfriend Wolfgang Grundmann. After a few months on the run Barz called her mother on 21 February, saying that she wanted to come home. She was never seen again.

It has always been assumed that she was killed at the end of February 1972 because she wanted to leave the group. But her body's whereabouts were never properly determined. A body turned up in a forest outside of Munich in July of 1973, but it cannot conclusively be determined to be Barz's. Baader-Meinhof "traitor" Gerhard Müller later testified that Andreas Baader shot her, but his testimony was riddled with inconsistencies and questions therefore remained.

Kay-Werner Allnach was a Hamburg student in the late sixties. He was tremendously influenced by the works of Marx and Lenin. Ulrike Meinhof made periodic appearances at teach-ins and sit-ins at her university, detailing the Federal Republic of Germany's role in America's war on Communism. Meinhof left a deep impression on Allnach.

Allnach was a legal student during the early years of the Baader-Meinhof Group, surreptitiously helping the group behind the scenes. In late 1972, as the BKA and other German authorities began to put Allnach under their glare, he chose to go underground as a guerrilla.

Allnach was arrested on 2 February 1974 in Frankfurt, along with Margrit Schiller and Wolfgang Beer. Allnach was kept in solitary confinement in Frankfurt and Hamburg prisons for two years, during which time he became ill with intestinal cancer. He underwent three operations in prison; after the third, Allnach was on the brink of death. Prison authorities quietly whisked the unconscious Allnach to a hospital in the middle of the night, in a successful attempt to prevent his death. Allnach recovered, and went on trial from August of 1976 until February of 1977.

During her solitary confinement, Allnach elected to split with his comrades in the Red Army Faction. His split with the group did not mean that he would work with police authorities or testify against his former comrades; he refused to go the witness stand during her trial. Because there was little actual evidence against him, Allnach was only convicted of membership in a criminal gang and sentenced to three years imprisonment.

Eric Grusdat was a an auto shop owner recruited into the Baader-Meinhof Group soon after the founding members returned from training in Jordan. His employee Karl-Heinz Ruhland joined as well.

Grusdat participated in the infamous "triple coup," bank raid in 1970, where three Berlin banks were raided at the same time. He was arrested in December of 1970.

Dierk Hoff was not really a member of the Baader-Meinhof Gang per se, but he was instrumental in their bombing "success" in 1971 and 1972. Dierk was a Frankfurt metal sculptor who was recruited late in 1971 by Holger Meins to make props for a film about revolutionaries. By the time that he realized that his "props" were in fact real (hand grenades, etc.), Hoff was in too deep.

Hoff's most infamous invention was the so-called "baby bomb" which was attached to a woman's shoulders and carried on her belly under her blouse. It looked exactly like the distended belly of a pregnant woman. After the woman dropped the bomb in a discreet area of a public place, she would blow up a balloon and slip it underneath her dress, where the bomb was originally, and walk away. Fortunately the bomb was never used.

Hoff was arrested in 1975

Undercover name: "Harp." Hans-Jürgen Bäcker was with the Baader-Meinhof Gang from its first days before Andreas Baader was rescued from police custody in May 1970. He trained in Jordan with the other original core members of the group shortly after Baader's escape.

After a tipster led to the arrest of Horst Mahler, Brigitte Asdonk, Irene Goergens, and Ingrid Schubert on 8 October 1970, members of the gang began to suspect Bäcker of being a traitor. He left the gang soon thereafter.

Bäcker was arrested on 2 February 1971. In 1974 he was tried and acquitted of participating in the raid that rescued Baader.

Holger Meins joined the Baader-Meinhof Gang early in 1971. A leftist Berlin film student, he was tired of being hassled by the police for his political views and wanted to take some direct action. He was to become one of the primary members of the group. Meins was arrested on 1 June 1972 along with Jan-Carl Raspe and Andreas Baader in a bloody Frankfurt shootout.

In prison the gang would call periodic hunger strikes. There was evidence that some of the leaders, such as Baader, faked their hunger strikes. But Meins clearly did not fake his. He died on 11 November 1974 from a hungerstrike. Over six feet tall, Meins weighed less than 100 pounds at death.

In many ways Horst Mahler can be considered the founder of the Baader-Meinhof Gang. A brilliant socialist lawyer and architect, Mahler began to look for ways to turn his Marxist theory into praxis. His idea was to create a band of Urban Guerillas who would help foment a Marxist revolution. Among his first recruits in the spring of 1970: a couple of fugitive arsonists, Gudrun Ensslin and her boyfriend Andreas Baader.

As brilliant as Mahler was, he was prone to fouling things up occasionally. Once, when Baader was in custody but the police did not know his identity yet, Mahler called up the police station as asked for information about a "Herr Baader" that they had arrested the previous night. Needless to say there was little question as to Baader's identity after that.

Mahler participated, and possibly organized, the Baader-Meinhof trip to the Jordan training camp. Mahler was arrested along with Ingrid Schubert, Brigitte Asdonk, and Irene Goergens in October of 1970.

In prison Mahler set to work on a manifesto for the group. When it was released, the other members of the group disavowed it, and essentially kicked Mahler out of the group that he founded. Mahler was ultimately convicted of several charges.

In 1975 the Berlin mayoral candidate Peter Lorenz was kidnapped. The terrorists demanded the release of several of their imprisoned comrades, including Mahler. Their demands were accepted but Mahler refused to go.

Mahler was released from prison early in the 1980's. His politics have completely reversed since the 1960s and 1970s, and now Mahler practices extremely conservative politics.

Stachowiak joined the Baader-Meinhof Gang late in 1970. She was just 17. She was arrested not too long afterwards on 12 April 1971 at the Frankfurt train station after a policeman recognized her from her wanted poster.

She was not long in police custody because she apparently participated in the May 24, 1972 bomb attack on Springer Press's Hamburg headquarters. She was arrested again on 1 February 1974.

Not really a full-time member of the Baader-Meinhof Group, Söhnlein participated with Andreas Baader, Thorwald Proll, and Gudrun Ensslin in the April 1968 Frankfurt department store arsons.

Söhnlein was a founder of Munich's Action Theater in the early sixties. His participation in the arsons was possibly a lark. Along with his three comrades he was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in the arsons. Unlike his comrades however, Söhnlein did not flee after the his government-sponsored amnesty program was over in 1970. Söhnlein went back to prison and apparently never returned to his youthful fling with terrorism.

A young Berlin doctor, Ingrid Schubert participated in the freeing of Andreas Baader from the Dahlem Institute for Social Research in May of 1970. Schubert was arrested in October of that year with Horst Mahler, Irene Goergens, and Brigitte Asdonk. She was later given 13 years in prison for her participation the Baader breakout.

In 1976 she was transferred to Stammheim prison, supposedly to comfort Gudrun Ensslin after the suicide of Ulrike Meinhof. After the Stammheim "suicides" of Ensslin, Baader, and Jan-Carl Raspe, Schubert was transferred to Munich's Stadelheim prison. Two weeks later, on 13 November 1977, Schubert committed suicide in prison.

Berberich was a junior lawyer in Horst Mahler's Socialist Lawyers Collective. She joined up with the burgeoning Baader-Meinhof Group when Andreas Baader was rescued from police custody in May 1970. Berberich was arrested soon after the group returned from training in the Jordanian desert.

A member of the lumpenproletariat, and a former drug addict, Hoppe joined the group sometime between late 1970 and mid-1971. Hoppe was arrested on 15 July 1971 during the police shootout where Petra Schelm was killed.