The Weiterstadt Prison Bombing

 This is one of those historical essays I occasionally write.

Over in the town of Weiterstadt (about ten minutes driving NW of Darmstadt, or an hour driving south of Frankfurt)....the West German authorities had decided to build a ultra-modern prison.  The basic idea came up in the mid-80s, and this construction period had taken around eight years.

The 'big' purpose of the prison?  Well....to house RAF (Red Army Faction) prisoners in the future.  

This prison was openly discussed by the RAF members and they would develop a master plan to destroy the facility.

Around March 1993....the RAF conducted one of it's last 'big' attacks....attempting to level the soon-to-be completed prison at Weiterstadt.  

The players?  Three RAF members....two men and one woman.

At some point in the night, they enter a facility control point and tie up around ten guards.....putting them in a van nearby.  None were harmed in this effort.

Around 200 kg of explosives are set, and right about as the sun rose....the explosives went off.  

At that point, around a quarter-billion D-Marks had been spent on construction, and eight years had been spent to build the facility.  

What the bomb had done?  Basically destroyed the entry-building or the administrative headquarters.  The rest of the structure stood....mostly undamaged.  The 200 kg?  Maybe if they'd had four to six times that amount of explosive....the whole thing would have come down.  Part of me wants to say that that was about all that they had in their possession at the time, and they simply wanted to send a 'message'.

German authorities unsettled?  No.....they simply came right back and rebuilt what was destroyed (somewhere between four and five years later....it became operational finally). 

So, here is the odd part of the story.  The three RAF folks?  They left DNA at the site.  Around 2007....the Germans identified the three (Burkhard Garweg, Ernst-Volker Wilhelm Staub and Daniela Klette). 

Where the three are today?  They've never been seen or caught. All would be in their mid-50s to late 60s.

The curious thing?  For about twenty years, all three have been figured into several grocery-store and money-transport robberies (taking a fair amount of cash).....in the northern part of Germany.

At some point around 2017....someone made a report that a guy looking like Staub was at a Venice (Italy) RV camp ground, and some folks started to think that the three have some RV or camping lifestyle around the Med.  

Germans actively looking for them?  Well...there's a poster for them, and some reward....but up until the robbery business started....no one was making that much of an effort.  

Cash flow?  If you add up the perceived robbery situations....there's probably around 1-to-1.5 million Euro taken at this point.  It's enough that if you were somewhat careful about your habits as a trio....you could 'retire-out' as a terrorist on the RV scene.  The odd factor to this end-part of the story?  If they were RV 'players'.....you'd have to have some 'friend' who helps on the tag/vehicle registration.