West German Embassy siege in Stockholm

West German Embassy siege
West German Embassy siege
	German embassy in Stockholm (photo from 2008)
Location	Stockholm, Sweden
Coordinates	59°20′4.36″N 18°6′22.96″E / 59.3345444°N 18.1063778°E
Date	24 April 1975 ; 12.00 – 23.47 (CET)
Target	West German embassy
Attack type	Siege, hostage crisis
Weapons	TNT, submachine guns
Deaths	2 embassy personnel,; 2 perpetrators
Injured	10 embassy personnel, ; 4 perpetrators
Perpetrators	Kommando Holger Meins/Red Army Faction

The West German Embassy siege in Stockholm, Sweden, was a hostage standoff initiated by the Red Army Faction (RAF) on 24 April 1975.^[1] Collectively, the attackers referred to themselves as Kommando Holger Meins, after Holger Meins, an RAF member who had died of starvation during a (collective) hunger strike in Wittlich Prison on 9 November 1974.

The RAF group carried out the attack with the goal of forcing the release of RAF members and others^[2] from prison in West Germany.^[3] During the siege they stated: "The Holger Meins Commando is holding members of the embassy staff in order to free prisoners in West Germany. If the police move in, we shall blow the building up with 15 kilos of TNT."

^ "BBC on this day 24 April". BBC News. 24 April 1975. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
^ Dellwo, Karl-Heinz (2007). Das Projektil sind Wir (in German). Hamburg: Verlag Lutz Schulenburg. p. 5. ISBN 978-3-89401-556-5.
^ Ascherson, Neal (28 September 2008). "A terror campaign of love and hate". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 23 July 2015.

[1] "BBC on this day 24 April". BBC News. 24 April 1975. Retrieved 23 July 2015.

[Dellwo-2] Dellwo, Karl-Heinz (2007). Das Projektil sind Wir (in German). Hamburg: Verlag Lutz Schulenburg. p. 5. ISBN 978-3-89401-556-5.

[3] Ascherson, Neal (28 September 2008). "A terror campaign of love and hate". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 23 July 2015.

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