in 1968, Mahler took part in the violent protests against the Springer Publishing House, for which he was arrested. Mahler became active as a lawyer who defended left-wing students facing criminal prosecution. By 1970, he had defended Rudi Dutschke, Beate Klarsfeld, Fritz Teufel and Rainer Langhans (both participants of the Kommune 1), Peter Brandt (the eldest son of Willy Brandt), as well as subsequent Red Army Faction members Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin. Founding of the RAF In 1970, he became a founding member of the leftist group, the Red Army Faction (RAF). Having earlier befriended Ensslin and Baader, Mahler helped plot to spring Baader from prison after his arrest that year. Once Baader escaped, the three, along with Ulrike Meinhof, committed a series of bank robberies in September 1970. The four fled to Jordan and trained in guerrilla tactics with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. After his return from Jordan, Mahler was arrested with fellow RAF members Ingrid Schubert, Brigitte Asdonk and Irene Goergens on 8 October 1970. He was tried and convicted for the bank robberies and for assisting a prison escape. By 1974, Mahler had been sentenced to fourteen years' imprisonment and had had his license to practice law revoked. Imprisonment In prison, Mahler wrote a manifesto. The rest of the RAF, however, resoundingly rejected it, effectively expelling him from the group. Mahler now advocated the policies of the KPD/AO (Organization to Rebuild the Communist Party of Germany). Then, in 1975, the Movement 2 June took Peter Lorenz hostage and demanded, among others, that Mahler be freed from prison. Mahler was offered liberty, but refused it. In 1980, Mahler was freed from prison after serving ten years of his fourteen-year sentence. This was largely due to the efforts of his lawyer, Gerhard Schröder, who would later become Chancellor of the reunited Germany. In 1988, again with the help of Schröder, Mahler was granted permission to resume practising law in Germany. Switch to far-right politics Beginning Mahler made the acquaintance of political theorists Iring Fetscher and , who visited him in prison. While the German courts noted a change in Mahler's political position in the mid-1980s, he first gained attention for it at Rohrmoser's 70th birthday celebration on 1 December 1997. There Mahler gave a speech declaring that Germany was "occupied" and had to free itself from its "debt bondage" to reestablish its national identity.