Finance Minister Helmut Schmidt ( SPD ) formed a coalition and he served as Chancellor from 1974 to 1982 . Hans-Dietrich Genscher , a leading FDP official , became Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister . Schmidt , a strong supporter of the European Community ( EC ) and the Atlantic alliance , emphasized his commitment to " the political unification of Europe in partnership with the USA " . Throughout the 1970s , the Red Army Faction had continued its terrorist campaign , assassinating or kidnapping politicians , judges , businessmen , and policemen . The highpoint of the RAF violence came with the German Autumn in autumn 1977 . The industrialist Hanns-Martin Schleyer was kidnapped on 5 September 1977 in order to force the government to free the imprisoned leaders of the Baader-Meinhof Gang . A group from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijacked Lufthansa Flight 181 to seize further hostages to free the RAF leaders . On 18 October 1977 , the Lufthansa jet was stormed in Mogadishu by the GSG 9 commando unit , who were able to free the hostages . The same day , the leaders of the Baader-Meinhof gang , who had been waging a hunger strike , were found dead in their prison cells with gunshot wounds , which led to Schleyer being executed by his captors . The deaths were controversially ruled suicides . The Red Army Faction was to continue its terrorist campaign into the 1990s , but the German Autumn of 1977 was the highpoint of its campaign . That the Federal Republic had faced a crisis caused by a terrorist campaign from the radical left without succumbing to dictatorship as many feared that it would , was seen as vindication of the strength of German democracy
Lufthansa Flight 181
Lufthansa Flight 181
History of Germany (1945–1990)