Waltrude Schleyer

Waltrude Schleyer (January 21, 1916 Munich - March 21, 2008 Stuttgart, Germany) was the widow of Hanns Martin Schleyer, a high ranking German official who was killed by the Red Army Faction which shocked West Germany during the 1970s. cite news |first=|last=|title=Obituaries in the news: Waltrude Schleyer |url=http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_8697241|work= Associated Press |publisher=Denver Post |date=2008-03-25 |accessdate=2008-04-05] cite news |first=|last=|title=Obituaries in the news: Waltrude Schleyer |url=http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/26/america/Deaths.php|work= Associated Press |publisher=International Herald Tribune |date=2008-03-26 |accessdate=2008-04-05]

Schleyer's husband, Hanns Martin Schleyer, was the head of the employers association in West Germany. He was kidnapped and then killed by the Red Army Faction (RAF) in 1977. The RAF was also known as the Baader-Meinhof gang, which was named after two of the group's early leaders, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof. The RAF was a radical Communist terrorist group, with a Marxist-Leninist ideology, which sought to overthrow the West German government, which was capitalist and a close ally of the United States during the Cold War.

The RAF kidnapping of Martin Schleyer was intended to force the West German government to release Andreas Baader and three other RAF members. Baader and the other RAF members were being held at the Stammheim prison near the city of Stuttgart. The West German government refused to give into RAF's demands or negotiate. The RAF sent the government of picture of Hanns Martin Schleyer alive, but in captivity, on October 8, 1977. However, the RAF later murdered Martin Schleyer when their demands were not met. His body was found on October 18, 1977, in a car in Mulhouse, France, which is just across the border from Germany. The RAF disbanded itself in 1998.

Waltrude Schleyer advocated against clemency for RAF members who had killed her husband. One of Martin Schleyer's kidnappers, Christian Klar, was refused a pardon by German President Horst Koehler. He is still in prison and will not be eligible for parole until 2009. Other former RAF terrorist members have been granted clemency and released. These moves were sharply opposed by Waltrude Schleyer.

Waltrude Schleyer died on March 21, 2008 at the age of 92 in Stuttgart, Germany. Her death was announced in the Stuttgarter Nachrichten daily newspaper, which did not give a cause of her death.

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