Bruce Allen Scharlau PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

publicity than would have otherwise been the case. His name had been in
the news and made him more recognised than before hand.
Fifth, terrorist group activities are affected by the larger
question of why particular targets are chosen over other ones in the
same issue area: why this building firm and not that one. When the
target is one of many possible ones, banks, construction firms, petrol
stations, etc., the decision is presumably influenced by the target's
location (is it near lights, or in the dark), accessibility (how well
protected it is) f
102
and the impact of publicity or damage (high or low
profile), as well as opportuntity such as inside information, or seeing
a limited opening.
For example, Detlef Rohwedder, who was murdered in April 1991, was
not as heavily protected at home in Dusseldorf, as he was in his office
during the week in Berlin- -despite being warned by Hans Neusel that he
was high on a list of potential RAF targets. Nonetheless, to feel
unhindered at home, he only had occasional police car passes and
bodyguards for official functions while in Dusseldorf. Therefore,
shooting him from a lightly concealed place across the street wi th a
rifle was not difficult. Targeting him in Berlin where he had full-time
bodyguards and an armoured car, would have been more difficult.
Attacks on people presumably are also determined by these factors,
as well as their functions within the targeted institution. For example,
in 1981 when the Revolutionary Cells attacked Herbert Karry, the Hessian
Economic Minister, he was the government minister who wanted to extend
Startbabn West. 95
The RZ kneecappings in West Berlin were also due to
the function of the individuals in connection with the political asyluTI
of refugees (Hollenberg and Korbacher) , and another (Hohla) in
connection to trials against Second of June members.
Connected to this is the question of why groups attack a particular
target in a particular way. Sometimes assassination is conducted with a
gun, and other times with a bomb. One explanation is that the method is
to express a message as the murder of von Braunmuehl in Bonn must have,
because the group used the same gun that murdered Schleyer. It could
have meant that the 'old' and 'new' RAF were the same, or that the
murder was a revenge for Mogadishu, or a symbolic return to the question
of Palestine, as Braunmuehl worked with Middle Eastern issues in the
arena of European Political Cooperation. 96
94 "'Da ist irgendwo ein Nest'" Der Spiegel 15 (8 April) 1991, 18-
24, 18-9.
95 Times 12 May 1981.
96 Frankfurter RLmdschau 13 October 1986; "Im Ziel, im Kampf" Der
Spiegel 43/1986, 25-7.