Bruce Allen Scharlau PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

terrorist activities, and as one group is on the decline, they need only
to join another group. This occurred with the Second of June members,
who are believed to have moved to the RAF and the West Berlin RZ.
Group decline will affect the incentives and sanctions offered and
imposed on individual members. The terrorist group may offer higher
inducements to retain an individual, rather than have them leave the
group. It is also possible, that the group might, as the RAF did with
its members who moved to the German Democratic Republic, allow those who
want to leave to do so, in the belief that this will enable the group to
end the decline with renewed activities.
Similar to when the group formed, government actions in its decline
affect individual perceptions of their options. These may encourage or
discourage individuals' exit from a group in decline, and may similarly
affect individuals contemplating membership.
Government treatment of defeated terrorist groups may be potentially
more important than how it treated them when the group was active. Here
the experiences of people like Angelika Speitel, who was pardoned, and
Boock who left the RAF, are important as examples of possibilities to
others. Similarly, the court sentences for the ex-RAF members arrested
in East Germany will possibly influence others to leave or join the RAF
or other terrorist groups. Sentences perceived as harsh will not
encourage others to leave the groups / and those contemplating support
may be encouraged to be more active in their support. For this reason
the continuation of the RAF is not inconceivable.
The media portrayal of these events and situations may encourage
some to aid the declining group I while others will be drawn to other
groups according to their own beliefs about group organisation. Some may
feel more inclined towards the less rigorously organised RZ or the
Autonanen instead of the RAF.
2.2 Groups
The first terrorist groupsr the RAF and the B2J, were motivated by
society to form in the late sixties through incentives similar to those
offered individuals searching for left-wing alternatives then, as well
as others particular to groups. The fragmentation of the New Left after
1968 encouraged group formation, as did the particular attraction of
some individuals to others, who would follow them. This was instrumental
in the freeing of Baader and the beginning of the RAF. The B2J, on the
other hand, formed because of the attraction of two smaller groups for
one another.