Peter Lorenz

In 1975 Lorenz was a candidate for mayor of West Berlin. He was kidnapped by the terrorist 2 June Movement group three days before the elections on 27 February. The terrorists demanded a release of several imprisoned group members, including Horst Mahler, one of the founders of the Red Army Faction (RAF) and future RAF terrorists Verena Becker and Rolf Heissler. Although Mahler refused to be exchanged, the other prisoners were set free.[1]

After the terrorists had been flown out to Aden, South Yemen, Lorenz was set free on 4 March. He had won the plurality (43.9%) of votes while being absent, nevertheless Klaus Schütz, relying on a coalition of Social Democrats and Free Democrats, remained mayor.

One of the freed prisoners, Rolf Heissler, became a member of the group which abducted Hanns-Martin Schleyer in 1977 to exchange him for imprisoned RAF members. After the operation had failed, Schleyer was killed. Heissler was one of his two murderers.[2]

• List of kidnappings

• Blumenau, Bernhard. The United Nations and Terrorism. Germany, Multilateralism, and Antiterrorism Efforts in the 1970s. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, pp. 25–6, 30, 32, 37, 117–8. ISBN 978-1-137-39196-4