West Germany

Werner Pinzner was a German contract killer convicted in 1986 of committing at least three murders in Hamburg. His case exposed the hidden criminal networks behind contract killings in 1980s West Germany, making it one of the most significant organised crime prosecutions of the era.

The Red Army Faction (RAF) was a far-left terrorist organisation that operated in West Germany from 1970 to 1998. Founded by Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof and others, the group carried out kidnappings, bombings and assassinations targeting prominent business leaders and politicians. The RAF's campaign of violence, which claimed more than 30 lives, reached its peak during the autumn of 1977 — West Germany's gravest security crisis since the Second World War.