1968 April 2, 1968 Frankfurt am Main

Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin, along with two comrades, eave bombs in the Schneider department store, causing $75,000 worth of damage.

Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin head to Frankfurt am Main with two friends, Horst Söhnlein and Thorwald Proll. Baader has acquired quite a reputation as a “dangerous” sort by his constant calls for violent action. Invariably no one would choose to act on his “suggestions.” Today is different. This time Baader’s fellow comrades elect to take Baader up on his suggestion to burn down a department store.

Later that night Baader and Ensslin leave two time bombs in the Kaufhaus Schneider department store. Söhnlein and Proll leave a bomb in the Kaufhof store. At midnight the bombs go off, ultimately causing about $200,000 worth of damage. While the first flames appear, Ensslin is on a pay phone, screaming at the German Press Agency, “This is a political act of revenge!”