Former Red Army Faction member Daniela Klette is facing new charges, with Germany’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office accusing her of multiple serious crimes linked to past attacks.
The latest charges predate a series of robberies between 1999 and 2016 — alleged to have funded decades living underground — for which Klette has already been indicted.
What are the latest allegations?
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office has charged the 67-year-old with attempted murder, participation in explosive attacks, kidnapping for extortion and aggravated robbery. A court in Frankfurt will decide if and when a trial will begin.
Prosecutors say Klette belonged to the so-called third generation of the Red Army Faction and took part in attacks between 1990 and 1993. Allegations include an attempted bombing of a Deutsche Bank building in Eschborn in 1990 that failed to detonate, and a 1991 shooting at the US Embassy in Bonn in which at least 250 rounds were fired and at least 57 bullets struck the embassy.
She is also accused of involvement in a 1993 bombing of the newly built prison in Weiterstadt that caused an estimated €73 million in damage. Prosecutors say members of the group climbed the prison wall, overpowered and kidnapped guards, then detonated explosives inside the facility, which was not yet housing prisoners.
What happened since then?
Klette disappeared from public view by 1990 at the latest. Authorities say she lived under a false identity in Berlin for decades. Her alleged accomplices, Ernst-Volker Staub and Burkhard Garweg, remain at large.
Klette has been on trial at Verden District Court since early March 2025 over the robberies. Prosecutors allege she, Staub and Garweg robbed cash-in-transit vehicles and cash offices in Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein from 1999 to 2016 to finance their lives in hiding.
Her arrest in Berlin-Kreuzberg on February 26, 2024, surprised neighbors, who knew her as “Claudia,” a friendly, gray-haired tutor. Investigators found pistols, ammunition and military-grade weapons in her apartment.
Edited by: Sean Sinico