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Horst Mahler, RAF Co-Founder Turned Neo-Nazi, Dies at 89

His passing in a Berlin hospital closes a chapter of radical shifts from left-wing terrorism to right-wing extremism, highlighted by multiple convictions for Holocaust denial and hate speech.

Der ehemalige NPD-Anwalt Horst Mahler.
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Overview

  • Mahler died on July 27, 2025, in a Berlin hospital at age 89, a fact confirmed by his lawyer Jan Dollwetzel and later by AFP.
  • He co-founded the Rote Armee Fraktion in 1970 alongside Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Ulrike Meinhof and was arrested that same year for bank robberies and prisoner liberation.
  • Released on probation in 1980 and reinstated as a lawyer in 1988 through Gerhard Schröder’s intervention, Mahler shifted into right-wing extremism and joined the NPD in 2000, defending it in a failed constitutional ban attempt.
  • German courts convicted him repeatedly for Holocaust denial and Volksverhetzung, resulting in over ten years of imprisonment at JVA Brandenburg/Havel from 2009 to 2020.
  • His life story underscores the so-called Hufeisentheorie of extremism and Germany’s legal dilemma between reintegrating former radicals and safeguarding democratic values.