Agency Report –
Cologne – Former German interior minister Gerhart Baum, who served under former chancellor Helmut Schmidt during the terrorism of the Baader-Meinhoff Group, has died at the age of 92, a spokesman for his liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) said on Saturday.
Born October 28, 1932, Baum was a member of a socially liberal grouping within the FDP that pushed for more left-wing policies.
Baum served as interior minister under Social Democrat Schmidt from 1978 to 1982, when Schmidt was replaced as chancellor by conservative Helmut Kohl.
The era is known for the terror campaign pursued by the Red Army Faction (RAF), better known outside Germany as the Baader-Meinhoff Group.
The RAF was founded in 1968 by far-left extremists Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Ulrike Meinhof, with members active well into the 1990s.
Baum remained a senior member of the FDP until 1991 as it switched from supporting an SPD-led coalition to one led by Kohl’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), prompting many FDP members, particularly younger ones, to leave the party in protest.
On leaving the lower house of parliament, Baum returned to practicing law, participating in high-profile constitutional actions.
Both his father and grandfather were lawyers. His Russian-born mother fled Dresden with the kids following the February 1945 bombing that razed much of the eastern German city. The family moved to Cologne in 1950.
