Siegfried Buback (January 3, 1920, Wilsdruff, Saxony – April 7, 1977, Karlsruhe) was the Attorney General of Germany from 1974 until his death.
Buback studied at the University of Leipzig. From 1940 to 1945 he was a member of the Nazi Party. From 1945 to 1947 he was a POW. He decidedly opposed the Red Army Faction (RAF) during his term and became the first victim in a series of events leading up to the "German Autumn", along with his driver, Wolfgang Göbel, and a judicial officer, Georg Wurster. He was shot by members of RAF while travelling from his home in Neureut to the Bundesgerichtshof in Karlsruhe; while Buback's Mercedes was stopped at a traffic light a motorcycle pulled alongside and the passenger on the rear of the motorcycle opened fire with an automatic weapon at the vehicle. Even though four RAF members (Christian Klar, Knut Folkerts, Günter Sonnenberg and Brigitte Mohnhaupt) were formally charged and prosecuted in connection with the Buback murder, important details of their involvement have not been solved. German authorities have so far been unable to find out who was driving the motorcycle and who was firing the weapon at Buback.
In April 2007, 30 years after his assassination, Buback's violent death became again the subject of public discussion when his son, Michael Buback, was contacted by former RAF member Peter-Jürgen Boock. Boock shared details with Buback's son indicating that it was Stefan Wisniewski who had fired the gun at Siegfried Buback. Verena Becker, another former RAF member, has also claimed Wisniewski was the killer.
On July 6, 2012, Becker was convicted of assisting the (still unknown) murderers and sentenced to four years in jail.
Famous quotes containing the word siegfried:
“The trouble about soldiers in Mr. Siegfried Sassoon’s poetry ... is that they are the kind of people who in a railroad train have to travel with their backs to the engine. Peace can have but few corners softly padded enough for such sensitives.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)