The radicalization of the first generation of German left-wing terrorists since 1967 cannot be understood without the mutual influence of their European counterparts, especially in Italy. Against this backdrop, Petra Terhoeven analyzes the significance of cross-border contacts within Western Europe for the history of German left-wing terrorism during the "red decade." Since the imprisonment of the RAF founders in 1972, it was primarily some defense attorneys who spread the message abroad that leftist opponents of the system were subjected to targeted persecution measures reminiscent of Nazi practices in the Federal Republic. The image of Germany as a murderous state culminated with the death night in Stammheim: with their self-inflicted death, staged as a state murder, the RAF founders not only played into European fears.