Bommi Baumann

Michael "Bommi" Baumann (25 August 1947 – 19 July 2016) was a German author and former militant. After growing up in Berlin, he was radicalised by the police shooting of Benno Ohnesorg and founded the Movement 2 June with his best friend Georg von Rauch. After von Rauch was shot dead by the police and a bomb planted by Baumann killed a builder, Baumann fled abroad. Whilst on the run he wrote the memoir Wie alles anfing (How it All Began) and renounced political violence. The book sold 100,000 copies. Baumann was arrested in London in 1981 and following a prison term lived in Berlin.

Early life

Michael Baumann was born on 25 August 1947, to an apolitical mother and a father who had been a Nazi. The family lived first in Lichtenberg in the Soviet part of Berlin, then moved to the British zone when he was 12 years old. He trained as a construction worker. He later commented that he became dissatisfied with the mindless world of work and television he saw around him. The book was published in English with the title How it all began: The personal account of a West German urban guerrilla in 1981. He died on 19 July 2016.