The 1977 Palmers Kidnapping: A Key Event in Austrian Contemporary History

This entry details the 1977 kidnapping of Walter Palmers, senior head of the Palmers underwear firm, by members of the 'Bewegung 2. Juni' with Austrian support. The event involved a ransom of 30.5 million Schilling and significantly contributed to discussions about left-wing terrorism in Austria.

The 'Palmers-Entführung' (Palmers Kidnapping) on November 9, 1977, saw members of the 'Bewegung 2. Juni' aided by three Austrian sympathizers abduct Walter Palmers, the senior head of the Palmers lingerie company. Palmers was held for four days in a hidden apartment in Vienna's Mariahilf district before being released unharmed on November 14, 1977, after a ransom payment of approximately 30.5 million Schilling (equivalent to about 6 million Euros today). The police later identified the left-wing terrorist background of the kidnapping. The Austrian participants were apprehended weeks later and received lengthy prison sentences, with only a portion of the ransom money recovered. This kidnapping is considered one of the most successful fundraising operations for left-wing terrorism, providing financial support to the 'Bewegung 2. Juni' and the Red Army Faction (RAF) well into the 1980s. In Austria, the Palmers kidnapping, alongside the earlier arrest and detention of RAF activist Waltraud Boock in Vienna in 1976, broadened discussions about left-wing terrorism. Previously, such discussions were primarily linked to the OPEC hostage crisis. However, the confrontation with PLO terrorism through the Marchegg hostage-taking was more dominant. Unlike in West Germany, the events of left-wing terrorism during the 1970s in Austria did not significantly enter the collective memory.

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