Josef Erwin Bachmann became widely known in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 for his assassination

Assassination

To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...

 attempt on the leader of the German student movement

German student movement

The German student movement was a protest movement that took place during the late 1960s in West Germany. It was largely a reaction against the perceived authoritarianism and hypocrisy of the German government and other Western governments, and the poor living conditions of students...

, Rudi Dutschke

Rudi Dutschke

Alfred Willi Rudi Dutschke was the most prominent spokesperson of the German student movement of the 1960s. He advocated 'a long march through the institutions' of power to create radical change from within government and society by becoming an integral part of the machinery...

, firing three bullets at him, on April 11, 1968. He was convicted of the attack and sentenced to a seven-year prison sentence. While in prison in 1970, Bachmann committed suicide by suffocating himself with a plastic bag over his head.

The attack

Bachmann approached Dutschke, whom he had never met, in the street, having found out his address from the Einwohnermeldeamt, the registration office. Asking him if he was really Rudi Dutschke, he took out a gun and shot him in the head. Later on he told the judge that he had done it out of hate, calling Dutschke a dirty communist pig. After the shooting, Bachmann fled to a cellar where he took an overdose of sleeping pills but still continued firing his gun at police officers trying to approach him. He was taken to a hospital to deal with the effects of his overdose.

Dutschke survived the assassination attempt but suffered brain damage and was forced to learn to speak again. He was left with severe health problems which in 1979 led to his death in Aarhus

Aarhus

Aarhus or Århus is the second-largest city in Denmark. The principal port of Denmark, Aarhus is on the east side of the peninsula of Jutland in the geographical center of Denmark...

, Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

.

After Bachmann's conviction, he and Dutschke corresponded by letter. Bachmann committed suicide on the night between February 23 and February 24, 1970.

In media

Bachmann was portrayed by Tom Schilling

Tom Schilling

Tom Schilling is a German television and film actor.Schilling had his acting debut in the 1996 drama Hallo, Onkel Doc! as a boy named Mark. In the critically well-received film Before the Fall , he played a young student in one of the elite 'Napola' schools, alongside with Max Riemelt...

 in the 2008 film Der Baader Meinhof Komplex

Der Baader Meinhof Komplex

The Baader Meinhof Complex is a 2008 German film by Uli Edel. Written and produced by Bernd Eichinger, it stars Moritz Bleibtreu, Martina Gedeck and Johanna Wokalek. The film is based on the 1985 German best selling non-fiction book of the same name by Stefan Aust...

.