page_title: Alfred Herrhausen
section_title: Assassination
hierarchical_section_title: Alfred Herrhausen / Assassination
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Logo der Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft
context_page_description: Alfred Herrhausen was a German banker and the Chairman of Deutsche Bank, who was assassinated in 1989. He was a member of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group and from 1971 onwards a member of Deutsche Bank's Management Board. An advisor to Helmut Kohl and a proponent of a unified European economy, he was also an influential figure in shaping the policies towards developing nations. He was assassinated, probably by the West German far-left terrorist group Red Army Faction, when an explosively formed projectile penetrated his armored convoy.
context_section_description: Herrhausen was killed by a sophisticated roadside bomb shortly after leaving his home in Bad Homburg on 30 November 1989. He was being chauffeured to work in his armoured Mercedes-Benz, with bodyguards in both a lead vehicle and another following behind. The 7 kg bomb was hidden in a bag on a bicycle parked next to the road that the assassins knew Herrhausen would be traveling in his three-car convoy. The bicycle had been consistently parked sans explosive in the same location along Herrhausen's route for extended period of time before the assassination itself, and it was therefore ignored by Herrhausen's security. The bomb was detonated when Herrhausen's car interrupted a beam of infrared light as it passed the bicycle. The bomb targeted the most vulnerable area of Herrhausen's car – the door where he was sitting – and required split-second timing to overcome the car's special armour plating. The bomb utilized a Misznay–Schardin mechanism. A copper plate, placed between the explosive and the target, was deformed and projected by the force of the explosion. The detonation resulted in a mass of copper being projected toward the car at a speed of nearly two kilometers per second, efficiently penetrating the armoured Mercedes. Herrhausen's legs were severed and he bled to death.
caption: Logo of the Alfred Herrhausen Society
exif: {}