Militants tried to force the release of Baader and ten other imprisoned RAF members by kidnapping Hanns Martin Schleyer on 5 September 1977 , as part of the sequence of events known as the `` German Autumn '' , which began on 30 July 1977 with the murder of the banker Jürgen Ponto .
Hanns Martin Schleyer was kidnapped on 5 September 1977 and Lufthansa Flight 181 was hijacked in mid-October to try to force the release of Baader and ten other RAF members .