Otto Billig. “The Lawyer Terrorist and His Comrades.” Political Psychology, vol. 6, no. 1 (1985): 29-46.
This article explores the transformation of Horst Mahler, a young German lawyer, into a founding member of the Red Army Faction—a far-left terrorist group active in West Germany during the 1970s. It draws on Mahler’s writings and prison communications to analyze how legal professionals can become radicalized actors in periods of democratic crisis. The study highlights how personal, psychological, and generational conflicts—particularly disillusionment with post-war capitalism, unresolved guilt over Nazism, and rejection of traditional authority—fueled Mahler’s descent from lawyer to violent revolutionary. His trajectory underscores the fragile ethical boundaries faced by legal professionals in societies experiencing democratic backsliding, where distrust in institutions can drive even trained attorneys to reject legal order entirely.