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The meeting was extremely important.
After all, it was about a completely new price system for the lifeblood of the global economy: crude oil.
That is why on December 21, 1975, a Sunday at 10.30 a.m., the representatives of all 13 members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting States (OPEC) met in Vienna, including eleven oil ministers.
But after only 75 minutes, the meeting and the intended decisions became completely irrelevant.
Because at 11.45 a.m. five men and one woman entered the building on Dr.-Karl-Lueger-Ring (today Universitätsring), opposite the main building of the University of Vienna.
They did not have to identify themselves and their heavy bags were not checked;
they were packed with weapons and explosives.
On December 21, 1975, the police blocked the Ringstrasse in front of the Opec building in Vienna
Source: picture alliance / IMAGNO / Votava
An ORF cameraman who was supposed to take pictures for a report on the meeting described what happened: “I was standing in the anteroom of the Opec building.
Five young men and a woman passed me.
They gave me a friendly nod.
Two of the men were holding carrier bags from an airline company.
When they passed me, they suddenly ran up the stairs to the first floor.
The oil ministers met there.
Then I heard gunshots. "
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On the way to the large conference room in which the ministers were discussing, a 60-year-old Austrian detective stood up to the six young people and asked where they were going?
The answer came from a pistol;
the policeman Anton Tichler died.
According to witness statements, the shot was shot by a woman who immediately afterwards also killed an OPEC employee from Iraq.
The terrorist leader shot another man, a Libyan.
By 11:52 a.m., the terrorists had more than 60 hostages in their hands.
Hans-Joachim Klein comes from the Opec building
Source: picture alliance / IMAGNO / Votava
A few minutes later, the Viennese police hermetically sealed the street in front of the building and the assassins fired from the windows of the room.
Three officers from the Einsatzkommando, a slightly better armed police unit, tried to storm the room.
However, they did not belong to a specially trained anti-terrorist unit;
Such a heavily armed special unit already existed, the Vienna Gendarmerie Escort Command, but this unit was located in a barracks southeast of Vienna.
A terrorist and the police officer Kurt Leopolder were seriously injured in the exchange of fire, in which a hand grenade was thrown.
A secretary escaped in the chaos at around 1:08 p.m.
Another secretary was released soon after, who delivered a message in French: The terrorists offered a "ceasefire" in order to receive medical treatment for their wounded comrade and the police officer.
That was organized: the left-wing extremist Hans-Joachim Klein was picked up at 1:25 p.m. and came to the General Hospital, where he was operated on for a shot in the stomach (the bullet was stuck close to the spine).
Removal of the injured hostage taker around 1:25 p.m.
Source: picture alliance / IMAGNO / Votava
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After that, it was around 2 p.m., the terrorists sent another hostage out of the building.
The man introduced himself to the negotiators of the Austrian Ministry of the Interior as the Iraqi chargé d'affaires Riad Assawi and demanded "thick ropes, leukoplasty and several scissors" on behalf of the hostage takers.
The building, he passed on the terrorist threat, would blow up within an hour if these demands were not met.
“Scissors, leukoplasty and thick ropes will be taken care of!” An Austrian replied comfortably: “Please tell the gentlemen that it is Sunday.
There are no open deals.
The ropes won't go that fast. ”In fact, it took until the evening before a small pair of scissors and an equally small roll of duct tape were found.
Assawi carried them along with five rolls of Leukoplast to the terrorists who were staring at guns.
An officer observes the Opec building
Source: picture alliance / IMAGNO / Votava
In the meantime, the terrorists had asked for a refueled plane with pilots and a bus to the airport by 7 a.m. on Monday morning.
They also wanted a six-and-a-half-page statement on behalf of the previously unknown organization “Arm of the Arab Revolution” to be read on the radio.
If that didn't happen, they threatened to shoot a hostage every quarter of an hour.
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The content consisted of the usual set pieces of Palestinian socialist terrorism: No Muslim state should recognize Israel, the oil wells should be nationalized and the rich oil states should henceforth finance the PLO.
It was also said that the Arabs were threatened by a “huge plot” in which “American imperialism”, “Zionist aggressors” and “ready to surrender” Arab governments were involved.
At the end of the communiqué, the terrorists apologized “for the difficulties that our action brought the peace-loving Austrian people”.
Police officers from the task force at the scene
Source: picture alliance / IMAGNO / Votava
In the late afternoon, the police had food delivered to the Opec building - but pork.
Whether this was done consciously or was an error remained open.
In any case, the perpetrators rejected this meal.
It wasn't until around 7 p.m. that the Wienerwald restaurant chain delivered fresh fried chicken - but the perpetrators didn't want to eat any of it.
The cold buffet, which had already been prepared by the neighboring “Hilton” hotel for the OPEC meeting, was not served until around 10 p.m.
While the hostages ate what they got, the six perpetrators swallowed amphetamine tablets to stay awake.
The Austrian cabinet has been meeting under Federal Chancellor Bruno Kreisky in the Federal Chancellery on Ballhausplatz since 6 p.m.
Kreisky wanted to avoid further bloodshed at all costs.
Kreisky named Wolfgang Mayer König, just 29, as negotiator, something like the government's all-purpose intellectual weapon.
Traces of the firefight in the Opec building
Source: picture alliance / dpa
Armed with full authority, Mayer König instructed the national airline Austrian Airlines to provide one of their most modern aircraft, a McDonnell-Douglas DC-9.
But even he could not force pilots to be ready for the flight into the unknown with terrorists and hostages.
However, Captain Manfred Pollak and co-pilot Otto Herold announced that they would take over the flight.
A Viennese internist, Wiriya Rawenduzy of the Red Cross, also voluntarily went on board.
The doctor, who was born in Iraqi Kurdistan, had already found himself ready on Sunday afternoon to go to the hostages and provide them with medical care.
He spoke Arabic, which apparently eased the situation.
"Carlos" waves to the photographers before leaving for the airport
Source: picture alliance / IMAGNO / Votava
On Monday morning, December 22nd, 1975, an Austrian Post bus was parked in front of the Opec building, which the eleven oil ministers, 22 other hostages and the five remaining perpetrators (including the only woman, the German Gabriele Kröcher-Tiedemann) climbed;
Hans-Joachim Klein was brought directly from the hospital to the airport.
First, the leader of the command, now identified as the 26-year-old Venezuelan Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, entered the machine and controlled it;
then the hostages got on the rear steps.
Klein was also brought on board.
The injured hostage taker Klein is carried into the plane
Source: picture alliance / IMAGNO / Votava
Sánchez, better known as "Carlos the Jackal", was a terrorist active in Europe since late 1973.
He had already committed at least six murders in the name of the Palestinian cause and claimed another five unsuccessful attacks.
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Now the hostages got in, and the present Minister of the Interior Otto Rösch wished each of them good luck with a handshake.
When everyone was on board, "Carlos" went down the gangway again and stepped up to Rösch.
"I'm sorry that this had to happen in Vienna," he said and held out his hand.
Rösch took it.
The leader of a gang that shot an Austrian policeman and two other people and the Minister of the Interior shook hands before the bandit took off.
WELT commented the gesture sarcastically: "Thank you very much for the smooth handling."
The farewell to "Carlos" and Interior Minister Rösch - by hand
Source: picture alliance / IMAGNO / Votava
The DC-9 flew to Algiers;
all hostages were released and the pilots were also able to return to Vienna unscathed.
On the flight "Carlos", Captain Pollack asked why he had become a terrorist.
The answer: "Because violence is the only language that Western democracies understand."
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