The action began at noon on Thursday, 24 April 1975, when the Commando Holger Meins (CHM), related to the RAF (Red Army Fraction), invaded the West German Embassy in Skarpö street at Gärdet in Stockholm. The occupants, Hanna Krabbe, Karl-Heinz Dellwo, Lutz Taufer, Bernhard Rössner, Ulrich Wessel and Siegfried Hausner, took Embassy personnel, a total of twelve people, including Ambassador Dietrich Stoecker, hostage,
The embassy was surrounded by police and negotiations began. CHM demanded that 26 prisoners of the RAF should be released in West Germany, including Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe. Furthermore they demanded safe passage from the embassy, together with the Swedish ambassador in Bonn, Western Germany, Sven Backlund.