Hanns Martin Schleyer

Born on 1 May 1915 in Offenburg, Grand Duchy of Baden, Hanns Martin Schleyer was the eldest child of Ernst Julius Schleyer (1882–1959) and Helene Luise Elisabeth Schleyer (née Rheitinger; 1883–1979). His legal name, as shown by his birth certificate, was Hans Martin Schleyer, but Schleyer himself always spelled his first name with two 'n's since childhood. His father was a judge and his great-great uncle was Johann Martin Schleyer, a renowned Roman Catholic priest who invented the Volapük language. Schleyer was raised Catholic by his paternal family, which went against the wishes of his irreligious father, who was described as "hot-tempered" and holding national conservative views.

Schleyer finished his Abitur in Rastatt and began studying law at the University of Heidelberg in 1933, where he first joined the student fraternity Teutonia 1842 zu Rastatt before switching to Corps Suevia a year later. In 1939 he obtained a doctorate at the University of Innsbruck.

After World War II, Schleyer was arrested by French forces while hiding at his parents' home in Konstanz and was held as a prisoner of war for three years by the Allies because of his membership in the SS. In his denazification proceeding, Schleyer was initially charged as a Minderbelasteter, but he put in an appeal by falsely understating his rank as Oberscharführer so as to reduce his prospective punishment for which he was instead labelled a Mitläufer. He was repatriated in 1948 after paying a fine of 300 Mark.

After working under the French occupation with Direction des Bases Aériennes in Lahr, he became secretary of the chamber of commerce of Baden-Baden shortly after the founding of West Germany. In 1951 Schleyer joined Daimler-Benz, and, with help from a mentor, Fritz Koenecke, eventually became a member of the board of directors, where he was responsible for personnel and labor issues. At the end of the 1960s, he was almost appointed chairman of the board, but lost the position to Joachim Zahn. Successively, Schleyer became more involved in employers' associations, and was a leader in employer and industry associations. He was simultaneously president of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations (BDA) and the Federation of German Industries (BDI).

His uncompromising acts during industrial protests in the 1960s such as industrial lockouts, his history with the Nazi Party, and his aggressive appearance, especially on TV (The New York Times described him as a "caricature of an ugly capitalist"), made Schleyer the ideal enemy for the 1968 student movement. By mid-1977, authorities identified Schleyer as a high risk target in wake of the RAF murders of federal attorney Siegfried Buback (a fellow former Nazi Party member), and bank director representative Jürgen Ponto earlier that year.

In 1977 Schleyer debated with Heinz Oskar Vetter, chairman of the Confederation of German Trade Unions in a crosstalk at the 8. St. Gallen Symposium, which later gained a high profile, after Schleyer's kidnapping.