1980 investigation The perpetrator, geology student
Gundolf Köhler, had just failed an exam and was described as an emotionally tormented person with relationship problems. a picture of
Adolf Hitler was found hanging over his bed after the attack. In 2020, the investigation revised the initial conclusions regarding Köhler's motives. A senior investigator told
Süddeutsche Zeitung that "the perpetrator acted out of a right-wing extremist motive ... Gundolf Köhler wanted to influence the
1980 federal election. He strived for a dictatorial state in the image of national socialism." The federal election occurred only 9 days after the bombing and saw the reelection of
Social Democrat Chancellor
Helmut Schmidt. Prior to the attacks, Köhler had reportedly talked several times with two friends about a
false flag bomb attack for which the
Red Army Faction or another left-wing terrorist group would be blamed, thus increasing public support for right-wing parties in the election. One of the two friends told his lawyer that Köhler had shown him the grenade from which the bomb was made before the crime occurred, although investigators could not find evidence of their implication beyond mere knowledge of a possible terrorist plot. Despite the interrogation of some 1,008 witnesses and survivors, along with the extensive review of 300,000 documents from national authorities, including radical right-wing records from the 1970s, the federal prosecutor's office concluded in 2020 that "there were not sufficient indications for the involvement of other people either as accomplices, instigators or helpers", but that the hypothesis "[could] be ruled out". ==In popular culture==