The MB White Star in Arabian countries

[omasfan]

In response to a post that recently brought up that MB produced pens with a white triangle atop their pen caps in the Arab market:

 

 

I just did some research on the German terrorist group RAF ("Rote Armee Fraktion") that was active in the 60s,70s, and also 80s.

 

I watched Heinrich Breloer's documentary "Todesspiel" ("Game of Death"). It partially deals with the 1977 aircraft hijacking of the "Landshut," a plane of the German Lufthansa fleet. The Arab hijackers tried to extort the German government to release the hard core of RAF terrorists serving their sentence in a German prison in Stammheim. The whole thing failed, of course, and the passengers were freed. All but one of the hijackers were shot by special forces in the course of the storming of the plane.

 

As it happened before the storming of the plane, the co-pilot as well as one of the flight attendants had MB items (a watch and a pen). The Arab terrorist ringleader aboard was ticked off by the white star and misunderstood it as the star of David. He nearly shot the co-pilot and the stewardess as he believed they were Jews and as he regarded Jews as his sworn enemies. Others aboard could allegedly convince him that the MB items were not in any way affiliated with Judaism. He then asked the co-pilot to destroy the watch. In the filmic reenactment, one sees the co-pilot trampling his watch in desperation but it doesn't break.

 

The abduction of the plane with about 90 German passengers aboard was the pinnacle of the so-called "German autumn," the era in which the terrorists tried to undermine the government. It was a big national shock and would have entered the history books as a trauma had the abduction ended with a blood-letting.

 

Whatever the decision for MB was to offer their products with a triangle atop the cap for a certain time in the Arab market, the excessive violence that became obvious in this incident must have had something to do with it. I don't think that it was only a marketing decision.

Edited December 17, 2007 by dupontfan

[goodguy]

VEry interesting,thank you for sharing this info.