Abduction
The long delay was caused by the terrorist activities of the Baader-Meinhof gang - or Red Army Faction, as they came to be known.
On 5 September, 1977, a woman with a pushchair stepped out in front of a car in Cologne, and forced to halt the driver who was chauffeuring one of West Germany's most powerful industrialist.
She pulled out two machine guns and killed his bodyguards. Her accomplices, who were following behind, abducted the industrialist to hold him hostage for their demands from the government.
It was September 11 already, and the police were still looking for them everywhere.
RAF had started in the late 1960s, with a campaign against members of the German elite and the US military personnel.
It was born out of the radical student movement of that period, and comprised mainly middle-class youngsters who saw themselves as fighting a West German capitalist establishment which to them was little different from a reincarnation of the Third Reich.
Described by the West German government as terrorists, RAF was one of postwar West Germany's most active and prominent militant left-wing groups.
They were committing numerous crimes, especially in the autumn of 1977, leading to a national crisis that became known as "German Autumn".
At the height of its popularity, around a quarter of young West Germans were believed to have some sympathy for the group.
Many condemned their tactics but understood their disgust with the new order, particularly one where former Nazis enjoyed prominent roles.
Another terrorist group active at that time was the Red Brigade. Formed in 1970, these Marxist-Leninist terrorists sought to create a revolutionary state through armed struggle and to separate Italy from the Western Alliance (NATO).
I became aware of the armed groups in the prime of their terrorist activities after I had decided to drive through Germany and wondered if I had made the righr choice. However I went ahead, treating it as a prelude to what lay ahead in the strife-ridden Iran.
It was another hour before the long row of vehicles started moving again.
We soon reached the border with Austria. There were some formalities to be completed before leaving Germany with a duty-free car that was to be driven back at the end of my UN assignment.
