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The man tasked with creating the tactics and strategies that would be used by Germany’s first exclusively counter-terrorist force was Colonel Ulrich “Ricky” Wegener, who was the Bundesgrenzschutz liaison officer with the Interior Minister at the time. Counter-terrorist units were still a relatively unheard of form of combating terrorism and the only truly established groups at the time were Britain’s Special Air Service and Israel’s Sayeret Mat’kal. Toward this end, Colonel Wegener went to train for a time with both groups, assimilating many of their methods into the tactics he would later set down for GSG 9. Wegener’s time with the SAS is well documented, but his training with Sayeret is more shrouded in mystery since Israel rarely acknowledges any cooperation with Germany. It is rumored, however, that Colonel Wegener was one of the commando’s injured in the Entebbe raid performed by Sayeret in 1972. Wegener was also the commander at the famous 1977 hostage rescue in Mogadishu, and personally killed the last resisting terrorist with four .38 rounds to the head.
-Excerpt from: GSG-9: Born of Blood and Fire, Raised in Controversy Chavis N. Comer February, 2004 Roanoke College