terminology Stammheim

Stammheim was the name of the Stuttgart prison that housed the major Baader-Meinhof defendants during their trials, as well as the courthouse in which they were tried. The section in which the prisoners were kept was billed as the most secure prison block in the world, but this didn’t prevent Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, and their co-defendants from having guns smuggled to them by their lawyers.

The word “Stammheim” took on a greater meaning after the events of “Death Night” in 1977 (when Baader, Ensslin, and Jan-Carl Raspe committed suicide). “Stammheim” came to symbolize the abuse of power by the federal government.