Podcast 32: Carl Tighe on Heinrich Böll and the Springer Press
An interview with noted UK author and professor Carl Tighe on the conservative Springer Press (the hated enemy of the Baader-Meinhof Group) and the Springer Press’ relationship with Heinrich Böll. Read professor Tighe’s masterful essay on Heinrich Böll and the Springer Press.
5-21-1975 German Bonnie, Clyde on Trial (AP)
Article on the eve of the Stammheim trial, still casting Baader and Meinhof as the “Bonnie and Clyde” of the RAF. PDF: 5-21-1975 German Bonnie, Clyde on Trial (AP)
5-29-1972 German Terrorists Threaten to Set Off Bombs in Stuttgart (AP)
Detailing threats to detonate 66 pounds of TNT in Stuttgart on June 2nd 1972 as well as other actions detailed in a telex message to Associated Press in Berlin. The RAF is described as “virtually identical” to the Baader Meinhof Gang. PDF: 5-29-1972 German Terrorists Threaten to Set Off Bombs in Stuttgart
5-28-1972 Bonn gets warning of more bombings (Guardian UK)
A great and concise summary of events up to and including the Heidelberg bombing, including short biographies of Badder and Meinhoff. It also mentions both the Petra Schelm and Thomas Welsbecker Commando as well as Bonn’s plans to deal with the “inner enemy”. PDF: 5-28-1972 Bonn gets warning of more bombings
April 11, 1968 West Berlin
A young house painter, Joseph Bachmann, waits patiently in the street outside the home of Rudi Dutschke. Dutschke is the firebrand leader of the APO — a leftist movement. In Bachmann’s coat pocket is a gun. Bachmann shoots Dutschke three times, knocking him clean out of his shoes. Dutschke survives his shooting. Immediately following the [read all]
Springer Press
The bane of leftist Germans, the Springer newspapers were outrageously conservative. Owned by Lord Axel Springer, the Springer Press controlled almost half of the newspaper circulation in West Germany. Springer was an avowed anti-communist. During a time when others corporations were leaving West Berlin in droves (fearful of the tenuous political situation that barely kept [read all]
Chapter 4 — Praxis
May, 1967 – May 1970, 59 pages: The stories of the three major characters, Baader, Meinhof, and Ensslin, merge into one story in this chapter, and follow a straight narrative arc for the rest of the book. But first this chapter will look into the extremes of the student movement, exemplified by a West German [read all]