7-27-1972 German Draws 10 Year Term (Stars and Stripes)
A brief Associated Press article, appearing in Stars and Stripes, about the 10 year sentence given to Werner Hoppe. PDF: 7-27-1972 German Draws 10 Year Term
7-3-1972 Paper Says MacLeod Was A British Spy (Stars and Stripes)
A United Press International, article appearing in Stars and Stripes, covering recent allegations that Ian MacLeod, a young Scottish businessman killed during a police raid into a suspected Baader-Meinhof hideout, was actually a spy working for the British Secret Service. PDF: 7-3-1972 Paper Says MacLeod Was A British Spy
10-24-1977 Violence Provokes Wide Debate in West German Society (NY Times)
PDF: 10-24-1977 Violence Provokes Wide Debate in West German Society (NY Times)
10-19-1977 Revenge Killing Reported (AP)
PDF: 10-19-1977 Revenge Killing Reported (AP)
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)
6-28-1972 West Germany has its Bonnie, Clyde (AP)
Another background article on Meinhof. This one finds “no evidence of any romantic link” between her and Baader! PDF: 6-28-1972 West Germany has its Bonnie, Clyde
6-18-1972 The wife who became Public Enemy No 1 (Guardian UK)
Great article by Neal Ascherton on Ulrike Meinhof’s journey toward terror, including memories of conversations with the subject. PDF: 6-18-1972 The wife who became Public Enemy No 1
6-8-1972 A Fourth Anarchist Seized By Germans (NY Times)
Piece on the arrest of Gudrun Ensslin, and one of the first mentions of her in English language press. PDF: 6-8-1972 A Fourth Anarchist Seized By Germans
9-22-1977 Women Terrorists Groups Flourish In Germany (AP)
This Associated Press article appeared in the Spartanburg Herald-Journal on September 25, 1977, just as West Germany was descending into the horror of the “German Autumn”. The article is a general news analysis detailing how German terror groups were so heavily populated by women. It’s almost a curio-timepiece: the conclusions are often so hyperbolic and [read all]
February 4, 1974 Hamburg and Frankfurt am Main
Police raids in Hamburg and Frankfurt result in the re-arrests of Ilse Stachowiak, Christa Eckes, and Margit Schiller, and the arrests of Helmut Pohl, Kay-Werner Allnach, and Wolfgang Beer.
Manfred Grashof
Born in October of 1946, Manfred Grashof was in the Baader-Meinhof Gang from the time of the freeing of Andreas Baader from police custody in May of 1970. Prior to that he had been a member of Berlin’s wild Kommune I. After Baader’s escape he traveled with the gang to Jordan for guerrilla training. On [read all]
Ilse “Tinny” Stachowiak
Ilse Stachowiak (born in May of 1954) joined the Baader-Meinhof Gang late in 1970. She has just turned 17 and the youngest ever member of the group. She was arrested not too long afterwards on 12 April 1971 at the Frankfurt train station after a policeman recognized her from her wanted poster. She was not [read all]
Gudrun Ensslin
Contrary to what many people think, Gudrun Ensslin, not Ulrike Meinhof, was the real female leader of the Baader-Meinhof Gang. Gudrun was a politically active student in the 1960s. She participated in the seminal 2 June 1967 Berlin protest where a young pacifist named Benno Ohnesorg was killed. After the protest she went to the [read all]
February 9, 1973 Cologne
After eight months of total isolation in the “Dead Section” of Cologne’s Ossendorf prison, Ulrike Meinhof is finally moved to an area of the prison that is populated by other prisoners. The move is prompted by the hunger strikes that most of the Baader-Meinhof Gang members are waging. The hunger strikes are called off, and [read all]
June 8, 1972 Hamburg
Gudrun Ensslin, almost beside herself with grief since the capture of her beloved Andreas, wanders into the Linette clothing boutique in Hamburg. After laying her jacket down to try on sweaters, a sales clerk notices that the jacket has a heavy bulge in a pocket. Closer inspection reveals that the bulge is a gun; she [read all]
December 23, 1971 Hamburg
Though there is nothing to connect the Kaiserlautern murder to the Baader-Meinhof Gang at this time, the Springer Press newspaper Bild publishes a story headlined “Baader-Meinhof murders on.”
November 8, 1971 Hamburg
Renate Riemack, Ulrike Meinhof’s foster mother, publishes an open letter in Meinhof’s ex-husband’s konkret. She says that that the RAF’s ideological foundations rest on false assumptions.
October 22, 1971 Hamburg
Margrit Schiller is captured by police. While arresting her, RAF members Irmgard Möller and Gerhard Müller attempt to rescue her, getting into a shootout with police. Police sergeant Heinz Lemke is shot in the foot. Sergeant Norbert Schmid is killed.
July 15, 1971 Hamburg
RAF members Petra Schelm and Werner Hoppe are stopped at a police roadblock on a bridge in Hamburg. They are driving a stolen BMW 2002 ti (which was popularly called a “Baader-Meinhof Wagen”). They burst through the barricades and are chased by two police cars. The BMW slams to a halt as the police corner [read all]