12-15-1972 Miss Meinhof Calls Judge Pig Fascist (Stars and Stripes)
A UPI article appearing in Stars and Stripes detailing the angry and defiant comments of an imprisoned Ulrike Meinhof during the trial of Horst Mahler. The article is notable because Meinhof outlines the strategy of the RAF; “what we have done is an encouragement to leftists, we always knew we would meet defeat.” PDF: 12-15-1972 Miss [read all]
10-19-1972 Meinhof Al Fatah Ties Described (Stars and Stripes)
A United Press International article, appearing in Stars and Stripes, describing the testimony of former Baader-Meinhof group member Peter Homann. Homann testified about the training that group received in the Jordanian desert. PDF: 10-19-1972 Meinhof Al Fatah Ties Described
11-30-1974 German Guerrilla Leader Draws 8 Year Prison Term (UPI)
Report on sentencing of Ulrike Meinhof, Horst Mahler and Hans-Juergen Backer in November 1974. PDF: 11-30-1974 German Guerrilla Leader Draws 8 Year Prison Term (UPI)
2-27-1971 Kidnapper Releases 7 year old boy (AP)
An Associated Press article about a kidnapping of a child. The kidnappers originally suggested that they were members of the “Mahler-Baader gang” and were seeking the release of Horst Mahler. Later callers disputed the original claims. PDF: 2-27-1971 Kidnapper Releases 7 year old boy
2-12-1971 Plot to Kidnap Chancellor (AP)
An Associated Press article detailing a supposed Baader-Meinhof plot uncovered by police to kidnap West German Chancellor Willy Brandt and minister Horst Ehmke. PDF: 2-12-1971 Plot to Kidnap Chancellor
3-3-1971 Trial of Three Leftists Begins in Berlin (Stars and Stripes)
The beginning of the trial of Horst Mahler, Ingrid Schubert, and Irene Goergens for their role in the freeing of Andreas Baader from police custody the previous year, is noted in this Stars and Stripes article.
March 1, 1975 West Berlin
Newspapers worldwide print the image of Ettore Canella sprinting to freedom out of his Berlin jail. Behind him, Gerhard Jagdmann strolls out assuredly. During their evening broadcasts, the German news programs show interviews with Gabi Kröcher-Tiedemann from her Essen jail cell, and Horst Mahler from his Berlin cell; both refuse to be released, electing to [read all]
February 28, 1975 West Berlin
A Polaroid photo is released early in the morning showing Lorenz with a sign around his neck: “Peter Lorenz, prisoner of the 2 June Movement.” With the photo is a demand for the immediate release of six terrorists: Horst Mahler, Verena Becker, Gabriele Kröcher-Tiedemann, Ingrid Siepmann, Rolf Heissler, and Rolf Pohle. Except for Mahler, all [read all]
November 29, 1974 West Berlin
Ulrike Meinhof is sentenced to eight years imprisonment for her part in the 1970 freeing of Andreas Baader. Horst Mahler is given an additional 4 years (for a total of 12 years), and Hans- Jürgen Bäcker is found not guilty.
April 27, 1974 West Berlin
Meinhof is transferred temporarily to Berlin’s Moabit prison to be tried for her part in the May 1970 freeing of Andreas Baader. Meinhof is tried with Horst Mahler, who is already serving time for his part in the crime (he had previously been found Not Guilty of participation, but the verdict was set aside), but [read all]
Peter Homann
Peter Homann was a journalist and friend of Ulrike Meinhof in the late 1960s. After Meinhof helped free Andreas Baader from police custody in May of 1970, Homann traveled with the new terror group to Jordan for guerrilla training. While in Jordan, Homann learned that other in the group suspect him of being a traitor, [read all]
Monika Berberich
Born in October 1942, Monika Berberich was a junior lawyer in Horst Mahler’s Socialist Lawyers Collective. She joined up with the burgeoning Baader-Meinhof Gang when Andreas Baader was rescued from police custody in May 1970. Berberich was arrested soon after the group returned from training in the Jordan desert. A 1995 interview for a BBC [read all]
Irene Goergens
Born April 1951. Underground name: “Peggy.” Irene Goergens was the illegitimate daughter of an American GI. She was a follower of Ulrike Meinhof, having met her while Meinhof was researching youth homes for her telefilm “Bambule.” Goergens was arrested in October of 1970 along with Horst Mahler, Brigitte Asdonk, and Ingrid Schubert. She was tried [read all]
Ingrid Schubert
A young Berlin doctor, Ingrid Schubert participated in the freeing of Andreas Baader from the Dahlem Institute for Social Research in May of 1970. Schubert was arrested in October of that year with Horst Mahler, Irene Goergens, and Brigitte Asdonk. She was later given 13 years in prison for her participation the Baader breakout. In [read all]
Horst Mahler
In many ways Horst Mahler (born in January of 1936) can be considered the founder of the Baader-Meinhof Gang. A brilliant socialist lawyer and architect, Mahler began to look for ways to turn his Marxist theory into praxis. His idea was to create a band of Urban Guerillas who would help foment a Marxist revolution. [read all]
Hans-Jürgen Bäcker
Undercover name: “Harp.” Hans-Jürgen Bäcker (born in April of 1939) was with the Baader-Meinhof Gang from its first days before Andreas Baader was rescued from police custody in May 1970. He trained in Jordan with the other original core members of the group shortly after Baader’s escape. After a tipster led to the arrest of [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]
Spring, 1973 Essen
Gudrun Ensslin uses characters from Moby Dick as new code-names for the imprisoned members of the gang. Gudrun becomes “Smutje,” Baader “Ahab,” Holger Meins “Starbuck,” Jan-Carl Raspe “Carpenter,” Gerhard Müller “Queequeg,” and Horst Mahler “Bildad.” Gudrun dubs Meinhof “Teresa,” which was not a character from Moby Dick. Baader-Meinhof Biographer Stefan Aust later theorizes that Ensslin [read all]
Late 1972, Federal Republic of Germany
Andreas Baader is brought to Berlin to testify in Horst Mahler’s trial. While on the stand, Baader takes the opportunity to publicly announce a hunger strike for all Baader-Meinhof prisoners. Word quickly spreads to the captured terrorists held in over ten different prisons across the Federal Republic.
Spring 1971, West Berlin
Horst Mahler, Irene Goergens, and Ingrid Schubert go on trial, for their involvement in the release of Baader, in the criminal court of Moabit prison. Mahler is acquitted (though he still has two other charges pending), and Goergens and Schubert are convicted. Goergens gets six years and Schubert gets four.
December 1969, West Berlin
Filming begins on “Bambule,” a television film scripted by Ulrike Meinhof. The film is about a riot among the residents of a girls youth home. Elsewhere in Berlin the brilliant leftist lawyer Horst Mahler begins to formulate a plan: he wants to create an Urban Guerrilla group modeled on Uruguay’s Tupamaros. Unlike the West Berlin [read all]
October 8 1970, West Berlin
Acting on a tip, police stake out a Berlin apartment where they have been told that Baader, Ensslin, and Mahler will be meeting. Baader and Ensslin never show, but Mahler, Monika Berberich, Brigitte Asdonk and Irene Goergens are all captured.
September 1970, Italy
Stefan Aust, former editor of konkret, former friend of Ulrike Meinhof, and future biographer of the Baader-Meinhof Gang, meets up with group member Peter Homann, who had been kicked out of the group in Jordan. Homann tells Aust of Meinhof’s two daughters, Bettina and Regine, who are secretly being cared for by two hippies at [read all]
April 3 1970, West Berlin
On their way from picking up a buried stash of guns, Astrid Proll and Andreas Baader are stopped by police. The cops quickly deduce that Baader is not the “Peter Chenowitz” listed on his forged ID card, but are not quite sure who they have on their hands so they take him into custody. Mahler [read all]
Early March 1970, West Berlin
Baader and Ensslin meet up with Dieter Kunzelmann, whose West Berlin Tupamaros had been mildly terrorizing Berlin the previous year with humorous pranks, and potentially deadly bombs. Kunzelmann wants Baader and Ensslin to join his gang, but the talks break down when Baader suggests that he be the leader rather than Kunzelmann. Horst Mahler, the [read all]