7-6-1972 Ulrike Meinhof Anarchist Who Acted (Stars and Stripes)
An assessment-type articles from the Associated Press that appeared in Stars and Stripes about the recently captured Ulrike Meinhof. The article is notable in that it pointed indicates that there was no proof that Meinhof and Baader were lovers; many previous articles had treated this “fact” as a given. PDF: 7-6-1972 Ulrike Meinhof Anarchist Who [read all]
6-3-1972 Terrorists Odd Solidarity (Stars and Stripes)
A Stars and Stripes exclusive article detailing the public support that helped the Baader-Meinhof group, as well as background descriptions of various members of the group. PDF: 6-3-1972 Terrorists Odd Solidarity
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
konkret
In the late fifties Klaus Rainer Röhl founded a student magazine called the studentkurier, whose name he later changed tokonkret. Röhl later revealed that konkret was almost wholly subsidized in its early years by huge cash infusions from communist East German sources. As aggressively Marxist as it was aggressively hip, konkret attempted to defy many of the traditional conventions of [read all]
Ulrike Meinhof
Bom on October 7, 1934, Ulrike Meinhof’s parents both died early, leaving Ulrike and her sister Weinke in the care of Renate Riemack, a friend of their mother’s. Riemack was a devoted socialist, and a profound influence on Meinhof. Meinhof married Klaus Rainer Röhl, publisher of the left-wing student newspaper, konkret. After a few years [read all]
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.
Spring 1969 West Berlin
Ulrike Meinhof, having grown increasingly disillusioned with her life, divorces her husband, Klaus Rainer Röhl, and moves to Berlin. She continues to write for a while for Röhl’s konkret, but soon quits. Her fashionable Berlin apartment becomes a hangout for many in the left-wing Berlin scene.
June 2, 1967 West Berlin
The Shah of Iran pays an official visit to Berlin. Thousands of students take to the streets to protest the Shah’s brutally repressive regime. Students seem to be protesting every week–everything, from the war in Vietnam, to the Grand Coalition between the two major German political parties, to university policies, were used as excuses to [read all]