Kommune I
The free-living and free-loving late-1960s social experiment that was West Berlin’s “Kommune I” was actually pre-dated by another, less-prominent commune, which ironically ended up being called “Kommune II.” Many of Kommune I’s members were prominent student leaders in the nearby Free University, including Fritz Teufel. Kommune I became prominent for advocating and carrying out humorous “praxis” [read all]
June 2nd Movement
Movement 2 June was the second most prominent left-wing German urban guerrilla group of the seventies. It was founded by former members of Kommune I, and was based in West Berlin. Movement 2 June was formed in Berlin around 1971. It was built from the remnants of the West Berlin Tupamaros small-level proto-terrorist group which had been around for [read all]
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]
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]
Summer, 1971 West Berlin
Former members of Kommune I, and former members of the now-disbanded West Berlin Tupamaros, form “Movement 2 June.” Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin encourage the group, which includes Bommi Baumann and Fritz Teufel, to join the RAF. They demure, wary of Baader’s insistence on total leadership, and prefer to stay in Berlin anyway.
March 22, 1968 West Berlin
Fritz Teufel and Rainer Langhans of Kommune I are found Not Guilty of Incitement to Arson, for passing out the leaflets the previous spring. According to Baader-Meinhof biographer Jillian Becker, the expert witnesses agree, “the pamphlets were literary compositions, not to be acted on but for theoretical considerations only.” Theoretical to everyone, it seems, except [read all]
May 24, 1967 West Berlin
Two days after a devastating fire sweeps through a Brussels department store, members of Kommune I, a radical commune, pass out a leaflet at Berlin’s Free University which jokingly suggests that a good way to bring the Marxist Revolution home is to deliberately burn down department stores. Kommune I members Fritz Teufel and Rainer Langhans [read all]
Podcast 21: Fritz Teufel is Dead
Fritz Teuful, co-founder of Kommune 1, clown prince of the Berlin student movement, and inspiration of the Baader-Meinhof Gang, died this week at 67. [display_podcast]