When Germans speak of the
German student protests, they are addressing those of the late 1960s,
specifically 1968. After the murder of Benno Ohnesorg during 1967 demonstration
and the assassination attempt on the SDS leader Rudi Dutscke in early spring 1968,
student protests erupted. The Rote Armee Fraktion (Red Army Fraction; RAF) was
co-founded by journalist Ulrike Meinhof alongside the other two major leaders
of the organization Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin.
During their early
stages, the RAF received large amounts of sympathy from the German public. The
RAF, like most other left-based organizations especially student-run ones,
developed at this time in West Germany in response to their parents, who, the
students felt, needed to take responsibility for their actions during the Nazi
area. Lack of confrontation by their parents with their Nazi past was just one
part of the student movement and protests. The RAF, like other organizations,
was against the war in Vietnam, the American-imperialist, occupation of West
Germany, and the capitalists in government. Groups called for revolutionary
actions.
On the night of April 2,
1968, near midnight in Frankfurt am Main, two department stores were set
ablaze. Then, on April 4, the police were given a confidential tip about the culprits.
Soon after, the arsonists were arrested which included 27 year old student
Gudrun Ensslin, 25 year old Andreas Baader, as well as 26 year old Thorward
Proll and 25 year old Horst Söhnlein. On October 31, 1968 the four arsonists
were sentenced to 3 years in custody. Until the appeal, on June 13, 1969, they
were free to go. Baader, Ensslin, and Proll went underground again. Söhnlein
was the only one who served his punishment. Baader will be apprehended on April
4, 1970 in Berlin.
Here, Meinhof joins
Baader and Ensslin, on May 14, 1970, Meinhof, with the help of Irene Goergens,
Ingrid Schubert, and two masked accomplices freed Andreas Baader from captivity
by armed force. One of the masked
individuals is believed to be Gudrun Ensslin. Thus, history saw the “birth hour”
of the RAF. In June, Baader, Meinhof, Ensslin, Mahler and other RAF
sympathizers fled to Jordan. In Jordan, the group trained in gorilla-fighting/gorilla-warfare.
On June 5, 1970, the West Berlin newspaper “Agit 883” published an article,
titled “Die RAF aufbauen” (The RAF Setsup). It is the first official
explanation of the group. The article also stats the freeing of Baader as its’ conception.
On May 11, 1972, the RAF
began their bomb strikes against the headquarters of the US Army in Frankfurt
am Main and thus the “May Offensive” started. Thirteen people were injured and
one person died in the strike. Soon further bomb strikes took place against the
managements of the US Army, police, and justices. This bombing was followed by a bombing of police headquarters in Ausburg and state police in Munich on May 12, 1972, car of a federal judge on May 15, 1972, the Axel Springer building located in Hamburg on may 19, 1972, and lastly, the US forces headquarters in Heidelberg on May 24, 1972. In response, a major "manhunt" began to look for those RAF bombers. Starting in June, the leaders of the RAF began
being detained. Those detained, in order, are Andreas Baader, Holger meins,
Jan-Carl Raspe, Gudrun Ensslin, Brigitte Mohnhaupt, Ulrike Meinhof, and lastly
Irmgard Möller. As the original leaders of the RAF, known from here as the first generation RAF, were arrested and detained,
the second generation of RAF members arouse and called for the freeing of the imprisoned
RAF leaders.
In the fall of 1974, while the first RAF generation was incarcerated in Stuttgart-Stammheim and going through a hunger-strike in protest against the conditions of their custody especially the isolation-torture which they endured. An Allenbach poll found that every fourteenth German under 30 years of age sympathized with the RAF. Due to this new wave of sympathy, the RAF was able to recruit new members. During the first generation’s third hunger strike, which took place from September 27, 1974 to February 2, 1975, Holger Meins had died on November 4, 1974. The day following Meins’ death, a Berlin chief judge, named Günter Drenkmann, was shot. This shooting was by the second generation which developed after the arrests of the first generation leaders and others associated with them.On December 4, 1974, French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre interviewed Baader in the Stammheim prison about his leadership in the RAF. At the time, the visit was highly criticized on behalf of Sartre. Some thought he favored the RAF but as the interview is reviewed today, it is believed Sartre misunderstood Baader. Please see the Spiegel article located under “sources”.
Sources:In the fall of 1974, while the first RAF generation was incarcerated in Stuttgart-Stammheim and going through a hunger-strike in protest against the conditions of their custody especially the isolation-torture which they endured. An Allenbach poll found that every fourteenth German under 30 years of age sympathized with the RAF. Due to this new wave of sympathy, the RAF was able to recruit new members. During the first generation’s third hunger strike, which took place from September 27, 1974 to February 2, 1975, Holger Meins had died on November 4, 1974. The day following Meins’ death, a Berlin chief judge, named Günter Drenkmann, was shot. This shooting was by the second generation which developed after the arrests of the first generation leaders and others associated with them.On December 4, 1974, French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre interviewed Baader in the Stammheim prison about his leadership in the RAF. At the time, the visit was highly criticized on behalf of Sartre. Some thought he favored the RAF but as the interview is reviewed today, it is believed Sartre misunderstood Baader. Please see the Spiegel article located under “sources”.
The trail for the first
RAF generation began on May 21, 1975. The trail is described as being “hectic”
from the start. The defendants behaved “as madman, insulting” and partially aggressive
but all the while, the judges acted no better, thus fueling the idea of a
police state. The prison doctor was forced to admit that the living conditions
of the defendants were not adequate and could potentially cause health issues
and problems. Later, independent doctors
stated the RAF leaders were unfit to stand trial. One year later, Ulrike Meinhof
was found dead in her cell. Prison officials announced it was suicide but
sympathizers believe police officials and government officials purposely staged
Meinhof’s death to look like a suicide so that they may cover up the fact they
had, in fact, murdered her. On October 18, 1977, the
rest of the first generation were found dead in their cells at
Stuttgart-Stammheim prison. Raspe and Baader were found shot with a pistol in
the head while Ensslin was hanged from her cell window. Möller survived her
suicide attempt. A day later, Hanns-Martin
Schleyer was found in the trunk of a car with a note in Mühlhausen.
http://www.bpb.de/geschichte/deutsche-geschichte/geschichte-der-raf/
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/transcript-released-of-sartre-visit-to-raf-leader-andreas-baader-a-881395.html
Please check out my YouTube video I created to go along with my blog series:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eruWT7iB6Co&list=PLCaVUhxKy8tBXeJqmYdHNdhry3r2Yzzkj
