Ulrike Meinhof

Ulrike Marie Meinhof (October 7, 1934 - May 9, 1976) was a West German journalist and political activist who became the most publicly prominent figure of the Red Army Faction, the urban guerrilla organization she co-founded in 1970. Before joining the underground, Meinhof was a widely read left-wing journalist whose columns in the West German magazine konkret had made her one of the best-known political commentators in the country. Her transformation from respected journalist to wanted terrorist - effected by her participation in Andreas Baader's prison break on May 14, 1970 - made her perhaps the defining figure of the RAF in the eyes of the West German public.¹

Journalism Career

Meinhof was born in Oldenburg, Germany, and studied philosophy and education at the University of Munster before transferring to Hamburg. She became editor of konkret, a left-wing magazine with ties to the East German communist party that provided some financial support in its early years. Her columns addressed West German politics, the Vietnam War, the persistence of former Nazis in positions of authority in the Federal Republic, and the student protest movement that emerged in the late 1960s.

The shooting of student Benno Ohnesorg by police at a demonstration against the Shah of Iran's visit to Berlin in June 1967 radicalized much of the West German student movement. Meinhof increasingly concluded that conventional political journalism could not address what she characterized as the structural violence of the capitalist state.¹

Founding of the RAF

On May 14, 1970, Meinhof participated in the operation that freed Andreas Baader from custody at a Berlin institution where he had been given a supervised library visit to research a book. Meinhof, who had arranged access to the visit on journalistic pretexts, helped Baader escape in a confrontation in which a guard was shot and seriously wounded. Her participation transformed her from a journalist investigating radicals into a wanted criminal overnight.

The RAF's founding document, "The Concept of the Urban Guerrilla," published in April 1971, was attributed to Meinhof and laid out the group's theoretical framework for attacking West German capitalism and American military presence. The document argued that armed struggle within the metropolitan center - rather than in the developing world as in Che Guevara's model - was politically necessary.¹

Arrest and Imprisonment

Meinhof was arrested in Hanover on June 15, 1972, following the RAF's bombing campaign of May 1972 - a series of attacks on American military installations, the Hamburg police headquarters, and the federal judge's offices in Karlsruhe. She was held in conditions she and her attorneys characterized as sensory deprivation - extended periods of isolation in a sound-deadened cell.

The trials of Meinhof and the other founding RAF members were conducted at Stammheim Prison, a special high-security facility built to house them. Meinhof was separated from the main trial of Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, and Jan-Carl Raspe and tried first; she was convicted and sentenced to eight years for her role in the prison break.

Death

Meinhof was found dead in her cell at Stammheim on May 9, 1976, before the conclusion of the main Stammheim trial. She was hanging from a rope made from a towel attached to the window of her cell. Prison authorities ruled the death a suicide.

The RAF and its supporters disputed the ruling, arguing that the prison's maximum-security conditions made access to rope materials impossible without guard complicity and suggesting that Meinhof had been killed by state actors. An international commission convened by sympathizers concluded the evidence was consistent with murder. Subsequent independent forensic examinations did not resolve the dispute to universal satisfaction, though official inquiries consistently upheld the suicide finding.²