I go over the Baader-Meinhof story from its origins to its culmination and talk about the conspiracy around their suicides while in prison actually being state-sanctioned murder, as well as some other possible theories.

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Post author By Charlie February 15, 2021
The Baader-Meinhof Gang – Was it Suicide or Murder?
theweeklyrambler.com/the-baader-meinhof-gang-was-it-suicide-or-murder/
Origins – Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin
The origins of what was to become nicknamed the Baader-Meinhof Gang sprung up from
the late-sixties in West Germany, the sixties had been marked by left wing protests
against things such as the atom bomb, Vietnam War, and capitalism. On 2nd June 1967
there was a protest in West Berlin against the visit of the Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, and
during the event a student called Benno Ohnesorg was shot dead by policeman Detective
Sergeant Kurras. This event led to the souring of political tone in the state, as up until that
point the political tensions had mostly remained peaceful.

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Left: Andreas Baader, photo from
German Historical Museum used
under Fair Use terms to identify
individual. Right: Gudrun Ensslin,
photo by Ali Limonadi from Wikimedia
Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0. Source.

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Student protester Benno Ohnesorg after he was shot by Detective Sergeant Kurras, opposite
Duetsche Oper, West Berlin, 2nd June 1967. Image in Public Domain.
A day after the shooting, a woman called Gudrun Ensslin, a radical leftist, made
an emotionally fired address at a meeting of the Socialist German Students Union in
Berlin.
Ensslin was born in 1940 and was daughter of an Evangelical pastor who was a
communist. Ensslin studied philosophy and later moved to Berlin to live with a left-wing
writer called Bernward Vesper, who she had a son with.
Seven months after the death off Ohnesorg, Sergent Detective Kurras was tried on
manslaughter charges, but was acquitted on a plea that the heat of the protests at the time
had affected his judgement that led to the tragic killing. This verdict incensed elements of
the radical left and to many of them it confirmed their views that Germany was still a
fascist state.
During Ensslin’s speech, she had spoken of the fascist state being out to kill them, and
that it was stupid to keep heading for a peaceful conclusion. She went on saying that they
would have to fight violence with violence and slammed their opponents as the generation
of Auschwitz and that as such they could not be reasoned with through argument.
It was not too long after that address that she met Andreas Baader at a demonstration.
During this time Baader had little to no political convictions and was mostly just
interested in fast cars and women, he was living with a female action painter called Elly
Michell who also paid for his living, and they had a daughter together. Despite this Baader
and Ensslin would spend a night together.

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Baader’s lack of money and success very likely played into his easiness to be converted to
the belief that society was rotten and could only be fixed by violent revolution. Both
Baader and Ensslin would go on to desert their partners and moved to Frankfurt together.
The leftist student movement in Frankfurt was more sophisticated than such counterparts
in Berlin. At such leftist student meetings Ensslin was mostly the speaker while Baader
was silent but evident in his attendance, Ensslin was the intellectually dominant one of
the relationship.
First Violent Actions – 2 April 1968
Eventually it was inevitably decided to take violent action. The two targets decided upon
were department stores. Baader and Ensslin entered the Schneider department store soon
before closing time and later exited shortly after having left shopping bags behind. A fire
broke out at the store at midnight on three floors, which was soon put out by the fire
brigade.
Two other accomplices, Thorwold Proll and Horst Sohnlein, had planted a bomb at the
other targeted department store but it had failed to detonate.
The following evening Baader and Ensslin were discovered and arrested at the apartment
of a friend and were subsequently identified by department store employees. Proll
and Sohnlein had also been arrested elsewhere.
All were sentenced to three years in prison for arson but were all released 14-months
pending an appeal. It was soon after this that they began to realize that they were seen as
heroes among radical left circles. Sohnlein was the only one to turn up for the appeal
verdict while Baader, Ensslin and Proll escaped to Switzerland.
The group would return secretly in 1970, and in April of that year, two years after the
department store incidents, Baader was arrested while he was on his way to dig up an
arms cache that had been hidden in a cemetery. He was later sent to Tegal prison in West
Berlin, it was here that he’d be visited by well-known left-wing journalist Ulrike Meinhof.
The two had already met previously during the department store arson trial, where she
interviewed him and Ensslin.
Ulrike Meinhof
Meinhof was 36-years-old at the time. She had previously stated within one of her articles
that it was better to burn a department store than to own one. Meinhof was something of
a celebrity to left-wing circles, although it wasn’t just that, as she had also written plays
for radio and television and was also a popular talk show guest. She was also the mother
of twin daughters.
In recent years while she lectured part-time at Berlin’s Free University, she became
increasingly involved in extreme Left student groups. Her apartment also became a
frequent meeting spot for these groups and were also often attended by associates of
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Ulrike Meinhof, the Meinhof family has allowed
anyone to use these photos for free, source.
Baader and Ensslin. One of these associates
was Horst Mahler, Baader’s defense lawyer
and who would be another founder of the
Red Army Faction alongside Baader,
Ensslin, and Meinhof.
The Break-Out – 14 May 1970
Mahler, and Ensslin (who was still a fugitive) had convinced Meinhof to help break out
Baader from prison. Authorities had given permission for Baader to write a book on
maladjusted juveniles and for this was allowed to conduct research at the German
Institute for Social Questions in the West Berlin suburb of Dahlem.
On 14 May 1970, Meinhof arrived to the institute where Baader would soon be
‘conducting research’ and she was told by a worker that the place was closed, but Meinhof
replied saying that she had received permission to work with Baader on his book. Due to
Meinhof being a well-known journalist the librarian on duty foolishly took her at word.
Not long after Meinhof entered, Baader was brought in and his handcuffs were removed.
Not long after this the bell of the door rang, and two young women were allowed to enter
under the explanation that they needed to do research, moments after this a masked man
rushes in waving a gun and then the two woman who were permitted entry produced guns
from their bags. Gunfire followed which was mostly aimed at the floor.
During the ensuing chaos Baader and Meinhof took the opportunity to leap from a
window and enter into an Alfa Romeo driven by Thorwald Proll’s sister, Astrid. They then
made their escape. During the whole incident a librarian was seriously wounded by
gunfire, but there had been no deaths or further injuries.
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Horst Mahler then arranged for the escapees, including himself, Baader, Ensslin, and
Meinhof to escape to the Middle East.
Peter Homann, another member of the breakout plan, later claimed that at the time there
was no political motive behind the plan to breakout Baader, and that Ensslin simply
wanted her ‘baby’ (Baader) back, and others wanted to help her with that goal. It was only
later while they were on the run that they conceived the idea to become full-time
revolutionary terrorists.
Birth of the Red Army Faction and the First Attacks
Aftermath of 11th May 1972 attack on US Army V Corps HQ and officers’ mess
Terrace Club. 1 killed (US Army LTC Paul A. Bloomquist), 13 injured. Photo in
Public Domain.
While in the Middle East the group were trained in terrorist tactics by the Popular Front
for the Liberation of Palestine. The group also gained its name while there, the Red Army
Faction, named after the Japanese Red Army militant communist and terrorist group.
Horst Mahler meanwhile organised bank raids back in Germany to finance their
movement and group. Mahler was eventually arrested in October 1970 and later
imprisoned.
After their training and formation of the Red Army Faction, the group begun its series of
terrorist attacks within West Germany during 1972. In May 1972 the group planted
several bombs at the HQ of the US Fifth Army Corps in Frankfurt which killed a Colonel
and injured thirteen others and did more than a million dollars in damages. An
anonymous phone call stated that the attack was revenge for Vietnam.

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The next day a number of time-bombs disguised as suitcases exploded in Augsburg,
Bavaria at a police station which injured five police officers. Three days after that
a judge’s wife was injured by a car bomb in Karlsruhe.
On 19 May two-time bombs exploded in the offices of the right-wing publishing house of
Springer in Hamburg. And then on 25 May several bombs exploded at an American
army base in Heidelberg which killed three and injured five.
The Downfall of Baader-Meinhof
The 25 May Heidelberg bombing would lead to the Baader-Meinhof downfall. Not long
after the attack authorities receive a tip-off that led them to a garage of an apartment
building in the north of Heidelberg. From here bomb making equipment were seized and
a number of bombs which were ready to be used in future attacks were defused.
After this they eventually caught Baader going into the garage in the early hours of
1 June, within a lilac Porsche. Jan-Carl Raspe and Holger Meins, two terrorists apart of
the gang was accompanying him. They were very soon met by armed police forces. Raspe
opened fire on them and tried to escape but was quickly overpowered, Baader and Meins
on the other hand shut themselves into the garage but were eventually overcome by tear
gas grenades, forcing them out.
Baader was shot in the thigh and Meins emerged with his hands in the air while only in
his underpants. They were both taken into custody.
Six days after the takedown of Baader, Ensslin was found at a boutique in Hamburg after
a staff member of the business noticed a gun in her pocket and called the police. A week
after that Meinhof was arrested in Hanover thanks to a tip-off from a left-wing teacher
who felt the terrorists were doing more harm to the left-wing cause than good.
Imprisonment & Continuing Attacks
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Stammheim Prison. Photo by Mussklprozz from Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0. Source.
The four top members of what became known as the Baader-Meinhof gang were placed in
the Stuttgart top security Stammheim prison. The trial was delayed for three whole years
so that an escape-proof top security court room could be constructed to hold the trial.
During this time a number of attacks involving the demanded release of the Baader-
Meinhof gang, among other related attacks, some by remaining Red Army Faction
members themselves, would start taking place.
One of the first was the tragic Munich Olympics hostage crisis. Arab terrorists from the
Black September movement took nine Israeli athletes’ hostage during the Olympics. The
terrorists and all nine hostages were killed after a failed rescue operation.
The terrorist’s demands had included the release of the Baader-Meinhof gang.

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Memorial to those killed in the Munich Olympics attack, German and Hebrew. “The team of
the State of Israel stayed in this building during the 20th Olympic Summer Games from 21
August to 5 September 1972. On 5 September, [list of victims] died a violent death. Honor to
their memory.” Photo by High Contrast from Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 3.0 DE, source.
In June 1974 the extremist Ulrich Schmucker was executed by fellow gang members after
he was accused of betraying their plot to blow up the Turkish Embassy in Bonn, which
would have been in retaliation for the execution of three Turkish terrorists.
Holger Meins, one of those arrested alongside Baader, would die on a hunger strike while
he was locked up, following this in revenge for his death a judge named Gunter
von Drenckmann was gunned down by flower bearing terrorists on his own doorstep on
his birthday.
It would reach another new level on 27 February 1975 when the then leader of the
Christian Democratic Party, Peter Lorenz, was seized by terrorists who then demanded
the release of six other terrorists in exchange for his life, one of those demanded for
release was Horst Mahler, but Baader nor Meinhof was included. In this the West German
government gave in to the terrorist demands and released five of the prisoners who were
flown out of the country. Mahler though refused to accompany them. The terrorists
released Lorenz unharmed.
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Peter Lorenz on the right side of the photo. Photo taken by Wegmann, Ludwig. CC BY-SA 3.0
DE. Source.
Then on 24 April 1975 six terrorists who named themselves the Holger Meins
commandos seized the West German embassy in Stockholm, Sweden. They threatened to
kill the hostages they had taken unless the Baader-Meinhof gang were released and that
half a million dollars would be paid in ransom to them. To show that they were series a
military attache Baron von Mirbach was shot dead.
This time the Bonn government refused to cave to the demands and instead offered the
terrorists holding the embassy safe passage out of the country if they released the
hostages unharmed. But it would turn out such negotiations were not needed as one of the
bombs on the top floor embassy refrigerator was set off by accident which killed one of the
terrorists and allowed hostages to escape during the confusion.
The five other terrorists were arrested as they attempted to escape, one of whom later
died from explosion injuries, the others were imprisoned in West Germany.
These series of attacks continued to show the massive liability of the Baader-Meinhof
gang as they remained locked up in prison. Many officials during this time became very
frightened for their lives.
The Trial and First Death
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Ulrike Meinhof memorial. Photo by Mutter Erde from Wikimedia Commons. Source.
The Baader-Meinhof trial finally started on 21 May 1975. The four defendants, Baader,
Meinhof, Ensslin, and Raspe were originally very disruptive during proceedings, via
objections and haranguing. But after a year on 4 May 1976 Ensslin claimed
responsibility for three of the four bombing attacks, basically opening up an ending for
the trial.
Only five days after this Meinhof would be found hanged from the bars of her cell window
via sheets. An official autopsy concluded that it was suicide, but a second autopsy
conducted at the behest of her family would bring up questions and possible doubts on
the official verdict.
Traces of semen were apparently found on her underwear and bruising of the inside of her
thighs also suggested rape. A saliva track from her breast to navel also suggested that she
was unclothed at the time of her death and that she was dressed afterwards. A group of
medical experts also were unable to rule out death by throttling during rape.
1976 Air France Hijacking
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Israeli Commandos following the Entebbe rescue operation. Photo taken by the IDF
Spokesperson’s Unit, CC BY-SA 3.0. Source.
During the trial another tragic incident that involved demands for release of two Baader
gang members took place. An Air France flight from Tel Aviv to Paris was seized by five
Arab and two German terrorists and flown to Entebbe Airport in Uganda.
The terrorists negotiated with then Ugandan President and brutal dictator Idi Amin who
supported the hijackers, the demands were for 53 pro-Palestine terrorists held in Israel
and around the world, which included two Baader members and four from an affiliate
group called the Second June Movement, who were imprisoned in West Germany. All of
the non-israeli passangers of the plane were released, leaving 105 passangers and crew.
Within two days three army transport planes landed without announcement at the
Entebbe Airport, the transports carried 100 Israeli Commandos that stormed the hijacked
aircraft.
An hour-long firefight ensued that killed twenty Ugandan soldiers, one Israeli Commando
(Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, older brother of current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu) and three hostages as well as all seven terrorists. 102 hostages were rescued.
In retaliation the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin ordered the slaughter of Kenyan’s living in
Uganda due to Kenya’s support of the Israeli operation, 245 Kenyan’s were slaughtered
and at least 3,000 fled the country.
Trial Conclusion and 1977 Hijacking

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Route of Lufthansa flight after hijacking. Image by Devilm25 from Wikimedia Commons. CC
BY 3.0. Source.
The Baader trial itself continued meanwhile until April 1977 where the three
remaining defendants were each given life plus fifteen years imprisonment.
After this there would be another major terrorist incident that related to the Baader gang
not long before their deaths. It started on the afternoon of Thursday 13 October 1977
where four Palestinian terrorists, two men and two females, seize Lufthansa flight LH181
that was flying from Majorca to Frankfurt.
Passengers and crew were held as hostages at gunpoint and the pilot was forced to change
course for Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Airport. The terrorists wired the aircraft with
explosive charges. Demands were issued by the terrorists in the name of Struggle Against
World Imperialism Organisation, with the main demands including the release of all
German political prisoners, which was not unexpected due to an open secret that
Palestinian Paramilitary organisations had close links with left
wing revolutionary terrorists in West Germany.
The demands were later downgraded to the release of 11 high-ranking members of the
Red Army Faction, or as others knew it, the Baader-Meinhof Gang, and the ransom
deadline was set for Friday 16 October. Over the following three days the plane flew to
Cyprus, then Dubai as a way to evade possible storming from security forces.
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Hours before the ransom deadline was due to end the plane landed in Aden, Yemen. Soon
afterwards Juergen Schumann, the pilot of the plane, asked permission to inspect the
landing gear as he believed it may have been damaged on the previous landing. The
terrorists allowed him to go and check.
The pilot found that the gear was still serviceable and then walked back to the plane, but
while on the way back he made the major mistake of talking to airport security. On his
return to the plane the terrorists executed him on his knees via shooting him through the
back of the head in-front of terrified passengers and crew, and then they dumped his body
on to the runway.
The terrorists then forced the co-pilot to fly to Mogadishu Airport in Somalia. As the
deadline approached the West German government played for time, the terrorists were
offered 11 prisoners, which included also flying them to Mogadishu Airport to meet the
terrorists there, and on top of that they were offered a substantial sum of money and a jet
to fly them anywhere.
The leading terrorist of the hijacking, who called himself Martyr Mahmoud, agreed to
extend the deadline and work on the arrangement, but he also insisted that no tricks
would make the hijacking into another Entebbe, referencing the previous 1976 Air France
hijacking.
But despite saying this, Tuesday 18 October, 2am would mark the beginning of the end.
The GSG-9, which was West Germany’s newly formed terror squad, stormed the hijacked
airliner. Initially an oil drum was lit under the front of the aircraft to distract the
terrorists, rear emergency exits were then breached and stun grenades were thrown in. A
firefight would then ensue that killed three of the terrorists and badly wounded another –
Mollen – who was taken into custody and later imprisoned in West Germany.
Only one hostage was injured and no authorities or forces suffered any casualties during
the rescue operation. It was certainly a resounding success for the newly formed GSG-9.
Baader Gang Deaths
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Burial site of Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan Carl Raspe. Photo in Public Domain.
Five days after the culmination of the Mogadishu hijacking, guards at
the Stammheim Prison in Stuttgart, West Germany, made several grim discoveries of
deceased high-ranking Baader-Meinhof members.
The first was that of Jan-Carl Raspe, serving life for the murder of four American soldiers
in a bombing attack, was discovered propped up in his bed with a bullet wound to his
head, most shockingly he was somehow still alive when he was discovered but would die
from the wound hours later.
After his discovery, three cells away found was Andreas Baader, dead with a gun beside
him and Gudrun Ensslin was also then found hanging from the barred window of her
cell.
Also, at the same time, the fourth and only surviving Mogadishu hijacker, Irmgard Moller,
was found lying in bed with four stab wounds in her chest, she would ironically also
survive this after emergency surgery.
After these discoveries the West German Minister of Justice, Traugott Bender, announced
what had happened and that it was suspected to be a suicide pact after the failed hijacking
due to them having no hope of release and it was insisted there was no foul play.
But many would begin to accuse and suspect that in actuality the members had been
executed to prevent any further attacks, hijackings or hostage incidents that included an
aim to free them.

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Interestingly on 5 November 1977 Ingrid Schubert, the woman who had helped free
Baader in the 1970 breakout plan, who had since been jailed for partaking in bank
robberies, was found hanging in her cell, three weeks after the Baader gang deaths.
The Aftermath of the Deaths
The Left in Germany quickly accused the government of murder and a number on the
Right even conceded that there was a strong possibility that they were murdered as a
solution to prevent further problematic attempts at freeing them via terrorist acts.
Irmgard Moller, the only surviving terrorist of the Mogadishu 1977 hijacking as well as the
only survivor of the officially-declared suicides, had her own wounds declared self-
inflicted and an attempted suicide as well. Much interest surrounded anything she may
reveal in her testimony. During her testimony she brought charges of murder against an
unknown individual and she also denied that she had attempted suicide and also denied
the Baader members were unable to communicate during the Mogadishu hijacking. She
also said she did not know how she became unconscious in her cell, but claims to recall
two soft popping noises and a voice that said Baader and Ensslin were already dead. Not
long after this Moller was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1979.
The Government of the time though continued to insist it was a suicide pact which aimed
to fuel revolution. Portable transistor radio that was discovered in the cell of Raspe, and
wires left in walls of Baader gang members cells could have possibly been used as
primitive signaling devices, it also became clear eventually that they did have ways to
communicate to each other. The guns that killed Raspe and Baader were also apparently
smuggled in with explosives.
The official take was that the aim of the suicide pact was to make the suicides look like
murders as a way to embarrass authorities with evidence of a plot, and that Baader
writing a letter to a Stuttgart court insisting he would never commit suicide, Ensslin
telling two clergymen that she thought she might be murdered and Moller’s testimony
could have all been a part of the suicide pact.
To the present day the allegations that the deaths of the Baader-Meinhof gang members
were anything other than suicides are officially denied.
Horst Mahler is the only original founder of the Red Army Faction that is still alive today,
although he has since turned to Far-Right neo-Nazi politics, he most recently was in
prison due to such extremist views and fled Germany in 2017 to escape imprisonment and
tried to apply for asylum in Hungary but was deported back to Germany and imprisoned.
He has since served his time.
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