posters and photos Richter Cycle: Hanged

title: Erhängte

1988. Oil on Canvas
201 cm X 140 cm

Erhängte - click for larger image

This haunting image is of the dead body of Gudrun Ensslin, hanging from her Stammheim prison cell. It is the first image of the cycle to directly depict events from October 19, 1977, also known as Death Night. According to the official version of events, upon hearing of the storming of a hijacked Lufthansa plane by German GSG-9 counterterrorism forces, Ensslin took a speaker wire, threaded it through the wire mesh of her window, formed a noose, put it around her neck, and kicked aside the chair that she was standing upon.

Original source image