PDF: 10-24-1977 Baader Told Lawyer We Will Be Bumped Off (UPI)
Author Archive
11-14-1977 Another Guerilla Suicide in Prison (AP-Reuters)
Report on the suicide of Ingrid Schubert.
PDF: 11-14-1977 Another Guerilla Suicide in Prison (AP-Reuters)
7-3-1972 Germany Passes Gun Law (AP)
Short piece on new Federal gun law with some contemporary economic background.
6-2-1972 Bonn Seizes Suspected Guerrillas (NY Times)
Article on the arrests of Baader and Meins as well as an outline of possible international links.
5-27-1975 Baader-Meinhof Trial Postponed (Canadian Press)
Announcement of the postponment of the Stammheim trial.
PDF: 5-27-1975 Baader-Meinhof Trial Postponed (Canadian Press)
5-25-1972 Terrorist Bombs Kill Three at US Army German Post (AP)
Article on Heidelberg bombings and possible links to attacks in Paris on two US airline company offices. Interestingly refers to The Red Army Faction as “believed to be part of” The Baader Meinhof Gang.
PDF: 5-25-1972 Terrorist Bombs Kill Three at US Army German Post (AP)
5-25-1972 German Bomb Acts Claimed by Guerrillas (AP)
Short article on The RAF claiming responsibility for the Frankfurt attacks.
5-21-1975 German Bonnie, Clyde on Trial (AP)
Article on the eve of the Stammheim trial, still casting Baader and Meinhof as the “Bonnie and Clyde” of the RAF.
4-27-1975 Bonn Radical Group has Violent Past (UPI)
Short resume of events following The Federal Governments pledge to stamp out the RAF.
4-25-1975 GermanTerroristCaptured (UPI)
A virually identical article to the previous post.
4-25-1975 German Terrorist Captured (AP)
Report on the fall out following the Stockholm siege, including the conviction of June 2nd Movement member Ronald Augustin.
4-24-1975 Five Terrorists Seize Embassy (AP)
An updated version of the previous article which names two suspected members of the group that seized the embassy.
12-15-1971 West Germany’s Bonnie and Clyde (LA Times)
A quite long, omnibus-style Lost Angeles Times article exploring the Baader-Meinhof Group, written at the height of their public support and well before their bombing campaign of the following May. The article lays out the false “Bonnie and Clyde” meme probably more completely than any other source. Early western media reports were obsessed with equating Baader and Meinhof with American prohibition-era outlaws Bonnie and Clyde, whose exploits had been explored in a popular Warren Beatty movie from a few years earlier.
We know now that despite what this and other articles claim, Baader and Meinhof were not lovers, and in fact the true female leader of the group was clearly Gudrun Ensslin.
The article is also notable for mentioning both the terms “Red Army Faction” and “Baader-Meinhof Gang.” It’s also notable that female gang members are referred to as “girls.”
Despite the problematic nature of portions of the article, much of it is an outstanding contemporary assessment of the Baader-Meinhof Gang at mid-career.
11-17-1971 Campus Struggle Forming (AP)
A brief, semi-inflammatory Associated Press article detailing efforts to organize on German campuses by leftist groups. The article is notable for being the first English newspaper account that I’ve found mentioning the “official” name of the group, the Red Army Faction.
5-15-1970 Raid by Extremists Wounds 3 in Berlin (NY Times)
A brief New York Times article detailing the freeing of Andreas Baader from police custody in a Berlin neighborhood.
PDF: 5-15-1970 Raid by Extremists Wounds 3 in Berlin NY Times
5-15-1970 Gunmen Free Arsonist (AP)
A brief Associated Press article detailing the freeing of Andreas Baader from police custody in Berlin.
3-11-1973 Bonn Will Set up Antiterror Unit (NY Times)
Repot on the imminent creation of a “terrorist troupe” by the Bonn government.
2-27-1971 Kidnapper Releases 7 year old boy (AP)
An Associated Press article about a kidnapping of a child. The kidnappers originally suggested that they were members of the “Mahler-Baader gang” and were seeking the release of Horst Mahler. Later callers disputed the original claims.
2-12-1971 Plot to Kidnap Chancellor (AP)
An Associated Press article detailing a supposed Baader-Meinhof plot uncovered by police to kidnap West German Chancellor Willy Brandt and minister Horst Ehmke.
12-21-1972 Violent Crime Wave Stirs Debate in Germany (NY Times)
A New York Times article detailing recent violence attributed to the Baader-Meinhof Gang.
7-9-1972 Terrorists Captured (AP)
Report on the capture in Offenbach of Klaus Jünschke and Irmgard Möller.
6-28-1972 West Germany has its Bonnie, Clyde (AP)
Another background article on Meinhof. This one finds “no evidence of any romantic link” between her and Baader!
6-18-1972 The wife who became Public Enemy No 1 (Guardian UK)
Great article by Neal Ascherton on Ulrike Meinhof’s journey toward terror, including memories of conversations with the subject.
6-17-1970 Tiny West German Group Vows to Overthrow State (NY Times)
This tiny little notice in the NY Times almost comically drips with condescension; right down to the headline. One could argue level the humorous skepticism was entirely warranted. The Red Army Faction really did have essentially zero chance of overthrowing the state.
But the NY Times almost certainly would not have been quite as condescending if they knew of the devastation and terror that this “Tiny West German Group” would be able to accomplish in the coming years.
PDF: 6-17-1970 Tiny West German Group Vows to Overthrow State
6-8-1972 A Fourth Anarchist Seized By Germans (NY Times)
Piece on the arrest of Gudrun Ensslin, and one of the first mentions of her in English language press.