42 Facts About Ulrike Meinhof

Ulrike Marie Meinhof was a German left-wing terrorist, journalist and founding member of the Red Army Faction in West Germany, commonly referred to in the press as the "Baader-Meinhof gang".

Ulrike Meinhof is the reputed author of The Urban Guerilla Concept.

In 1952, Ulrike Meinhof took her Abitur at a school in Weilburg.

Ulrike Meinhof then studied philosophy, sociology, education and German at Marburg, where she became involved with reform movements.

Ulrike Meinhof participated in protests against the Bundeswehr and the proposal of Konrad Adenauer's government to deploy nuclear weapons.

Ulrike Meinhof eventually became the spokeswoman of the local Anti-Atomtod-Ausschuss.

In 1959, Ulrike Meinhof joined the banned Communist Party of Germany and later began working at the magazine konkret, a monthly which, until 1964, had clandestine financing from the East German government.

Konkret was widely read by student activists and progressive intellectuals, and as its chief editor from 1962 to 1964, Ulrike Meinhof was able to elicit contributions from established journalists and authors.

When Iranian counter-demonstrators, including agents of the Shah's intelligence service, attacked the students, the police joined the affray beating the demonstrators into a side street where an officer shot and killed the student protester Benno Ohnesorg The leading Stern columnist, Sebastian Haffner whom Ulrike Meinhof had befriended, took to konkret to suggest "with the [anti-] Student pogrom of 2 June 1967 fascism in West Berlin had thrown off its mask".

In February 1968, Ulrike Meinhof was a participant in the International Vietnam Conference in West Berlin, which the authorities had permitted only in the face of large-scale protests.

Ulrike Meinhof was co-signatory, along with intellectuals including Ernst Bloch, Noam Chomsky, Eric Hobsbawn, Ernest Mandel, and Jean Paul Sartre, of the final declaration.

In 1961, Ulrike Meinhof married the co-founder and publisher of konkret, Klaus Rainer Rohl.

In 1962, Ulrike Meinhof had a benign brain tumor surgically removed; the 1976 autopsy showed that remnants of the tumor and surgical scar tissue impinged on her amygdala.

The attempted assassination of SDS leader Rudi Dutschke on 11 April 1968 provoked Ulrike Meinhof to write an article in konkret demonstrating her increasingly militant attitude and containing perhaps her best-known quote:.

Ulrike Meinhof stopped writing for konkret which had in her opinion evolved into a completely commercial magazine in the early part of 1969, and many other authors followed her.

Ulrike Meinhof stated that neither she nor her collaborators wanted to give a left-wing alibi to the magazine that sooner or later "would become part of the counter-revolution, a thing that I cannot gloss over with my co-operation, especially now that it is impossible to change its course".

Ulrike Meinhof arrived in Rohl's villa at 11:30, after police and journalists had already arrived.

Ulrike Meinhof was accused by Rohl as the organizer of the vandalism.

In May 1970, Ulrike Meinhof had been approached to help in Baader's escape by his girlfriend, Gudrun Ensslin.

Ulrike Meinhof persuaded the left-wing publisher Klaus Wagenbach to assist in the release of what he saw as a political prisoner.

Ulrike Meinhof issued her with a book contract, on the basis of which she petitioned authorities to allow Baader to travel from Moabit Prison for an interview at an institute for social research in the Dahlem district of Berlin.

Ulrike Meinhof then called a friend to pick up her children from school.

Ulrike Meinhof wrote an essay defending the Munich massacre as part of a Palestinian strategy of resistance against Israeli land theft and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

Ulrike Meinhof agreed but later became suspicious that the woman might be involved with the RAF and eventually decided to call the police.

In December 1972, Ulrike Meinhof, who was awaiting trial, was called to testify at Horst Mahler's trial where Mahler questioned her about the statement of support the two had issued for the massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.

Ulrike Meinhof claimed to feel an "historical identity" with the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto, who attempted an unarmed uprising leading to their defeat.

On 9 May 1976, Ulrike Meinhof was found dead in her prison cell in Stuttgart-Stammheim.

The official verdict was Ulrike Meinhof had committed suicide, but this was disputed by her sister and many others.

Ulrike Meinhof was buried in Berlin-Mariendorf, six days after her death.

Ulrike Meinhof's funeral turned out to be a demonstration of about 7,000 people.

In late 2002, following investigations by her daughter Bettina, it was discovered that Ulrike Meinhof's brain had been retained following the autopsy performed as part of the investigation into her death.

Bernhard Bogerts, a psychiatrist at Magdeburg University, later re-examined the brain and doubted that Ulrike Meinhof was fully criminally responsible.

Finally, Ulrike Meinhof was planning to reveal main witness Gerhard Muller's role in the trial.

Ulrike Meinhof claimed that there was not the least sign of depression or lack of interest on her part and that it was an animated discussion in the context of which Meinhof explained the group's point of view.

Ulrike Meinhof conveyed the desire of the Red Brigades to contact her and described the conditions of detention in Italy where prisoners were not held in isolation and were politically active.

Capelli later said that Ulrike Meinhof gave him the impression of "a vivid, lifelike woman", "open to all questions".

Ulrike Meinhof served in World War II as corporal in a Panzer division.

The circumstances around Ulrike Meinhof's death have been disputed by people close to her, including many of Ulrike Meinhof's relatives, friends, lawyers, and comrades, presenting various arguments.

Ulrike Meinhof's life has been the subject, to varying degrees of fictionalisation, of several films and stage productions.

The film suggests Ulrike Meinhof was a friend of Kuhlmann and Bose and that a mistake Kuhlmann made resulted in her imprisonment and subsequent death.

The first track was entitled Ulrike and featured lyrics that directly involve Meinhof as the protagonist and the final track was an instrumental reprise of the first track.

German Neue Deutsche Harte band Rammstein feature Ulrike Meinhof, played by lead singer Till Lindemann, in the music video to their 2019 song Deutschland.