Library:Ulrike Meinhof: The Biography

Ulrike Meinhof: The Biography
Author	Jutta Ditfurth
Translated by	Prolewiki
Original language	German
First published	2009

Even so we realised

Hatred of oppression still distorts the features,

Anger at injustice still makes voices raised and ugly.

Oh we, who wished to lay for the foundations for peace and friendliness,

Could never be friendly ourselves.

And in the future when no longer

Do human beings still treat themselves as animals,

Look back on us with indulgence.

from Bertolt Brecht, "To those born afterward"'

Contents

Prisoner Liberator

West Berlin, May 14, 1970

A Very German Family

Oldenburg, until 1936

Childhood

Jena, 1936-1940

Elementary School Student

Jena, 1940-1945

Between Tents

Berneck, 1945

Postwar Years

Oldenburg, 1946-1949

Foster Daughter

Oldenburg, 1949-1952

Beatnik

Weilburg an der Lahn, 1952-1953

High School Graduate

Weilburg an der Lahn, 1953-1955

Student

Marburg and Wuppertal, April 1955 to March 1958

Nuclear Weapons Opponent

Münster, 1957-1958

SDS Comrade

Münster and West Berlin, 1958-1959

Communist

Münster and Hamburg, 1959

Editor

Hamburg and Jena, 1959-1960

Editor-in-Chief and Wife

Hamburg, 1960-1962

Mother of Twins

Hamburg, 1962

Anti-Fascist

Hamburg, 1963-1965

Publicist

Hamburg, 1965-1967

Anti-Authoritarian

Hamburg and West Berlin, 1967

Extra-Parliamentary Opposition

West Berlin, February to May 1968

Filmmaker

West Berlin, 1968

Border Walker

West Berlin, 1969

Anti-Authoritarian Authority

West Berlin, December 1969 to May 1970

Mother

West Berlin, May to June 1970

Partisan

West Berlin and Amman, June to September 1970

Bank Robber

West Berlin and Federal Republic, September 1970 to July 1970

Assassin

Federal Rupublic, September 1971 to June 1972

Prisoner

Hanover and Koln-Ossendorf, June 1972

In Solitary Confinement

Cologne-Ossendorf JVA, June 1972 to February 1973

Object

Cologne-Ossendorf JVA, February to August 1973

Stammhein

Stuttgart-Stammhein, April 1973 to May 1975

Accused

Stuttgart-Stammhein, May to October 1975

Last Offensive

Stuttgart-Stammheim, October 1975 to May 1976

Death

Stuttgart-Stammhein, May 1976

Appendix

Remarks

Bibliography

Archives

Thanks

Prisoner Liberator-West Berlin, May 14, 1970

She had put her twin daughters with friends, and now 35-year-old Ulrike Meinhof was waiting at a large table in the reading room of the German Central Institute for Social Issues in the West Berlin district of Dahlem. Wearing jeans and a sweater, she sat between chairs and half-height cabinets full of index cards. Her handbag contained a mortgage deed for 40,000 German marks. Her fingers nervously rolled the band on a pack of cigarettes. Sometimes she glanced out of the high window at the garden of the Wilhelminian style villa. Her fingers rolled the band tighter and tighter. Because of the man she was meeting, the institute was closed to other visitors. When she rang at eight o'clock on Thursday, May 14, 1970, she was expected. Since then, she has hurriedly leafed through index boxes and occasionally had books brought to her. She smoked and pretended to read.

Ulrike Meinhof had convinced the left-wing publisher Klaus Wagenbach to sign a contract with Andreas Baader and her for a book on the subject of “Organization of Marginalized Young People.” She was a well-known left-wing journalist who had been writing impressive reports and radio programs about institutionalized children for years. But in reality it was about something different this time: “We want to free Andreas from prison,” Ulrike Meinhof explained to Klaus Wagenbach. He had said yes, because he, like most leftists, supported the liberation of political prisoners. With the help of this book contract, Andreas Baader's lawyer Horst Mahler persuaded the prison management of the Berlin-Tegel correctional facility (JVA) to have his client taken to the institute in Dahlem in order to be able to work on the manuscript with the journalist.

Ulrike Meinhof was involved in the planning of this operation from the beginning. She helped decide that the liberators-initially all women-would carry weapons in order to intimidate Andreas Baader's escorts, who were also armed. But it was agreed that during the action they only wanted to threaten, not shoot. And Ulrike Meinhof had raised money for the weapons.

The circle around Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin, Andreas Baader, Horst Mahler and other leftists had discussed for months what the left should do next; the extra-parliamentary movement was in ruins; many groups were divided; The Spaßguerilla was exhausted and the Republican Club (RC), which had been an action center for the left for some time, had now become too academic again. At the end of the revolt, many comrades returned to civil life and concentrated on their careers at universities or in parties. The SDS had disbanded six weeks earlier. But in Vietnam, clouds of the defoliant Agent Orange from US Air Force planes continued to poison millions of people; Proxy wars also continued in other states in the so-called Third World. Words and explanations didn't seem to have any effect.

Many dissidents did not want to accept this decline in their rebellion, which had started out so promisingly. They came to a variety of conclusions: some founded communist organizations of various orientations, others continued the anti-authoritarian concept in grassroots groups. After long discussions, Ulrike Meinhof and her political friends agreed to build an urban guerrilla unit modeled after the Uruguayan Tupamaros. Meinhof knew full well that her decision to carry out illegal activities and occasionally use weapons would lead to a life that would force her, at least temporarily, underground. But the group had no plans to go underground just yet. Everyone wanted to continue their civil life for as long as possible.

In contrast to her mostly younger friends, Ulrike Meinhof had experienced what illegality could mean, as she had belonged to the banned and persecuted German Communist Party (KPD) for several years. This time it would be different. Different circumstances, harsher consequences. She prepared herself. She sorted out her circle of acquaintances. She broke off contact with people who did not approve of her decision. She warned others who wouldn't take part but wouldn't betray her either. She said to a friend: “Don’t come into the kitchen when you’re with us. You have nothing to do with what we're discussing there because you don't pick up a weapon."

Ulrike Meinhof was originally supposed to leave the institute around half an hour before the liberation and Andreas Baader was to sit alone in the reading room. She was supposed to appear uninvolved so that she could continue to live legally for the time being. There were good reasons for this: she enjoyed a certain reputation and reached many people with her journalistic work. With her political and professional connections, she could have been of use to an illegally operating left.

But a few days before Andreas Baader's liberation, Horst Mahler burst into a preparatory meeting with bad news. The head of the prison suddenly ordered that Baader was only allowed to stay in the library as long as Meinhof was present there. The group trusted Horst Mahler, so no one checked his information. The action now depended on whether Ulrike Meinhof would be willing to stay. She decided to join in. Four years later, she justified the liberation of Andreas Baader as that a revolutionary action was indispensable for the development of the urban guerrilla movement.

A few days before the prisoner was freed, she visited her sister Wienke, who was three years older than her, in Hesse. The sisters, war children and orphans, looked back on their shared political past in the Adenauer era. Ulrike Meinhof wanted at all costs to prevent her daughters from falling into the hands of her divorced husband Klaus Rainer Röhl, nor did she want them to live with Renate Riemeck, as for personal and political reasons, both of them had long maintained a decided distance from the professor of history, their former foster mother.

Wienke also had two daughters. The two sisters had promised each other that they would care for each other's children should circumstances require it. Ulrike Meinhof was reassured when her sister now willingly readily renewed her promise. She didn't tell anyone about the planned action and her sister didn't ask.

In Hamburg, Ulrike Meinhof's ex-husband Klaus Rainer Röhl celebrated the magazine's 15th anniversary on that very day. All of his guests knew the paper's former editor-in-chief and columnist and many valued Ulrike Meinhof more than the host. At the party the news suddenly spread that and why the police were looking for Ulrike Meinhof. The mood changed. Jürgen Holtkamp, a former Beton editor and now an author at Radio Bremen, remained silent. He quickly said goodbye and drove back to Bremen because he knew who was waiting for him at home.

Marianne H. and Jan-Carl Raspe, after urgent requests by Ulrike Meinhof, brought the seven-year-old twins Regine and Bettina from West Berlin to the Holtkamps in Bremen. On the evening of the prisoners' liberation, H. and Raspe had dinner with Lilli Holtkamp and the three Holtkamp children as well as Ulrike Meinhof's daughters. Lilli Holtkamp turned on the television news, but when the news anchor announced that the department store arsonist Andreas Baader had been freed at gunpoint and that the perpetrators were on the run, she quickly turned off the television. The girls shouldn't hear their mother's name. The children continued to eat without worry, only the adults suddenly became hectic. Marianne H. and Jan-Carl Raspe set off for West Berlin.

Days later there was a risk that the manhunt would expand to Bremen. The Holtkamps packed their bags and drove to the North Sea with all five children. They rented a farmhouse southwest of Cuxhaven.

Wienke Zitzlaff was the principal at the special education school in Lollar, Hesse, and was attending teacher training in Weilburg an der Lahn when she heard about the prisoner liberation on the radio. Although Ulrike Meinhof's name was not initially mentioned, she suspected that her sister was among those wanted. She left Weilburg and drove to Staufenberg near Lollar, where she lived, so Ulrike would be able to reach her at any time. She herself was preparing to welcome her nieces, as she had promised.

But the next day the police broke into her house with a search warrant and threatened: "We'll find your sister at your house one day!" She realized that Ulrike Meinhof's children couldn't be brought to her until everything was sorted out. The danger that the twins would be used by the police as blackmail against their mother was too great. From now on, Wienke interrupted anyone who called her to immediately inform them that the police expected to find Ulrike Meinhof with her; she hoped her sister would find out about it this way. One day the phone rang, but this time the caller interrupted her; a very familiar, gentle voice said: “Don’t worry, Wienke, everything is fine."

Ulrike Meinhof had sole custody of her daughters. She justifiably hoped that she would be able to keep her involvement hidden and ensure that the girls could live with Wienke for the time being. After all, even convicted and imprisoned women did not lose the right to determine the place of residence for their children. She never thought for a second that she could separated from her children forever. Shortly before Baader was liberated, she had applied for child passports for the twins. She calculated the worst case scenario: that she would be caught by the police. But she couldn't imagine that a prison sentence for liberating a prisoner would be longer than six months or a year. But if she managed to escape in time, she could, for example, live abroad with her children. She believed she had options.

It was inconceivable to her that a West Berlin court would grant temporary custody to Klaus Rainer Röhl within 48 hours of Baader's release, and such a ruling was not common at the time. Perhaps the interest of the police was behind the father's sudden request, who had only exercised his visitation rights occasionally. It was only because the court temporarily gave the children to Röhl-without hearing Ulrike Meinhof's lawyer or her sister-that the police could officially search for the children via Interpol and thus perhaps get closer to the mother, but in any case put pressure on her. The children became pawns, which Ulrike Meinhof had wanted to avoid.