Sigh - I thought political posts were disallowed here?
Ulrike, mother of two children she left behind to "go underground", committed suicide/hung herself in 1976, quite aptly on Mother's Day. By that time she was alienated from other RAF (= Rote Armee Fraktion, the moniker the terrorists had given themselves) members, mainly Baader, her former love, a ruthless and charismatic man, and Ensslin, Baader's new "wife" and a fanatic for him and the cause. They constantly sniped at her as a "traitor swine" and "weakling" who should "do the movement a favor" by killing herself. Even the usual suspects of leftist conspiration circles no longer assume that Ulrike was murdered by the state. Instead her former husband from pre-terrorist days now argues that she was psychologically coerced into killing herself by peer group pressure or - even worse - that other RAF members staged her suicide. But the assertion that four other terrorists - Baader, Ensslin, Raspe and Möller - were subject to state assasinations still lingers in some circles ...
IMHO the "state initiated execution of Baader, Ensslin, Raspe and Möller in 1977 following the rescue of the Landshut aircraft passengers" is a leftist urban myth. 0nly Irmgard Möller, after inflicting multiple knife stabs on herself, survived
her mug shot
and around the time she was pardoned
and was pardoned some 12 years ago, a broken woman, even though she still swears she did not stab herself that night, but was stabbed "by uniformed men", she's as loony as a bat and by now probably actually believes it herself. It's a nice conspiracy theory, especially for the time, the new "only mock-democratic Bundesrepublik baring its old Nazi fangs" and hey, didn't the CIA kill Che Guevara (he of refrigerator door fame
) and Salvador Allende too? I never believed it, even at the time, and remember having heated discussions about it because you were supposed to believe in the "state murder theory" if you were left-leaning. Even without help of the CIA, German authorities would have been more creative at murdering the prisoners than just shooting ot stabbing or hanging them in their cells. All four wanted to be flown out in a helicopter after the Landshut hijack, it would have been easy to orchestrate an "accident" then without ever any trace of evidence appearing. Why do it in the cells and then in a way that invites conspiracy theories (Baader, Ensslin and Raspe all killed themselves in a way to make it appear/seem possible that there was third party interference - they had agreed on that). Why let Irmgard Möller survive - she could have surely "succumbed to self-inflicted wounds" in the hospital had a job needed to be "finished" - only to let her go free 23 years later (still raving about how she was allegedly almost murdered in that night)?
Were the authorities aware that the prisoners in solitary confinement were actually communicating with one another (via their radios which they had manipulated)? Definitely, they took it as a welcome chance to listen in. Were they aware that Baader and Raspe had guns in their cells? More recent historical research seems to indicate yes (not all tapes have yet been released to the public, their prison cells were bugged). Were they aware of concerted suicide plans if the prisoners were not released? Probably yes as well. Were a couple of people thinking "let them go ahead and do it if they want, one less issue to think about ...". Probably so, their wellbeing wasn't high on most people's agenda back then. But that still isn't a "state execution".
Irmgard will of course say, I wasn't there to witness ...
