The tragic end of the German journalist who despised his mother, abandoned his children and became a guerrilla in the ‘70s

May 9, 1976.For the icy corridors of the Stammheim prison, only the steps of the guards, the taconeo against the tiles, and the blow of the keys against the metal doors of the cells are heard.At 7.34, a cry.Those who previously walked, now run.In a few minutes more than 11 people are in that cell.Someone lowers the woman's body and supports it on the ground.They don't even try resuscitation maneuvers.It is obvious that there is nothing to do.They climb the body to a stretcher, cover it with a sheet and take it to the morguera truck of the prison.Inside the cell, some men check the few papers, search between the clothes thrown.They look for something else, something they don't find.The next day, the news is a lid of all German newspapers.Ulrik Meinhof had committed suicide in prison.He was 41 years old, two daughters who hadn't seen for years and was the most famous guerrilla in Europe.

Ulrike Meinhof was one of the leaders of the German Guerrilla Baader-Meinhof group. De periodista de opiniones fuertes derivó en integrante irreductible del grupo armado que tuvo en vilo a Alemania Occidental durante la primera mitad de los años setenta.

His group was also known as the RAF (fraction of the Red Army). Ulrike desde hacía años se desempeñaba como periodista del periódico comunista Konkrete.His front style had made it known.He was radicalized in the eyes of his readers without them being the turn that would give his life.

En mayo de 1970 consiguió que Andreas Baader fuera llevado hasta un centro especial para que ella pudiera entrevistarlo para concretar un libro que firmarían a dúo.Baader had been detained for a few weeks. Era el líder de la RAF. Después de algunas acciones de mediana notoriedad, se puso en el centro de la escena tras el incendio de unas grandes tiendas en Bonn.He was arrested and tried, but soon left on probation.Although later they stopped him on the street for speeding.In that operation the police discovered that the car he handled was stolen.Baader had to return to jail to comply with the pending sentence and the new. Ya no era visto como un revolucionario sino simplemente como un delincuente común, algo torpe.

La entrevista con Ulrike, que ya había renunciado a su puesto en Konkrete para dedicarse a la lucha armada, era una mera excusa para que los compañeros de Baader pudieran orquestar su fuga.She had to officiate of silent accomplice.But at the time he decided to take an active part and escape with Baader.From that moment, the group was known as Baader-Meinhof.

For more than a year, revolutionary manifestos and violent actions multiplied.Attacks, kidnappings, robberies to obtain financing. Ulrike viajó a Jordania a recibir entrenamiento y capacitación de grupos extremistas. Pero ella y sus compañeros alemanes duraron poco.They were expelled due to disciplinary problems (although they tried to retrospectively modify the facts and talked about cultural shock).

They maintained, in manifestos in which the style and trade of Ulrike was clear, that the Vietnam War and the capitalist advance showed that the system was exhausted, that it was the time of the revolution.They quoted Fanon, Debray, Mao.They dreamed with support they never had. Estaban alejados de una sociedad que pese a su idealismo los miraba con horror, que rechazaba sus métodos violentos. Una sociedad que explícita o implícitamente apoyaba los severos métodos represivos del gobierno alemán.The past hovered over the country.It was a black cloud they escaped, who wanted to dissipate.

The motivations that the Baader-Meinhof featured were based on police repression to student marches, the death of some youth militants under police bullets, a small recession that stopped the German miracle in the late sixties, the US intervention- or at leastThe importance of its influence on modern Western Germany-, and the example of what was happening in Vietnam. Pero no alcanzaban a conmover a una sociedad que deseaba mirar para adelante porque lo que tenía en el pasado reciente era atroz. Y si miraba para el costado, en especial el oriental, veía la opresión y las faltas de libertades del otro lado del Muro.The majority of German society believed it was time to build, to improve what was had, but that violence was not the way. Ulrike, Andreas Baader y sus compañeros no supieron leer esto.

En noviembre de 1971, Renate Riemeck le dirigió una carta pública.He titled it: "Please, Abandon, Ulrike".There I told him that he was taking the wrong way.It was a fierce criticism of the action of the RAF and, at the same time, a affectionate praise of intelligence and the genuine political commitment of Ulrike.He said that criticism and opposition against authoritarian measures should not be confused with the possibility of carrying out a total rebellion. La guerrilla urbana al estilo latinoamericano era algo que no podía funcionar en Alemania. Insistía en que debían rever sus acciones, pensar en las muertes que habían ocasionado porque todavía estaban a tiempo de enmendarse.The letter produced enormous shock because the signer was not any citizen. Renate Riemeck era la madre de Ulrike y esa carta era un intento desesperado, tal vez el último, para recuperar a su hija. Pero fracasó.A few days later, Ulrike's response arrived.Strict, furious. El título era: “Una madre esclava le ruega a su hija”. La respuesta destilaba sarcasmo y hasta algo de odio.He reproached her mother to pretend she, Ulrike, resigned her freedom.The rest of the text was a reaffirmation of its path in the armed struggle.A closed defense of their actions. Esa carta fue la señal definitiva de que Ulrike había hecho volar los puentes con su pasado.From that moment on, he only had the revolutionary struggle.Everything would look at that distorted prism.

Ulrike, according to some relatives, had fallen into a depression after the last attacks. Su agrupación no conseguía el apoyo que ellos hubieran deseado. La sociedad alemana, previsiblemente, condenaba la violencia.At the same time, the official forces stalked her.I could feel the persecution.At that height, no place seemed safe. Hasta que la policía irrumpió en el departamento que utilizaba de guarida.The agents took to realize that they had caught the public enemy number 1.They suspected that it was someone important for the resistance that opposed the arrest. Estaba muy desmejorada, casi irreconocible. Lo que los terminó de sacar las dudas fue una radiografía de cráneo que mostró una placa metálica que Ulrike tenía instalada desde hacía más de una década. Al día siguiente, fue llevada al penal de Stammheim.A cell in isolation.There he spent the next 14 months.Sophisticated torture, which altered his perception of reality, which tested his sanity. Sin ver a nadie, sin contacto humano, sin descanso de esas paredes desnudas y blancas.Without the possibility of talking to anyone but herself.The days lasted weeks.I had totally distorted the notion of time.

The rest of the band members who were detained passed through the same.Very every so often they could see their lawyers. Las visitas las tenían prohibidas. A través de sus abogados coordinaron una huelga de hambre para intentar que las condiciones de vida en la cárcel se modificaran.But nothing happened.The authorities saw impassive as every day the tray with food remained intact and their health deteriorated. Hasta que Holger Meins, miembro de la RAF colapsó y murió.Meins had weigh less than 50 kilos despite his 1 meter 83 cms of height.

A partir de ese momento, los funcionarios carcelarios y judiciales no tuvieron más remedio que mejorarles las condiciones de detención a los integrantes de la Baader-Meinhof.

The trial attracted the attention of German public opinion.Ulrike's figure attracted for his formation, his ability to articulate ideas and his unexpected choice of the armed option.He was seen as a mother who had abandoned her two children, who urged attacks and threatened all Germany. Los acusados denunciaron abusos de parte de los carceleros; sostuvieron que las conversaciones con sus abogados eran grabados ilegalmente y que los letrados fueron presionados para que dejaran el caso y se exiliaran.The German justice accused the lawyers of exceeding their functions and officiating as accomplices of the accused.The judge had official defenders that the members of Baader-Meinhof on the bench resisted accepting. En medio de estos polémicas, en las audiencias se ventilaban las distintas acciones violentas que la agrupación había llevado adelante.

Both Ulrike and his companions managed to be exempted from being at the audiences due to their fragile state. Las condenas fueron contundentes.Thirty years of seclusion for each of the defendants. Les endilgaron 4 asesinatos, más de treinta casos de lesiones y otros tantos atentados contra la paz pública, y la organización de células subversivas.

Un cimbronazo se produjo cuando en la mañana del 9 de mayo de hace 45 años encontraron a Ulrike Meinhof colgada en su celda. Los oficiales carcelarios entraron al lugar, no protegieron la escena ni sacaron fotos de cómo encontraron el cuerpo.Eleven people passed around in a few minutes.The forensic report was rushed, brief and forceful. Se había ahorcado con una toalla.Suicide. Pero los rumores pronto hablaron de que había sido con unas sábanas.Others believed to have seen signs of violence in the body.Some detaine. Sus compañeros aseguraron que se trató de un crimen, de un homicidio para callar a la mujer que molestaba al poder. Con el tiempo hasta hubo quien dijo que había signos de violencia sexual y restos de semen en su ropa interior.The truth is that his death was in a nebula that does not seem that the story will clear.

All these suspicions intensified a year later. Con sus líderes presos y con Ulrike muerta en circunstancias poco claras, la banda tuvo un renacimiento virulento con nuevos miembros. Hubo asesinatos, secuestros, una ola de violencia que generó una crisis política en Alemania.He was called the German fall. El punto cumbre fue cuando una agrupación palestina, en apoyo de la Baader-Meinhof, secuestró un avión de Lufthansa repletó de pasajeros y lo desvió hasta Somalia. Un comando alemán -actuando por primera vez en el extranjero desde la Segunda Guerra Mundial- lo liberó sin que muriera ningún pasajero.When the news met, they had an impact unthinkable in the prison in which Andreas Baader and his companions spent. Esa madrugada los tres aparecieron muertos en sus celdas.The official version spoke of suicide.Of a suicide pact.But Baader and another appeared with a shot in the head and a third would have committed suicide of four stabs.Doubts arose immediately.How did the weapons enter?The authorities hurried to their lawyers to have made the weapons enter clandestinely.The investigation was immediately closed.One more time.

The Baader-Meinhof or the RAF had several reincarnations over the years until its final dissolution in the nineties. Produjo varios atentados que dejaron como saldo 34 muertos y cientos de heridos.

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