Red Army Faction: Stammheim Murders

“No-one is feared or hated more than the opponent of the state”. It is 12 years [in 1989] since the deaths of Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe. The state called it suicide, but it was barbaric murder committed under the veil of ant Left hysteria, carried out by the state itself. Just consider a few of the questionable aspects of the case:

Baader, Ensslin and Raspe, along with Irmgard Moeller and seven other political prisoners were kept on the 7^th floor of Stammheim Prison, near Stuttgart in West Germany. All were alleged members of the self-styled guerrilla group The Red Army Faction. They were young, well educated people of largely middle class origins … but had declared war on capitalism.

On 18^th October 1977 the media reported the suicides of Baader, Ensslin and Raspe, and an attempted suicide by Moeller. From the start, the possibility that the deaths could have been anything other than suicide was never considered by the media, even when there were no facts available. Ensslin died from hanging, Baader and Raspe from pistol shots, while Moeller suffered stab wounds but survived. The ‘suicides’ were discovered at 7.41am.

There were no fingerprints on any of the weapons. This was initially explained by there being so much blood on the weapons, but this had to be retracted by the revelation that there was no blood on the pistols. How on earth did the weapon get into Stammheim? How could warders searching the cells of the most dangerous ‘terrorists’ in Europe have overlooked 2 guns and a knife? The cells were searched daily, as the German prison system is renowned for its thoroughness. The newspaper Der Spiegel claimed that Baader’s pistol was hidden in his stereo, but his stereo had been removed on 5^th September! Could lawyers have smuggled the weapons in? But they were thoroughly searched with a metal detector and no bags or dictaphones were allowed in. Prisoners were stripped and given new clothes before and after any visits. Also, officials admitted bugging and videoing the visiting rooms.

Since 6^th September (when the RAF kidnapped a former Nazi, then a leading businessman, Hans Martin Schleyer, to try to gain the release of the prisoners) total isolation or ‘Kontaksperre’ had been introduced, this included no physical contact with lawyers, no radio and generally no news at all of events outside Stammheim.

After the deaths, astonishing discoveries in the cells were reported to a gullible media, e.g. on 20^th October a Sanyo transistor radio was discovered in Raspe’s cell (this was an effort to explain how the prisoners heard of the release of the hostages from a Lufthansa 737 which had been hijacked at Mogadischu in another attempt to free the prisoners. These plants were meant to convince the public that the three dead guerrillas had been able to smuggle weapons in, if not explaining how.

A further strange fact is that there were 3 shots fired in Baader’s cell. Why 3? As a rule, after a gun has been fired traces of gunpowder are left on the hand. Der Spiegel (incorrectly, as was later to be revealed) reported that traces had been found on Baader’s right hand, but he was left handed! The autopsy reported no traces of gunpowder. The autopsy was carried out by “an eminent team of international physicians”. Amnesty International was invited to nominate a doctor, but while it was selecting one, the autopsy too place anyway. One of the doctors, Armand Andre from Belgium, said that suicide was merely plausible – far from sound proof.

Irmgard Moeller is supposed to have stabbed herself 4 times with a bread knife. Does that sound feasible? She cannot remember the stabbing, just losing consciousness and is adamant that there were no suicide pacts. At 2am on 18^th October ‘medicaments’ were given to Baader, Raspe and Moeller although none had any ailments, but no traces were found in the bodies. It has been suggested that these were psycho-pharmaceuticals that rapidly decompose and could explain Moeller’s lack of memory of the events.

According to the media, the deaths occurred after the prisoners heard of the storming of the hijacked plane at Mogadishu by German GSG-9 special police. Despite Kontaksperre, efforts were made to explain how the prisoners knew of the events. All the suggestions are ludicrous as the cells were soundproof and there was an empty cell between each prisoner.

Ensslin had stated her fears of being executed just 2 days before her death. Another RAF prisoner, Ingrid Schubert, has stated Baader had been subjected to death threats by a warder. Heinz Kuhn (Minister President of Nordrhein Westfalen) threatened “The terrorists must understand that to kill Hans Martin Schleyer can only have severe repercussions on the fate of those they seek to free through their shameful act”.

All the prisoners had said that under no circumstances would they commit suicide. It is important to remember that if prisoners are murdered it must look like suicide – an accident at Stammheim would have been unbelievable. The events at Mogadishu minimised outcry at the deaths provided a motive for the ‘suicides’ – all very convenient. The German government and the whole structure of the state stand accused of murder. This article is not a defence of the RAF, who were mostly rich kids playing the rebel, though they hit the right targets, which is more than can be said for a certain guerrilla group nearer home … and both are macho hierarchies, but at least they did fight back and the treatment meted out to them puts South American dictators to shame and shows the oppressive nature of ALL governments.