Birgit Hogefeld (born 27 July 1956) is a former member of the

West German West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

Red Army Faction (RAF).

Early life

Born in 1956 in

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

, Hogefeld joined the RAF in 1984, once she turned clandestine, long after its founding members Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and

Ulrike Meinhof Ulrike Marie Meinhof (7 October 1934 – 9 May 1976) was a German left-wing journalist and founding member of the Red Army Faction (RAF) in West Germany, commonly referred to in the press as the "Baader-Meinhof gang". She is the reputed author ...

were dead. She became the girlfriend of fellow RAF member Wolfgang Grams and moved in with him.Death On track 4
Time, 1993-08-23, Accessed on 2021-07-15.

Arrest

On 27 June 1993, Hogefeld and Grams arrived at a

train station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing suc ...

Bad Kleinen Bad Kleinen (until 1915 Kleinen) is a municipality in the Nordwestmecklenburg district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is located on the north bank of the Schweriner See. Bad Kleinen is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region. Geography ...

where a group of

GSG 9 , formerly (), is the police tactical unit of the German Federal Police ''(Bundespolizei (Germany), Bundespolizei)''. The state police (''Landespolizei'') maintain their own tactical units known as the ''Special Deployment Commando, Spezialein ...

officers were waiting to arrest them (the officers had received a tip-off from a fellow GSG 9 officer who had infiltrated the RAF). According to the GSG 9 men, Hogefeld and Grams started firing at them on sight; Grams fatally shot an officer named Michael Newrzella. According to the police Grams committed suicide and fell on the train tracks. However, it was suspected that Grams did not commit suicide but was shot by GSG 9 officers. The Staatsanwaltschaft Schwerin investigated these allegations and concluded in January 1994 that they were incorrect. Grams' parents challenged this conclusion in court, but it was upheld by five different courts, including the European Court of Human Rights in 1999. Interior Minister

Rudolf Seiters Rudolf Seiters (born 13 October 1937 in Osnabrück) is a German politician of the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) party. From 1989–1991, he was Federal Minister for Special Affairs and the Head of the Office of the German Chancellery. From ...

took responsibility for the poor conducting and postprocessing of the operation and resigned in July of the year, as well as Chief Federal Prosecutor,

Alexander von Stahl Alexander von Stahl (born 10 June 1938 in Berlin) is a German lawyer, liberal politician and civil servant. He served as Attorney General of Germany from June 1990 until July 1993. Before he was appointed Attorney General, he served as an Under-S ...

Sentencing

Several terrorist activities that Hogefeld was later found guilty of by a Higher Court in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

were; *The murder of a young GI,

Edward Pimental Edward F. Pimental (June 19, 1965 – August 8, 1985) was an Americans, American soldier of the United States Army who was murdered by the Red Army Faction in West Germany. Biography Pimental was born on June 19, 1965, in Fall River, Massachuse ...

, in 1985 to obtain his I.D. to access the grounds of the U.S. Rhein-Main Air Base near

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

. Supposedly Hogefeld lured him to her home after meeting him in a bar, where he was then shot through the neck and killed.

Eva Haule Eva Sybille Haule-Frimpong (born 16 July 1954) is a former terrorist associated with the third generation Red Army Faction (RAF). She took her abitur in Stuttgart before going underground in 1984. Terrorist activities *On 5 November 1984, Haule ra ...

was also involved with Pimental's murder. *A

bomb attack The following is a list of terrorist incidents that have not been carried out by a state or its forces (see state terrorism and state-sponsored terrorism). Assassinations are listed at List of assassinated people. Definitions of terroris ...

on the aforementioned U.S. airbase, which killed A1C Frank Scarton and Becky Jo Bristol and left twenty others injured. *A failed assassination attempt on

Hans Tietmeyer Hans Tietmeyer (18 August 1931 – 27 December 2016) was a German economist and regarded as one of the foremost experts on international financial matters. He was president of Deutsche Bundesbank from 1993 until 1999 and remained afterwards one o ...

, former

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

of the

Deutsche Bundesbank The Deutsche Bundesbank (), literally "German Federal Bank", is the central bank of the Federal Republic of Germany and as such part of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). Due to its strength and former size, the Bundesbank is the most ...

. *The destruction of a jail. *Involvement in a terrorist organisation. In November 1996, she was given a

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

sentence. In 2008, federal president Horst Köhler denied her clemency request. Hogefeld was released on parole in June 2011.Clemency denied for Red Army Faction terrorist.
Deutsche Welle, 2010-05-17. Accessed on 2010-09-26.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hogefeld, Birgit 1956 births Living people 20th-century criminals German female murderers German prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Members of the Red Army Faction People convicted on terrorism charges People from Wiesbaden Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Germany