Gudrun Ensslin (; 15 August 1940 – 18 October 1977) was a German far-left terrorist and founder of the West German

far-left Far-left politics, also known as extreme left politics or left-wing extremism, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single, coherent definition; some ...

militant group

Red Army Faction The Red Army Faction (, ; RAF ),See the section "Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang ( ), was a West German far-left militant group founded in 1970 and active until 1998, considered a terrorist organisat ...

(, or RAF, also known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang). After becoming involved with co-founder Andreas Baader, Ensslin was influential in the development of his political beliefs. Ensslin was perhaps the intellectual head of the RAF. She was involved in five

bomb A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechan ...

attacks, with four deaths, was arrested in 1972 and died on 18 October 1977 in what has been called Stammheim Prison's "Death Night".

Early life and education

Ensslin was the fourth of seven children, and grew up in Bad Cannstatt,

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

, where her father Helmut Ensslin ( de) was a pastor of the Evangelical Church. Ensslin was a well-behaved child who did well at school and enjoyed working with the Protestant Girl Scouts, and doing parish work such as organizing Bible studies. In her family, the social injustices of the world were often discussed, and she is said to have been sensitized to social problems in

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

and the world as a whole. At the age of eighteen, Ensslin spent a year in the United States, where she attended high school in Warren, Pennsylvania. She graduated in the honors group at the high school in 1959. After returning home, she finished the remaining requirements for her

secondary education Secondary education is the education level following primary education and preceding tertiary education. Level 2 or ''lower secondary education'' (less commonly ''junior secondary education'') is considered the second and final phase of basic e ...

. Like her partner Bernward Vesper ( de) and other members of the Red Army Faction, including Ulrike Meinhof and Horst Mahler, Ensslin had excellent exam scores and received a

scholarship A scholarship is a form of Student financial aid, financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, Multiculturalism, diversity and inclusion, athleti ...

from the German National Academic Foundation. Studying at the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (; ), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The University of Tübingen is one of eleven German Excellenc ...

, she read education,

English studies English studies (or simply, English) is an academic discipline taught in primary, secondary, and post-secondary education in English-speaking countries. This is not to be confused with English taught as a foreign language, which is a dis ...

, and

German studies German studies is an academic field that researches, documents and disseminates German language, literature, and culture in its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies therefore often focus on German culture, German h ...

. Ensslin also met Vesper in February 1962. In

Tübingen Tübingen (; ) is a traditional college town, university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer (Neckar), Ammer rivers. about one in ...

, together with two other students, Ensslin and Vesper organized a student workshop for new literature which led to a shoestring publishing business called ''Studio neue Literatur''. The first book produced was an

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...

of poems against

atomic weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear expl ...

s, with prominent poets from all German-speaking countries as well as a bilingual edition of poems by

Gerardo Diego Gerardo Diego Cendoya (October 3, 1896 – July 8, 1987) was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27. Diego taught language and literature at institutes of learning in Soria, Gijón, Santander and Madrid. He also acted as lite ...

. In 1963 and 1964, Ensslin earned her elementary school teacher's diploma. In the summer of 1964, the couple moved to

West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...

where Ensslin began her thesis on Hans Henny Jahnn.

Career

In 1965, Gudrun's younger sister Johanna married Günter Maschke, then a revolutionary

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

poet and member of the

Situationist International The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution ...

group Subversive Aktion, which included

Rudi Dutschke Alfred Willi Rudolf Dutschke (; 7 March 1940 – 24 December 1979) was a German sociologist and political activist who, until severely injured by an assassin in 1968, was a leading charismatic figure within the Socialist Students Union (SDS) in ...

as a member. Maschke became later in life a leading conservative antidemocratic intellectual and commentator of the work of

Carl Schmitt Carl Schmitt (11 July 1888 – 7 April 1985) was a German jurist, author, and political theorist. Schmitt wrote extensively about the effective wielding of political power. An authoritarian conservative theorist, he was noted as a critic of ...

. Later that year, Gudrun and Bernward were engaged to be married. Both were active in the democratic

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

, they had well-paid jobs working for the

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together w ...

. The couple demonstrated together against new security laws, the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

, an Allied Powers arms show, and for the right to demonstrate. Vesper neglected his studies, read voraciously, and in 1966 published, with a group of friends, a serious and important series of pamphlets and paperbacks, the ''Voltaire Flugschriften''. In May 1967, Ensslin gave birth to their son Felix Ensslin ( de). In July or August 1967, Ensslin met Andreas Baader and they soon began a love affair. Baader had come to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

in 1963, to escape ongoing troubles with the

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

justice system and also to avoid

conscription Conscription, also known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it conti ...

. Baader, who drifted in and out of

youth detention center In criminal justice systems, a youth detention center, known as a juvenile detention center (JDC),Stahl, Dean, Karen Kerchelich, and Ralph De Sola. ''Abbreviations Dictionary''. CRC Press, 20011202. Retrieved 23 August 2010. , . juvenile det ...

s and prison soon became the man of Ensslin's life. In February 1968, Ensslin broke up with Vesper by phone, informing him that the relationship was already finished before Felix was born. An artifact from this time is an experimental film Ensslin participated in entitled '' Das Abonnement'' (''The Subscription'').

Red Army Faction leader

In June 1967, Ensslin participated in political protests against the

Shah of Iran The monarchs of Iran ruled for over two and a half millennia, beginning as early as the 7th century BC and enduring until the 20th century AD. The earliest Iranian king is generally considered to have been either Deioces of the Median dynasty () ...

during his visit to Germany. Though Western governments viewed the Shah as a reformer, his regime was also being criticized for oppression, brutality, corruption, and extravagance. In what started as a peaceful but unauthorised demonstration at

Deutsche Oper Berlin The Deutsche Oper Berlin is a German opera company located in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin. The resident building is the country's second largest opera house (after Munich's) and also home to the Berlin State Ballet. Since 2004, the ...

, fights broke out between pro-Shah and anti-Shah demonstrators and an unarmed protestor named Benno Ohnesorg was fatally shot in the back of the head by a police officer, Karl-Heinz Kurras. On the night following Ohnesorg's death, Ensslin angrily denounced West Germany as a

fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...

police state A police state describes a state whose government institutions exercise an extreme level of control over civil society and liberties. There is typically little or no distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the exec ...

at a

Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund The Sozialistische Deutsche Studentenbund — the Socialist German Students' Union or Socialist German Students' League — was founded in 1946 in Hamburg, Germany, as the collegiate branch of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). In the ...

meeting. Also, West Berlin's own urban guerrilla organization, Movement 2 June, named itself after this event. Kurras was charged with

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th ce ...

and acquitted on grounds of self-defense on 23 November 1967, which caused further public outrage. Matters eventually cooled, which enraged Baader and Ensslin. She had left Vesper and her child for good early in 1968 and now she, Baader and Thorwald Proll decided to escalate their fight against the system. They left West Berlin around 20 March, and in Munich decided to firebomb

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...

s in

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

, where a Socialist German Student Union congress was taking place. Together with Horst Söhnlein, they left for Frankfurt on 1 April. The night of 2 April 1968, a department store in Frankfurt was set ablaze, for which Baader, Ensslin, Proll and Söhnlein were subsequently arrested and prosecuted. In October 1968 they were sentenced to three years in prison for

arson Arson is the act of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, watercr ...

. After being released pending an appeal in June 1969, Baader, Ensslin and Proll fled Italy via France when the appeal was denied. Baader was arrested on 4 April 1970 in

. Ensslin, Meinhof, who was at that time a well-known

leftist Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politi ...

journalist, and two other women freed him on 14 May 1970. One person was wounded. This was the beginning of the gang's violent actions, and the Red Army Faction. Ensslin became one of the most wanted people in Germany. In May 1971, Vesper committed

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...

in a mental hospital and Felix was sent to live with

foster parent Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home (residential child care community or treatment centre), or private home of a state- certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent", or with a family memb ...

s. Ensslin was arrested in a boutique on 7 June 1972 in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

Death

The Red Army Faction's second generation made several attempts to free Ensslin and her comrades from prison. One attempt involved the

kidnapping Kidnapping or abduction is the unlawful abduction and confinement of a person against their will, and is a crime in many jurisdictions. Kidnapping may be accomplished by use of force or fear, or a victim may be enticed into confinement by frau ...

of Hanns-Martin Schleyer on 5 September 1977, and a proposed

prisoner exchange A prisoner exchange or prisoner swap is a deal between opposing sides in a conflict to release prisoners: prisoner of war, prisoners of war, spy, spies, hostages, etc. Sometimes, cadaver, dead bodies are involved in an exchange. Geneva Conven ...

. When this failed to work, the RAF orchestrated the hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 181 on 17 October. After the airplane was stormed by a German anti-terrorist unit, Schleyer was killed and put inside the trunk of a car in France. Hours after the storming, in a night that became known as "Death Night of Stammheim", Ensslin, Baader, and Jan-Carl Raspe were found dead in the high security block of Stammheim Prison in

. Like Meinhof, Ensslin was found dead by

hanging Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...

in her cell. Baader and Raspe were found shot. A fourth member, Irmgard Möller, allegedly stabbed herself four times in the chest with a stolen knife. She recovered from her wounds and has since stated that the deaths were not suicides but

extrajudicial killing An extrajudicial killing (also known as an extrajudicial execution or an extralegal killing) is the deliberate killing of a person without the lawful authority granted by a judicial proceeding. It typically refers to government authorities, ...

s undertaken by the government of the time, a claim strongly denied by the governments former and present. One exhaustive study of the RAF by

Stefan Aust Stefan Aust (; born 1 July 1946) is a German journalist. He was the editor-in-chief of the weekly news magazine from 1994 to February 2008 and has been the publisher of the conservative leading newspaper since 2014 and the paper's editor until ...

(revised in 2009 as "Baader-Meinhof: the inside story of the RAF") ultimately accepts the state's official ruling that the deaths were suicides, while highlighting serious shortcomings in the investigations. On 27 October 1977, Ensslin was buried in a common grave with Baader and Raspe in the Dornhalden Cemetery in

In film

In 1981,

Margarethe von Trotta Margarethe von Trotta (; born 21 February 1942)Hans Helmut Prinzler, ''Chronik des deutschen Films, 1895–1994'' (Stuttgart and Weimar: Verlag J. B. Metzler, 1995), p. 149. is a German film director, screenwriter, and actress. She has been ref ...

's feature film '' Marianne and Juliane'' presented a fictionalised portrayal of an incarcerated Ensslin ( Barbara Sukowa) and her sister ( Jutta Lampe). In 1986, Sabine Wegner played Ensslin in Reinhard Hauff's '' Stammheim'', a detailed account of the trial against Ensslin, Baader, Meinhof and others. Also in 1986, Corinna Kirchhoff played Ensslin in Markus Imhoof's '' The Journey'' (''Die Reise''), based on the memoirs of Ensslin's companion Bernward Vesper. In 1997, Anya Hoffmann was Ensslin in Heinrich Breloer's award-winning TV

docudrama Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television show, television and feature film, film, which features Drama (film and television), dramatized Historical reenactment, re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of docu ...

''Death Game''. In 2008, Ensslin was portrayed by Johanna Wokalek in Uli Edel's '' The Baader Meinhof Complex'', an adaptation of the non-fiction book of the same name by

. Wokalek's performance in the film was rewarded with a nomination for the German Film Award 2009 and a

Bambi ''Bambi'' is a 1942 American Animated film, animated Coming of age, coming-of-age drama film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Loosely based on Felix Salten's 1923 novel ''Bambi, a Life in the Woods'', the ...

award as best German actress. The film was chosen as Germany's submission to the 81st Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film for the

66th Golden Globe Awards The 66th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and television of 2008, was broadcast on January 11, 2009, from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, ...

. In February 2011, Andres Veiel's feature film '' If Not Us, Who?'', in which Lena Lauzemis plays Gudrun Ensslin, won the Alfred Bauer Prize and the Prize of the German Art House Cinemas at the

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

In theatre

Ensslin appears as a character in Elfriede Jelinek's play '' Ulrike Maria Stuart''. Her writings feature in German avant-garde composer

Helmut Lachenmann Helmut Friedrich Lachenmann (; born 27 November 1935) is a German composer of contemporary classical music and pianist. Associated with the "instrumental musique concrète" style, Lachenmann is alongside Wolfgang Rihm as among the leading Germa ...

's opera ''Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern''.

Bibliography

* Ellen Seiter, "The Political Is Personal: Margarethe von Trotta's ''Marianne And Juliane''" ''Journal of Film and Video'' 37.2 (1985) : 41–46. * Film: " Marianne and Juliane", with original German title " Die bleierne Zeit", directed by

in 1981. * Book: '' Hitler's Children'' by

Jillian Becker Jillian Becker (born 2 June 1932) is a South African-born British author, journalist, and lecturer, who specialises in research about terrorism. Her work includes ''Hitler's Children: The Story of the Baader-Meinhof Terrorist Gang'' (1977). E ...

. * Book: '' Televisionaries'' (Televisionaries: the red army faction story 1963–1993) by Tom Vague. * Book: "High School Graduates of Warren, Pennsylvania 1889–1995" * Warren, PA: Warren Bicentennial History Committee, 1995. Oliphant, Nancy (editor) *

References

External links

Baader-Meinhof.com page about Gudrun Ensslin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ensslin, Gudrun 1940 births 1977 suicides 1977 deaths Anti-revisionists Criminals from Baden-Württemberg German communists German female criminals German people who died in prison custody German revolutionaries Members of the Red Army Faction People convicted on terrorism charges People from Ostalbkreis People from the Free People's State of Württemberg Prisoners who died in German detention Studienstiftung alumni Suicides by hanging in Germany Suicides in West Germany People who died by suicide in prison custody