Irmgard Maria Elisabeth Möller (born 13 May 1947) is a German former militant. She joined the

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 ...

terrorist 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 ...

(RAF) in 1971. After participating in two bombings, she was arrested the following year. During the German Autumn of 1977, she was one of the prisoners demanded by the RAF to be freed and was part of an alleged

suicide pact A suicide pact is an agreed plan between two or more individuals to die by suicide. The plan may be to die together, or separately and closely timed. In England and Wales, a suicide pact is a partial defense, under section 4 of the Homicide Act ...

Stammheim Prison Stuttgart Correctional Facility (), also known as Stuttgart Prison or Stammheim Prison, is located in the Stuttgart district of Stammheim, the northernmost district of the state capital of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the largest of a total ...

with

Andreas Baader Berndt Andreas Baader (6 May 1943 – 18 October 1977) was a West German communist and leader of the far-left terrorist organization Red Army Faction (RAF), also commonly known as the Baader-Meinhof Group. Life Andreas Baader was born in Mu ...

Gudrun Ensslin Gudrun Ensslin (; 15 August 1940 – 18 October 1977) was a German far-left terrorist and founder of the West German far-left militant group Red Army Faction (, or RAF, also known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang). After becoming involved with co-fou ...

and Jan-Carl Raspe. The other three died and she survived, claiming it was an assassination attempt. She was released from prison in 1994.

Early life

Irmgard Möller was born in 1947. In the late 1960s, she studied in

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 ...

and participated in protests such as the occupation of the Institut für Zeitungswissenschaften. She joined the Tupamaros Munich and lived in a commune with

Fritz Teufel Fritz Teufel (17 June 1943 – 6 July 2010) was a prominent figure in the West German political left of the 1960s. One of the founders of Kommune 1, Teufel cultivated a theatrical, humorous public image—encapsulated in his idea of the " Spaßgu ...

. She joined the

(RAF) in 1971.

RAF activity

In October 1971, Möller and fellow RAF members Margrit Schiller and Gerhard Müller were involved with a shootout with the police which ended with one officer dead and Schiller arrested. Both she and Schiller later said that Müller had shot the policeman. According to Müller, who later turned police informant, Möller and Angela Luther walked into the police headquarters in

Augsburg Augsburg ( , ; ; ) is a city in the Bavaria, Bavarian part of Swabia, Germany, around west of the Bavarian capital Munich. It is a College town, university town and the regional seat of the Swabia (administrative region), Swabia with a well ...

and placed

pipe bomb A pipe bomb is an improvised explosive device (IED) that uses a tightly sealed section of pipe filled with an explosive material. The containment provided by the pipe means that simple low explosives can be used to produce a relatively larg ...

s in empty offices on 12 May 1972. The subsequent explosions injured five policemen. Two weeks later, Möller, Luther,

and Holger Meins bombed the Campbell Barracks of the United States Army Europe and Africa in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

. Three soldiers were killed in the attack. Recent RAF recruit Hans-Peter Konieczny was persuaded by the police to become an informant and betrayed Möller and Klaus Jünschke, who were both arrested on 9 July 1972 in

Offenbach am Main Offenbach am Main () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Hesse, Germany, on the left bank of the river Main (river), Main. It borders Frankfurt and is part of the Frankfurt urban area and the larger Frankfurt Rhein-Main Regional Aut ...

. Möller received a sentence of four and a half years in prison and in January 1977 was moved to the high-security

, where she inhabited a floor with fellow RAF militants Baader,

and Jan-Carl Raspe.

German Autumn

During the German Autumn of 1977, the powerful German industrialist and former SS (Nazi) officer Hanns Martin Schleyer was kidnapped on 5 September by the RAF. The group demanded the release of eleven prisoners, including Möller. In October,

Lufthansa Flight 181 Lufthansa Flight 181, a Boeing 737-230C jet airliner (reg. D-ABCE) named ''Landshut'', was hijacked on 13 October 1977 by four militants of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine while en route from Palma de Mallorca, Spain, to Fr ...

was hijacked by the

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP; ) is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist organization founded in 1967 by George Habash. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation ...

in support of the RAF communique and then stormed by the

GSG 9 , formerly , is the police tactical unit of the German Federal Police (Bundespolizei). The unit is responsible for combatting terrorism and violent crime, including organized crime. In addition to its headquarters location in Sankt Augustin-H ...

special forces unit after it had landed in Somalia. The day after the failure of the hijack, the German authorities announced that Baader, Ensslin, Möller and Raspe had tried to kill themselves in a

. Baader and Ensslin died, whilst Raspe died of his wounds several hours later and Möller survived. In response, the RAF murdered Schleyer. When she had recovered, Möller stated it was an assassination attempt and there was no suicide pact. She had been awakened around 04:30 on the morning of 17 October by loud bangs and she had not stabbed herself four times in her chest. Baader and Raspe had allegedly shot themselves, so questions were raised about how they had obtained guns in a

supermax prison A super-maximum security (supermax) or administrative maximum (ADX) prison is a "control-unit" prison, or a unit within prisons, which represents the most secure level of custody in the prison systems of certain countries. The objective is to ...

; Baader had powder burns on his right hand, but he was left-handed.

Release

Möller was released from prison on 1 December 1994. She published a book in which the journalist interviewed her about her time in the RAF.

Selected works

References