Gudrun Ensslin

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Gudrun Ensslin (born August 15, 1940 in Bartholomä , † October 18, 1977 in Stuttgart-Stammheim ) was a German terrorist . She was a co-founder of the Red Army Faction and was one of the leading members involved in five bomb attacks that left four people dead. She was arrested in 1972 and sentenced to life imprisonment for four murders in 1977. On October 18, 1977, she died by suicide on the night of her death in Stammheim .

Life

Gudrun Ensslin was the fourth of seven children of the evangelical pastor Helmut Ensslin and his wife Ilse and grew up in Tuttlingen (Baden-Württemberg). During her school days, she spent a year as an exchange student in the United States . After graduating from the Königin-Katharina-Stift in Stuttgart in 1960, she studied English , German and pedagogy at the University of Tübingen from 1960 to 1963 ; She then moved to the Schwäbisch Gmünd University of Education , where she passed her state examination to become an elementary school teacher in 1964 . Ensslin then studied German at the Free University of Berlin with a scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation . There was no longer a planned direct doctorate via Hans Henny Jahnn .

Poster for the short film The Subscription (1967)

In 1963 Ensslin founded a small publishing house, the studio neue literatur, together with her fellow student and friend Bernward Vesper in Tübingen . An anthology of German poems against death was published. German writers' voices against the atomic bomb and a volume of poetry by Gerardo Diego . Of the Will Vesper Complete Edition planned after the death of Bernward Vesper's father in 1962, only one volume was ultimately published. In a review for the newspaper Das deutsche Wort in September 1963, Gudrun Ensslin declared this edition to be a "task for national Germany". In the course of this, she described Will Vesper , who was notorious for his Nazi-related works and Hitler odes, among other things as "the most lovable, entertaining and witty poet that Germany has possessed in this century".

After moving to West Berlin, Ensslin and Vesper were active in the election of Willy Brandt during the 1965 Bundestag election campaign in the SPD-affiliated “Wahlkontor Deutsche Schriftsteller” . In 1967 she played a photo model in the experimental short film Das Abo by director Ali Limonadi, who, unlike her photographer, reacts unimpressed to the daily newspaper Die Welt from Axel Springer Verlag . According to Ingeborg Gleichauf , Ensslin played this media-critical role in her only film appearance as versatile and convincing - and showed her talent for staging.

On May 13, 1967 she gave birth to Felix Ensslin , whose godfather was Rudi Dutschke . In the summer of 1967 Gudrun Ensslin met Andreas Baader , in February 1968 she separated from Bernward Vesper, their son joined his father in early April 1968 after Gudrun Ensslin was arrested. On Gudrun Ensslin's initiative, the father's rights were restricted in September 1969 and Felix Ensslin came to foster parents. Bernward Vesper committed suicide in May 1971.

Involved in the student unrest of the late 1960s , Ensslin has been involved in the extra-parliamentary opposition since Benno Ohnesorg's death on June 2, 1967 . After politically motivated department store arson on April 2, 1968 in Frankfurt am Main, Ensslin was arrested and, like Andreas Baader, Thorwald Proll and Horst Söhnlein, sentenced to three years in prison. After the preliminary conviction, the accused were initially released because of the appeal . After the Federal Court of Justice had rejected the defendants' appeal and the verdict from the department store fire trial had become final, Ensslin went into hiding in September 1969 and fled to Italy with Baader and Astrid Proll . In January 1970 she returned to Berlin with Andreas Baader, where Baader was arrested on April 4, 1970.

Ensslin and Ulrike Meinhof planned the liberation of Baader , which took place on May 14, 1970. A fictitious research appointment was used to escape. Meinhof, Ingrid Schubert , Irene Goergens and a previously unidentified man took part in the liberation.

Numerous bank robberies followed in order to finance the following actions. The group went undercover to a Palestinian camp in Jordan for military training. After returning to the Federal Republic of Germany, further bank robberies and five bomb attacks were carried out. Gudrun Ensslin was involved in the RAF's May offensive , in which a total of four people were killed.

On June 7, 1972, she was arrested in a Hamburg fashion boutique. The manager had felt a weapon in Ensslin's discarded jacket and called the police. Gudrun Ensslin was detained in specially built high-security wing of the prison Stuttgart -Stammheim. Trials against Ensslin and the other members of the RAF took place in the newly built multi-purpose hall. Tapes of it, which were recorded between August 1975 and February 1977 and were intended to help the clerks with their work, have been partially published and are in the Baden-Württemberg State Archives , including a statement by Ensslin on attacks by the RAF.

Gravesite of Baader, Raspe and Ensslin

Like Andreas Baader and Jan-Carl Raspe, Ensslin died of her own hands on October 18, 1977; she hanged herself with the help of a loudspeaker cable. Irmgard Möller , the only survivor of the " night of death in Stammheim ", and the prisoners' lawyers claimed that it was not a case of collective suicide, but of state-ordered murders. According to the Stuttgart public prosecutor's office, these allegations have been refuted as conspiracy theories .

Gudrun Ensslin was buried on October 27, 1977 in a shared grave with Andreas Baader and Jan-Carl Raspe at the Dornhaldenfriedhof in Stuttgart.

Christiane Ensslin (1939–2019), an older sister of Gudrun, tried to establish contact with relatives of victims of the RAF (wife and brothers of Gerold von Braunmühl ) and in 2005 - together with the younger brother Gottfried (1946–2013) - published a book with letters from her sister Gudrun from 1972 and 1973.

reception

The German composer Helmut Lachenmann also set a text by Gudrun Ensslin in his opera Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern (1990–1996). The opera was performed in Hamburg in 1997, in Tokyo in 2000 and at the Salzburg Festival in 2002 .

The Austrian writer and Nobel Prize laureate in literature, Elfriede Jelinek, used Ensslin's diary entries in her montage text Wolken.Heim .

The German writer Christine Brückner had Ensslin in her book If you had talked, Desdemona . Unrestrained speeches by angry women have their say in a fictional monologue (No memorial for Gudrun Ensslin. Speech against the walls of Stammheim) .

Ensslin can be seen in the following films:

year Movie Director Ensslin actress Remarks
1981 The leaden time Margarethe von Trotta Barbara Sukowa (as Marianne ) based on the biography of the Ensslin siblings; Golden Lion of the Venice Film Festival
1986 Stammheim Reinhard Hauff Sabine Wegner Golden Bear of the Berlin Film Festival
1986 The trip Markus Imhoof Corinna Kirchhoff (as Dagmar ) based on the fragment of the novel of the same name by Ensslin's partner Bernward Vesper
1997 Death game Heinrich Breloer Anya Hoffmann
2002 Baader Christopher Roth Laura Tonke based on the biography of Andreas Baader
2008 The Baader Meinhof Complex Uli Edel Johanna Wokalek Oscar- nominated film adaptation, which is largely based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Stefan Aust .
2011 Who, if not we Andres Veiel Lena Lauzemis is based on Gerd Koenen's biography Vesper, Ensslin, Baader

Publications

  • Gudrun Ensslin (ed.): Against death: voices of German writers against the atomic bomb. Studio New Literature, Stuttgart 1964, DNB 455081069 .
  • Gudrun Ensslin: "Draws the dividing line every minute". Letters to her sister Christiane and her brother Gottfried from prison 1972–1973. Edited by Christiane Ensslin and Gottfried Ensslin. Concrete literature, Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-89458-239-1 .
  • Caroline Harmsen, Ulrike Seyer, Johannes Ullmaier (eds.): Gudrun Ensslin / Bernward Vesper. "Emergency laws from your hand". Letters 1968/1969. With a comment by Felix Ensslin. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt 2009, ISBN 978-3-518-12586-1 .

literature

  • Uwe Backes : Terrorist biographies: Gudrun Ensslin and Andreas Baader. In: Ders .: Leaden years. Baader-Meinhof and afterwards (= Series Extremism and Democracy. Volume 1). Straube, Erlangen et al. 1991, ISBN 3-927491-36-5 , p. 129 ff.
  • Susanne Bressan, Martin Jander: Gudrun Ensslin. In: Wolfgang Kraushaar (ed.): The RAF and left-wing terrorism. Volume 1. Hamburger Edition, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-936096-65-1 , pp. 398-429.
  • Alexander Gallus (ed.): Meinhof, Mahler, Ensslin. Years of study for three “gifted” students - the files of the German National Academic Foundation. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2016, ISBN 978-3-525-30039-8 .
  • Ingeborg Gleichauf : Poetry and Violence. The life of Gudrun Ensslin. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2017, ISBN 978-3-608-94918-6 .
  • Michael Kapellen: Living twice. Bernward Vesper and Gudrun Ensslin. The years in Tübingen. Klöpfer and Meyer, Tübingen 2005, ISBN 3-937667-65-2 .
  • Gerd Koenen : Vesper, Ensslin, Baader. Primal scenes of German terrorism. Kiepenheuer and Witsch, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-462-03313-1 .

Web links

Commons : Gudrun Ensslin  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alexander Gallus: A beginning that did not let the end wait. The study donors Meinhof, Mahler, Ensslin, Vesper and the elite funding of the early Federal Republic - a file reading. In: Yearbook Extremism & Democracy. Volume 24, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8329-7999-7 , pp. 13-29.
  2. ↑ Christian Schultz-Gerstein: The Destruction of a Legend . In: Der Spiegel . No. 52 , 1979, pp. 146-150 ( Online - Dec. 24, 1979 ).
  3. ^ Franz Walter : The chic of the social democracy. "Stay true to the woman, change sides". In: Spiegel Online , January 7, 2007.
  4. ^ Ingeborg Gleichauf: Poetry and violence. The life of Gudrun Ensslin. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2017, ISBN 978-3-608-94918-6 , p. 135.
  5. ^ Heinrich Jaenecke: A child from a good family. Gudrun Ensslin - their morals, their passions, their errors. In: Stern . No. 26, 1972, p. 20.
  6. ↑ Andreas Gohr: The process. In: Information on the Red Army Faction (RAF).
  7. ↑ 04.05.1976: Statement by Gudrun Ensslin to attacks by the RAF. In: SWR.de , February 15, 2011; The Stammheim tapes. In: Baden-Württemberg State Archives , September 27, 2007.
  8. ↑ Conspiracy theories refuted. In: Hamburger Abendblatt , September 27, 2008.
  9. ↑ DER SPIEGEL 5/2019
  10. ↑ Volker Albers: When the sister's name is Gudrun Ensslin. In: Hamburger Abendblatt , June 29, 2005.
  11. ↑ Radical experiment and lustful adventure ( memento from January 5, 2002 in the Internet Archive ) Helmut Lachenmann on the music after the end of the music at the Friends of the Salzburg Festival. V. (2002).
  12. ↑ Gudrun Ensslin in the Internet Movie Database (English)
personal data
SURNAME Ensslin, Gudrun
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German terrorist, co-founder of the Red Army faction
DATE OF BIRTH August 15, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Bartholomä , Baden-Württemberg, Germany
DATE OF DEATH October 18, 1977
Place of death Stuttgart-Stammheim , Germany