Gudrun Enslin: Red Army Faction

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Gudrun Enslin is a German terrorist, founder of the underground radical organization "Red Army Faction". For a long time, Enslin was one of the leaders of the organization, and was also a member of the combat active of the association. According to contemporaries, the girl was part of a narrow circle of the organization's intellectual elite.

Biography

Gudrun Enslin was born on August 15, 1940 in the small commune of Bartholome, located in the district of Stuttgart, in the family of pastor Helmut Enslin and a housewife. The girl's father studied theology and philosophy for a long time, which made him a rather respected person in religious circles. Helmut also drew well in various techniques and, being a direct descendant of Hegel, wrote several treatises on classical German philosophy.

It was her father who insisted that Gudrun receive a full education. The talented girl grasped everything on the fly, which allowed her to graduate from school before her peers. After graduation, the father immediately sent his daughter to the University of Tübingen, where Gudrun Enslin became a lecturerin German history, cultural studies, Slavic studies, politics and philosophy.

The knowledge gained radically changed the girl's worldview, drawing her attention not only to the inequality of social groups, but also to the sharp difference between capitalist Europe and countries whose foreign and domestic policies cannot provide a decent standard of living for its inhabitants.

Early years

In 1963, while studying at the university, Gudrun met Bernward Vesper. A conceptual philosopher and a talented writer by vocation, he instantly wins the heart of a girl. For a long time they spend in conversations on the topics of culture, politics, as well as the injustice that prevails in the world. A staunch pacifist, Gudrun Enslin, lights up with the idea of a political struggle against the capitalist world order of Europe and its militaristic orientation.

Vesper and Enslin did not enter into a formal union and lived in a civil marriage, fearing that a full-fledged marriage process could harm their life's work - political struggle.

In 1965, a girl helps her cohabitant publish all the books of his father, Will Vesper, whose works promoted extremely radical socialism and post-nationalist ideas.

Terrorist activity

In the late sixties, Gudrun Enslin, together with several other university students, creates an underground organization of a radical nature, the Red Army Faction. The members of the organization considered their ideological inspirers to be South American terrorist groups that operated in the "guerrilla war" mode. Gudrun's ideology for a long time consisted of the idea of fighting capitalism through "urban warfare". According to the girl, the chaos into which her organization can plunge Europe should remind the authorities that there are other countries that need help, instead of establishing complete, excessive prosperity on their territory.

In April 1968, Gudrun sets fire to a department store in Frankfurt am Main, taking several members of the organization as assistants.

Almost immediately after the attack, a manifesto was published, in which the organization outlined its ideology, and also took full responsibility for what it had done, motivating the act by the fact that "a snickering Europe needs a reminder of the suffering of the peoples of the third world."

After the first arson, the "Red Army Faction" takes a short break, which Gudrun uses to work on his manuscripts. Gudrun Enslin's books were never published, however, becoming material evidence of her radical ideology during the trial.

In 1969, the entire "classic" first composition of the "Red Army Faction" was arrested and brought to trial. During the process, Gudrun did not say a word in her defense.

Conclusion

From 1970 to 1977, the convicts served their sentences in a Stuttgart prison, but on October 18, 1977, they were found dead in their cells. The German police put forward the version that there was a collective suicide. Given the conceptual nature and radical quotations of Gudrun Enslin, thisversion certainly seemed convincing. Also, when testing the hypothesis, the constant protests of prisoners against the conditions of detention were taken into account.

Mystery of death

Many historians consider the official version of the girl's death suspicious. A photo of Gudrun Enslin taken after her death shows direct evidence of her assassination. Also, the conditions of detention in the Stammheim prison were quite comfortable, and the convicts had no reason to complain about them or protest.

Irmgard Meller, a German activist and longtime cellmate of Gudrun, confirmed that it was a contract killing. Several people broke into the cell and inflicted grievous bodily harm on Meller and Enslin herself, after which they left. For some time, Irmgard was unconscious, but still managed to recover, telling the truth about the murder of Gudrun Enslin.

The girl found her last refuge in a mass grave along with other members of the Red Army Faction.