Susanne Albrecht

Last updated

Susanne Albrecht
Born (1951-03-01) 1 March 1951 (age 73)
Other namesIngrid Jäger
Organization Red Army Faction

Susanne Albrecht (born 1 March 1951) is a former member of the Red Army Faction.

Contents

Early life

Albrecht was the daughter of a successful maritime lawyer, and spent her childhood living in a wealthy suburb of Hamburg. [1] She did not fit in well in public school, and was later sent to a private school in Holzminden. In 1971 she attended the University of Hamburg where she studied sociology, and it was around this time that she became interested in Marxism. She joined several political groups and a squatters group before moving into an apartment with Karl-Heinz Dellwo. She also began to mingle with some Red Army Faction (RAF) members, such as Ilse Stachowiak, to whom she sometimes gave her ID papers. [1]

In 1974, along with Dellwo and a few other people who all later became involved with the RAF, she joined the Committee Against the Torture of Political Prisoners in West Germany, which protested against the conditions that several imprisoned RAF terrorists were living in. [1]

In Hamburg, she rented an apartment with six other people which had no shower or bath. She was known to have said about her former home-life; "I was sick of pigging out on caviar and smoked salmon." [1] She, along with Sigrid Sternebeck and Silke Maier-Witt (who were collectively known as the Hamburg Aunties), [2] became very important to the left-wing scene and Albrecht began to further strengthen her connection to the RAF.

Terrorism

In this apartment at the Rosenbecker Strasse Nr. 3 in Marzahn Susanne Albrecht was arrested in 1990. She had lived there since 1989 under the name Ingrid Jager with husband and child. Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1990-0611-020, Berlin-Marzahn, RAF-Unterkunft.jpg
In this apartment at the Rosenbecker Straße Nr. 3 in Marzahn Susanne Albrecht was arrested in 1990. She had lived there since 1989 under the name Ingrid Jäger with husband and child.

it had not been clear to us that these people, who start wars in the Third World and destroy entire populations, are dumbfounded when violence faces them in their own house. [3]

Arrest and imprisonment

In East Germany, Albrecht worked as an English translator under the name Ingrid Jäger, [2] and married a scientist, with whom she had a son. Neither knew of her past. She lived in Köthen, but in 1986 she was recognised when West German television reports were broadcast regarding information on the RAF, prompting her to move to Berlin. However, when Germany was reunified she was found living as a housewife under the name "Becker" and was arrested, the first of eight arrests in a ten-day period, in front of her apartment on 6 June 1990. [7] She was sentenced to twelve years imprisonment by the upper state court in Stuttgart. However, she had served only half her term when she was paroled in 1996.

Albrecht has been working as a German language teacher to immigrant children in a Bremen primary school under an assumed name. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red Army Faction</span> Far-left wing militant organization from West Germany

The Red Army Faction, 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. The RAF described itself as a communist and anti-imperialist urban guerrilla group. It was engaged in armed resistance against what it considered a fascist state. Members of the RAF generally used the Marxist–Leninist term faction when they wrote in English. Early leadership included Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin, and Horst Mahler. The West German government considered the RAF a terrorist organization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andreas Baader</span> German far left-wing militant leader (1943–1977)

Berndt Andreas Baader, was a West German communist and leader of the left-wing militant organization Red Army Faction (RAF) also commonly known as the Baader-Meinhof Group.

The German Autumn was a series of events in Germany in 1977 associated with the kidnapping and murder of industrialist, businessman, and former Schutzstaffel member Hanns Martin Schleyer, president of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations (BDA) and the Federation of German Industries (BDI), by the Red Army Faction (RAF), a far-left militant organisation, and the hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 181 by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The hijackers demanded the release of ten RAF members detained at the Stammheim Prison plus two Palestinian compatriots held in Turkey and US$15 million in exchange for the hostages. The assassination on 7 April 1977 of Siegfried Buback, the attorney-general of West Germany, and the failed kidnapping and then murder of the banker Jürgen Ponto on 30 July 1977, marked the beginning of the German Autumn. It ended on 18 October, with the liberation of the Landshut, the deaths of the leading figures of the first generation of the RAF in their prison cells, and Schleyer's death.

Brigitte Margret Ida Mohnhaupt is a German convicted former terrorist associated with the second generation of the Red Army Faction (RAF) members. She was also part of the Socialist Patients' Collective (SPK). From 1971 until 1982 she was active within the RAF.

Sieglinde Hofmann was a German militant and member of both the Socialist Patients' Collective and the Red Army Faction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Members of the Red Army Faction</span> Members of Red Army Faction

Members of the Red Army Faction (RAF) can be split up into three generations. The first (founding) generation existed from 1970 onwards. The second generation emerged from 1975 and included people from other groups such as the Socialist Patients' Collective (SPK) and the 2 June Movement. The third generation began in 1982. The group announced its dissolution in 1998.

Ingrid Schubert was a West German militant and founding member of the Red Army Faction (RAF). She participated in the freeing of Andreas Baader from prison in May 1970 as well as several bank robberies before her arrest in October 1970. She was found dead in her cell in 1977.

Ingeborg Barz (1948–1972?) was a German militant who co-founded the Red Army Faction (RAF). She carried out bank robberies in Kaiserslautern and Ludwigshafen, then disappeared. It is alleged that she was shot by Andreas Baader because she wanted to leave the RAF, but conclusive evidence of her death has not been found.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Petra Schelm</span> Founding member of Rote Armee Fraktion (RAF)

Petra Schelm was a German founding member of the Red Army Faction (RAF). She trained as an urban guerilla in Jordan and was killed in a shootout with the police in Hamburg in July 1971.

Jürgen Ponto was a German banker and since 1969 chairman of the Dresdner Bank board of directors. Previously, he had worked as a lawyer. He was murdered by members of the Red Army Faction in events leading up to the German Autumn. Actor Erich Ponto was his uncle.

Christian Klar is a former leading member of the second generation Red Army Faction (RAF), active between the 1970s and 1980s. Imprisoned in 1982 in Bruchsal Prison, he was released on 19 December 2008, after serving over 26 years of his life sentence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rolf Clemens Wagner</span>

Rolf Clemens Wagner was a member of the left wing terrorist organisation Red Army Faction (RAF).

<i>The Baader Meinhof Complex</i> 2008 German drama film

The Baader Meinhof Complex is a 2008 German drama film directed by Uli Edel. Written and produced by Bernd Eichinger, it stars Moritz Bleibtreu, Martina Gedeck, and Johanna Wokalek. The film is based on the 1985 German best selling non-fiction book of the same name by Stefan Aust. It retells the story of the early years of the West German far-left terrorist organisation the Rote Armee Fraktion from 1967 to 1977.

Adelheid Schulz is a former member of the West German terrorist Red Army Faction.

Peter-Jürgen Boock is a German former terrorist of the Red Army Faction.

Angelika Speitel is a former member of the West German terrorist Red Army Faction (RAF).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nadja Uhl</span> German actress

Nadja Uhl is a German actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knut Folkerts</span> German criminal

Knut Detlef Folkerts is a former member of the terrorist group Red Army Faction (RAF).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kidnapping and murder of Hanns Martin Schleyer</span> Kidnapping and murder by Red Army Faction (RAF) in 1977

The kidnapping and murder of Hanns Martin Schleyer marked the end of the German Autumn in 1977.

<i>Mogadischu</i> (film) 2008 film

Mogadischu is a 2008 German made-for-TV thriller film chronicling the events surrounding the hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 181 by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in 1977. Directed by Roland Suso Richter, it was first shown on public broadcasting channel Das Erste on 30 November 2008.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Becker Jillian (1978). Hitler's Children . London: Granada Publishing Ltd. ISBN   0-586-04665-8.
  2. 1 2 3 Stefan Aust (2008). Der Baader Meinhof Komplex . London: The Bodley Head. ISBN   978-1-84792-045-4.
  3. Red-army faction timeline Archived September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  4. "German Who Hid in the East Charged in '77 Terror Killing". The New York Times. 20 December 1990. Retrieved 24 May 2010.
  5. "The Claremont Institute - the Other Terrorists". Archived from the original on 15 May 2008. Retrieved 21 December 2008.
  6. "Susanne Albrecht". Archived from the original on 19 February 2012. Retrieved 21 December 2008.
  7. "Terrorism: Out of the Woodwork". Time. 25 June 1990. Archived from the original on 6 December 2008. Retrieved 24 May 2010.
  8. "Ex-Terrorist Becomes an Issue in German State Poll". Deutsche Welle . 12 May 2007. Retrieved 11 August 2011.