Birgit Hogefeld (born 27 July 1956 in
WiesbadenWiesbaden is a city in southwestern Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...
,
HesseHesse is a state of Germany with an area of and just over six million inhabitants. The state capital is Wiesbaden. Hesse's largest city is nearby Frankfurt am Main.Hesse contributes the largest share to the Rhine Main Area....
) was a member of the West German
Red Army FactionThe Red Army Faction , shortened to RAF and in its early stages commonly known as Baader-Meinhof Group or Gang, was one of postwar West Germany's most violent and prominent groups who advocated communist-inspired terrorism...
(RAF).
Born in
WiesbadenWiesbaden is a city in southwestern Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...
, Hogefeld joined the RAF in the eighties (around 1984) long after its founding members
Andreas BaaderAndreas Bernd Baader was one of the first leaders of the German left-wing organization Red Army Faction, also commonly known as the Baader-Meinhof group.- Life :...
,
Gudrun EnsslinGudrun Ensslin was a founder of the German terrorist group Red Army Faction . After becoming involved with co-founder Andreas Baader, Ensslin was influential in the politicization of Baader's voluntaristic anarchistic beliefs...
and
Ulrike MeinhofUlrike Marie Meinhof was a German left-wing militant. She cofounded the Red Army Faction in 1970 after having previously worked as a journalist for the monthly left-wing magazine konkret. She was arrested in 1972, and eventually charged with numerous murders and the formation of a criminal...
were dead. She became the girlfriend of fellow terrorist
Wolfgang GramsWolfgang Grams was a member of the German leftwing militant group Red Army Faction. He committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.- Life :...
and moved in with him.
In 1993 Hogefeld and Grams arrived at a
train stationA railway station, train station, railroad station, or station yard is a facility at which passengers may board and alight from trains, and/or where rail-transported freight may be loaded or unloaded. Historically, the term depot has also been employed in North America...
in
Bad KleinenBad Kleinen is a municipality in the Nordwestmecklenburg district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is located on the north bank of the Schweriner See.-Geography:...
where a group of
GSG 9The GSG 9 der Bundespolizei is the elite counter-terrorism and special operations unit of the German Federal Police and is considered by Interpol to be one of the best of its kind in the world...
officers were waiting to arrest them (they had got a tip-off from a fellow GSG 9 officer who had infiltrated the RAF).
Birgit Hogefeld (born 27 July 1956 in
WiesbadenWiesbaden is a city in southwestern Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...
,
HesseHesse is a state of Germany with an area of and just over six million inhabitants. The state capital is Wiesbaden. Hesse's largest city is nearby Frankfurt am Main.Hesse contributes the largest share to the Rhine Main Area....
) was a member of the West German
Red Army FactionThe Red Army Faction , shortened to RAF and in its early stages commonly known as Baader-Meinhof Group or Gang, was one of postwar West Germany's most violent and prominent groups who advocated communist-inspired terrorism...
(RAF).
Early life
Born in
WiesbadenWiesbaden is a city in southwestern Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...
, Hogefeld joined the RAF in the eighties (around 1984) long after its founding members
Andreas BaaderAndreas Bernd Baader was one of the first leaders of the German left-wing organization Red Army Faction, also commonly known as the Baader-Meinhof group.- Life :...
,
Gudrun EnsslinGudrun Ensslin was a founder of the German terrorist group Red Army Faction . After becoming involved with co-founder Andreas Baader, Ensslin was influential in the politicization of Baader's voluntaristic anarchistic beliefs...
and
Ulrike MeinhofUlrike Marie Meinhof was a German left-wing militant. She cofounded the Red Army Faction in 1970 after having previously worked as a journalist for the monthly left-wing magazine konkret. She was arrested in 1972, and eventually charged with numerous murders and the formation of a criminal...
were dead. She became the girlfriend of fellow terrorist
Wolfgang GramsWolfgang Grams was a member of the German leftwing militant group Red Army Faction. He committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.- Life :...
and moved in with him.
Arrest
In 1993 Hogefeld and Grams arrived at a
train stationA railway station, train station, railroad station, or station yard is a facility at which passengers may board and alight from trains, and/or where rail-transported freight may be loaded or unloaded. Historically, the term depot has also been employed in North America...
in
Bad KleinenBad Kleinen is a municipality in the Nordwestmecklenburg district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is located on the north bank of the Schweriner See.-Geography:...
where a group of
GSG 9The GSG 9 der Bundespolizei is the elite counter-terrorism and special operations unit of the German Federal Police and is considered by Interpol to be one of the best of its kind in the world...
officers were waiting to arrest them (they had got a tip-off from a fellow GSG 9 officer who had infiltrated the RAF). According to the GSG 9 men, Hogefeld and Grams immediately started firing at them as soon as they saw them, and Grams shot dead an officer named
Michael NewrzellaMichael Newrzella was a German police officer and member of the GSG 9. During a joint operation in Bad Kleinen by the GSG 9, the BKA and the BGS to arrest Red Army Faction members Wolfgang Grams and Birgit Hogefeld he was shot by Grams and later died from his wounds...
. According to the police Grams committed suicide and fell on the train tracks. However it was suspected that Grams did not commit suicide but was shot by GSG 9 officers. Interior Minister
Rudolf SeitersRudolf Seiters is a German politician of the CDU party.From 1989-1991, he was Federal Minister for Special Affairs and the Head of the Office of the German Chancellery. From 1991-1993, he was the Minister of the Interior. From 1998-2002, he was the Vice President of the German Bundestag, or...
took responsibility and resigned in July of the year, as well as Chief Federal Prosecutor,
Alexander von StahlAlexander von Stahl is a German lawyer, liberal politician and civil servant. He served as Attorney General of Germany from June 1990 until July 1993. Previusly he served as an Under-Secretary of State in the Berlin State Ministry of Justice...
.
Sentencing
Several terrorist activities that Hogefeld was later found guilty of by a
Higher CourtThe judiciary's independence and extensive responsibilities reflect the importance of the rule of law in the German system of government. A core concept is that of the Rechtsstaat, a government based on law, in which citizens are guaranteed equality and in which government decisions may be...
in
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
were;
- The murder of a young GI, Edward Pimental, in 1985 to obtain his I.D. to access the grounds of the U.S. Rhein-Main Air Base
Rhein-Main Air Base was a U.S. Air Force / NATO military airbase near the city of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It occupied the south side of Frankfurt International Airport. Its airport codes are discontinued....
near FrankfurtFrankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2008 population of 670,000. The urban area had an estimated population of 2.26 million in 2001...
. Supposedly Hogefeld lured him to her home after meeting him in a bar, where he was then shot through the neck and killed. Eva HauleEva Sybille Haule-Frimpong was a terrorist associated with the third generation Red Army Faction. She took her abitur in Stuttgart before going underground in 1984. -Terrorist activities:...
was also involved with Pimental's murder.
- A bomb attack on the aforementioned U.S. airbase, which killed A1C Frank Scarton and Becky Jo Bristol and left twenty others injured.
- A failed assassination attempt on Hans Tietmeyer
Hans Tietmeyer is a German economist and regarded as one of the foremost experts on international financial matters. He was president of Deutsche Bundesbank from 1993 until 1999 and remains one of the most important figures in finance of the European Union....
, former PresidentPresident is a title held by many leaders of organizations, companies, trade unions, universities, and countries. Etymologically, a "president" is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
of the Deutsche BundesbankThe Deutsche Bundesbank is the central bank of the Federal Republic of Germany and as such part of the European System of Central Banks . Due to its strength and former size, the Bundesbank is the most influential member of the ESCB. Both the Deutsche Bundesbank and the European Central Bank are...
.
- The destruction of a jail.
- Involvement in a terrorist organisation.
In November 1996 she was given three
life imprisonmentLife imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious felony crime where the convicted person is to remain in prison for the rest of his or her life...
sentences and is currently incarcerated in a
FrankfurtFrankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2008 population of 670,000. The urban area had an estimated population of 2.26 million in 2001...
detention centre. The sentence will not automatically be reviewed after 15 years.
In Berlin, on August 17, 2007 a German court ruled that she will not be released on parole. In 2008 federal president Köhler denied her clemency request.