Leader of The Red Army Faction
In June 1967, Ensslin participated in political protests against the Shah of Iran during his visit to Germany. Though Western governments viewed the Shah as a reformer, his regime has been criticized for oppression, brutality, corruption, and extravagance. In what started as a peaceful demonstration at Deutsche Oper Berlin, fights broke out between pro-Shah and anti-Shah factions and an innocent young man by the name of Benno Ohnesorg was shot in the back of the head by a police officer. That night, Ensslin angrily denounced West Germany as a fascist state at a Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund meeting. Also, Berlin's own urban guerrilla organization, Movement 2 June, named itself after this event.
The police officer who shot Ohnesorg, Karl-Heinz Kurras, was revealed in 2009 to be an undercover Stasi (East German State Security) agent. Kurras was charged with manslaughter and acquitted of the charge on 23 November 1967, which caused public outrage. Matters eventually cooled, which enraged Gudrun Ensslin. She had left Bernward Vesper and her child for good early in 1968 and now she, Andreas Baader and Thorwald Proll decided to escalate the fight against the system. They left Berlin around 20 March, and in Munich decided to fire-bomb department stores in Frankfurt, where a Socialist German Student Union congress was taking place. Together with Horst Söhnlein, they left for Frankfurt on 1 April.
On the night of 2 April 1968, two fires were set in two department stores in Frankfurt. Baader, Ensslin, Proll and Söhnlein remained in Frankfurt and were arrested three days later. In October 1968, they were sentenced to three years in prison for arson. After being released pending an appeal in June 1969, Baader, Ensslin and Proll fled when the appeal was denied. Baader was arrested on 3 April 1970. Ensslin, Ulrike Meinhof, who was at that time a well-known leftist polemicist, and two other women freed him on 14 May 1970. One person was shot. This was the beginning of the gang's violent crimes, and the Red Army Faction. Ensslin became one of the most wanted people in Germany.
In May 1971, Bernward Vesper committed suicide and Felix was sent to live with foster parents.
Ensslin was arrested in a boutique on 8 June 1972 in Hamburg.
Read more about this topic: Gudrun Ensslin
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