pre-1968 > 1968 > 1969 > 1970 > 1971 > 1972 > 1973 > 1974 > 1975 > 1976 > 1977 > post-1977

 

Summer 1973 - The office of Baader-Meinhof lawyer Kurt Groenwald (left) serves as the secret "switchboard" for exchanging information between prisoners. Other lawyers, like Klaus Croissant and Hans Christian Ströbele (middle and right) participate in the scheme as well, allowing the prisoners to communicate amongst themselves, despite being in several different prisons.

1973

9 February, Cologne

After eight months of total isolation in the "Dead Section" of Cologne's Ossendorf prison, Ulrike Meinhof is finally moved to an area of the prison that is populated by other prisoners. The move is prompted by the hunger strikes that most of the Baader-Meinhof Gang members are waging. The hunger strikes are called off, and Meinhof is put back in the "Dead Section" within a week.
All of the other main Baader-Meinhof prisoners are in prisons throughout the Federal Republic: Andreas Baader in Schwalmstadt, Jan-Carl Raspe and Astrid Proll in Cologne with Meinhof (but in separate wing), Gudrun Ensslin in Essen, Holger Meins in Wittlich, Irmgard Möller in Rastatt, and Gerhard Müller in Hamburg.

February, Hamburg

Margrit Schiller is released from prison, and promptly goes back underground.

3 March, Khartoum

Black September Palestinian guerrillas execute American diplomats Cleo Noel Jr. and George Moore. The diplomats had been among many hostages taken by Black September from the Saudi Arabian embassy in Khartoum. The guerrillas have been demanding the release of Sirhan Sirhan (Bobby Kennedy's killer), many Palestinians held in Jordan, all Arab women detained in Israel, as well as all members of the Baader-Meinhof Gang.

8 March, Cologne

The New York Times reports that "West Germany's security authorities are in the process of establishing a special anti-terrorist department to counteract foreign and domestic political militants suspected of plotting violence. ...Its principal task is to infiltrate German and foreign anarchist groups with the aim of gathering the kind of intelligence that would enable the police to take preventative measures."

Spring, Essen

Gudrun Ensslin uses characters from Moby Dick as new code-names for the imprisoned members of the gang. Gudrun becomes "Smutje," Baader "Ahab," Holger Meins "Starbuck," Jan-Carl Raspe "Carpenter," Gerhard Müller "Queequeg," and Horst Mahler "Bildad." Gudrun dubs Meinhof "Teresa," which was not a character from Moby Dick. Baader-Meinhof Biographer Stefan Aust later theorizes that Ensslin named Meinhof "Teresa" after the 16th Century Saint.

8 May - 29 June, Federal Republic

The prisoners begin their second hunger strike, which lasts two months. Despite being located in many prisons throughout the Federal Republic, the prisoners are able to communicate by using their lawyers as go-betweens.

7 July, Berlin

Movement 2 June member Gabi Kröcher-Tiedemann is arrested after a shootout.

July 1973, Berlin - A decomposed skeleton is found in the woods outside of Munich. Police identify the remains as Ingeborg Barz, a Baader-Meinhof Gang member who had supposedly been killed by Baader in the spring of 1972 after she had indicated that she wanted to leave the group. Many did not believe that the skeleton was of Barz.

July, Munich

A skeleton of a woman is found in the woods outside of Munich. Police identify the remains as Ingeborg Barz, a former Baader-Meinhof member who has been missing for a year. There have been claims that Baader shot Barz after she indicated that she wanted to leave the group. The dead women found near Munich had not been shot, and many people dispute the police identification.

27 July, Berlin

Movement 2 June raids a Berlin bank, netting DM 200,000.

August, Berlin

Movement 2 June member Inge Viett escapes from her prison cell by sawing through her bars with a smuggled saw.

13 November, Berlin

Movement 2 June member Till Meyer escapes from Castro-Rauxel prison.

12 December, Berlin

Gabi Kröcher-Tiedemann is sentenced to 8 years imprisonment for the attempted murder of a policeman.

Christmas, Cologne

Ulrike Meinhof stops all contact with her children. Her beloved "mice," Bettina and Regine, never see their mother again.

 

1973: The Dead Section

1973 marked a turning point for supporters of the gang. Because the killings and maimings by the gang in 1972 had effectively negated virtually all of the prior support that the group enjoyed, their was little left for radicals to get worked up over. But by 1973 the German state imprisoned gang members in conditions so horrid that Amnesty International lodged a complaint. After 1973 radicals were able to justifiably protest the horrible prison conditions.