Ulrike Meinhof
The Janus Face of Ulrike Meinhof
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Ulrike Meinhof is much more than a terrorist for the Germans; she is a myth that cannot be forgotten. Audacious journalists referred to her as Joan of Arc, a courageous fighter against injustice, fantasized about a Meinhof-Medea who had abandoned her children, portrayed Ulrike Meinhof as the victim of a promiscuous husband, and glorified her acts of terrorism.
In 1976, just after Meinhof had committed suicide the former Chancellor
Gustav Heineman said:
“Whatever she did, however incomprehensible it might have been, she did
it for us.”
Up to this day, Ulrike Meinhof remains a much debatable figure. By some,
she is referred to as “Ulrike,” she is admired, mocked, and
loathed by others. Nevertheless, many people identify with her consciously
or subconsciously. Somehow the imagination of a strong Ulrike Meinhof
with a machine pistol is fascinating, even more so because many share
a mistrust against the state desiring change.
Ulrike Meinhof is seen as the intellectual force of the RAF and the woman that shaped the ideology by utilizing her journalistic experience to present the RAF to society. It has been stressed over and over again that she was a talented student, a young journalist with extraordinary rhetorical skills, and a passion for politics. She is depicted as a political peace activist, a convinced socialist who tirelessly worked towards poverty alleviation and social justice within Germany as well as worldwide. 1968 was the watershed in Meinhof’s life in which she abandoned her life as a star journalist and began to slide into a life illegality. As co-founder of an urban guerilla movement that embraced militant struggle against the imperialist state, she is seen as a heroine who did not hesitate to risk her life to spark the revolution. However, she proved to be much less influential than the name Baader-Meinhof Gang suggests. After nearly four years in prison, she took her life at the age of 41.
Although the RAF had separated itself from the student movement since
it embraced the principle of violence as a means to force social change,
the members were still children of the time. Hatred against the establishment,
admiration for socialist theory were underlying factors of both movements,
and so was the importance of fantasy, the belief than can change your
behavior.
So why did women, including Meinhof, become terrorists?
Some women, for example Ulrike Meinhof, take part in terrorism when there
are few perceived outlets for gender equality. Frustrated with a lack
of outlets for their public activism, women turn to the kinds of strategies
that many alienated groups have adopted: to fight against mainstream
political institutions/states using extreme tactics including terrorism.
Ulrike Meinhof became a terrorist because she saw few alternatives for
pursuing political justice and had little trust in the German government
or other institutions. However, the RAF did not specifically encourage
women to become terrorists. Rather, it was the fear of the outbreak of
a global atomic war, the desire for long-term peace, and the confrontation
with the National Socialist past, the rebellion against the Neo-Nazis,
and the hate for the “system/state” that united these young
female and male intellectuals causing them to establish the left-wing
terrorist group – the RAF. It should be noted, that women in the
group were stronger or equally represented as the men.
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