BIRTH(+)FACT(᙮)DEATH(-)

39th year  -  N° 280                 Sunday, 6 October 2024         Antwerpen		
Our Young Life was Like a Flower in Bloom
BirthFactDeath (-)
Sunday 9th of May 1976

48 years ago



Journalist and leader of the Rote Armee Fraktion Ulrike Marie Meinhof commits suicide by hanging with a towel at the age of 42 in Justizvollzugsanstalt Stammheim, Asperger Straße 60, Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.


On demand of Meinhof's attorney Klaus Croissant and the International Committee for Political Prisoners an international investigation commission was created in order to examine the conditions surrounding Meinhof's death. The German authorities refused to give the complete (first) autopsy report to the commission, hindering their investigation. In 1978 the committee published its report, concluding that: "The formal claim that Ulrike Meinhof committed suicide by hanging is unfounded, given the fact that the investigation results reasonably converge to the conclusion that she could not hang herself. Most probably Ulrike Meinhof was already dead before she was hanged and there are warning signs indicating the involvement of a third party regarding her death."