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Our Gun, Our Consciousness, and the Collective: Letters from the Discussion in Prison
“We are disarmed, but what they will never be able to take away from us, if we defend it tooth and nail, is our consciousness and the collective.”
Ulrike Meinhof was one of the founding members of the Red Army Faction. This followed her lengthy involvement in the protest movements of the 1960s, during which she had become the left’s most respected journalist in the Federal Republic of Germany. Incarcerated and held in isolation after her arrest in June 1972, she died in 1976 in her prison cell, having been subjected to years of torture as well as police and media smear campaigns. For this collection, in order to show who she really was, her surviving comrades in arms have released the letters she wrote for the group’s internal discussion in prison, as well as a number of texts delivered during the main Stammheim trial against members of the RAF.
With an introduction and comments by her former comrades, as well as chronological and bibliographical references, this volume includes the last texts that Meinhof had prepared for the prisoners’ collective, in which she played an active part, alongside a statement that she presented at another trial, regarding the group’s founding act: the prison breakout of Andreas Baader, in addition to other texts, some published here for the first time in English.
Ulrike Meinhof was one of the founding members of the Red Army Faction. This followed her lengthy involvement in the protest movements of the 1960s, during which she had become the left’s most respected journalist in the Federal Republic of Germany. Incarcerated and held in isolation after her arrest in June 1972, she died in 1976 in her prison cell, having been subjected to years of torture as well as police and media smear campaigns. For this collection, in order to show who she really was, her surviving comrades in arms have released the letters she wrote for the group’s internal discussion in prison, as well as a number of texts delivered during the main Stammheim trial against members of the RAF.
With an introduction and comments by her former comrades, as well as chronological and bibliographical references, this volume includes the last texts that Meinhof had prepared for the prisoners’ collective, in which she played an active part, alongside a statement that she presented at another trial, regarding the group’s founding act: the prison breakout of Andreas Baader, in addition to other texts, some published here for the first time in English.
144 pages, Paperback
Published November 11, 2025
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About the author
Ulrike Marie Meinhof
25 books40 followersGerman left-wing militant. She co-founded the Red Army Faction (Rote Armee Fraktion) 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 association. Before the trial concluded, Meinhof died in her cell in 1976 in controversial circumstances.
Ulrike Marie Meinhof was born in 1934 in Oldenburg, Germany. In 1936, her family moved to Jena when her father, art historian Dr. Werner Meinhof, became director of the city's museum. Her father died of cancer in 1940, causing her mother to take in a boarder, Renate Riemeck, to make money. In 1946 the family moved back to Oldenburg because Jena fell under Soviet rule as a result of the Yalta agreement. Ulrike's mother, Dr. Ingeborg Meinhof, who worked as a teacher after World War II, died 8 years later from cancer. Renate Riemeck took on the role of guardian for Ulrike and her elder sister.
In 1955 she took her Abitur at a school in Weilburg. She then studied philosophy, sociology, Pädagogik (roughly pedagogy) and Germanistik (German studies) at Marburg where she became involved with reform movements.
In 1957 she moved to the University of Münster, where she met the Spanish Marxist Manuel Sacristán (who later translated and edited some of her writings) and joined the Socialist German Student Union, participating in the protests against the rearmament of the Bundeswehr and its involvement with nuclear weapons as proposed by Konrad Adenauer's government. She eventually became the spokeswoman of the local Anti-Atomtod-Ausschuss ('Anti-Atomic Death Committee'). In 1958, she spent a short time on the AStA (German: Allgemeiner Studierendenausschuss, or General Committee of Students) of the university and wrote articles for various student newspapers.
In 1959 she joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD)—the banned German Communist Party—and later began work at the magazine konkret, serving as chief editor from 1962 until 1964. In 1961, she married the co-founder and publisher of Konkret, Klaus Rainer Röhl. Their marriage produced twins, Regine and Bettina, on 21 September 1962, and lasted until their separation in 1967, which was followed by divorce the following year.
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulrike_M...)
She was arrested in 1972, and eventually charged with numerous murders and the formation of a criminal association. Before the trial concluded, Meinhof died in her cell in 1976 in controversial circumstances.
Ulrike Marie Meinhof was born in 1934 in Oldenburg, Germany. In 1936, her family moved to Jena when her father, art historian Dr. Werner Meinhof, became director of the city's museum. Her father died of cancer in 1940, causing her mother to take in a boarder, Renate Riemeck, to make money. In 1946 the family moved back to Oldenburg because Jena fell under Soviet rule as a result of the Yalta agreement. Ulrike's mother, Dr. Ingeborg Meinhof, who worked as a teacher after World War II, died 8 years later from cancer. Renate Riemeck took on the role of guardian for Ulrike and her elder sister.
In 1955 she took her Abitur at a school in Weilburg. She then studied philosophy, sociology, Pädagogik (roughly pedagogy) and Germanistik (German studies) at Marburg where she became involved with reform movements.
In 1957 she moved to the University of Münster, where she met the Spanish Marxist Manuel Sacristán (who later translated and edited some of her writings) and joined the Socialist German Student Union, participating in the protests against the rearmament of the Bundeswehr and its involvement with nuclear weapons as proposed by Konrad Adenauer's government. She eventually became the spokeswoman of the local Anti-Atomtod-Ausschuss ('Anti-Atomic Death Committee'). In 1958, she spent a short time on the AStA (German: Allgemeiner Studierendenausschuss, or General Committee of Students) of the university and wrote articles for various student newspapers.
In 1959 she joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD)—the banned German Communist Party—and later began work at the magazine konkret, serving as chief editor from 1962 until 1964. In 1961, she married the co-founder and publisher of Konkret, Klaus Rainer Röhl. Their marriage produced twins, Regine and Bettina, on 21 September 1962, and lasted until their separation in 1967, which was followed by divorce the following year.
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulrike_M...)
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January 11, 2026I don’t really like rating primary source documents, it doesn’t really make a lot of sense to me. They were interesting, didn’t always make a great deal of sense to me, but I do imagine it must be very disorienting being in isolation in prison for long periods in prison.
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