Birgit Hogefeld


Birgit Hogefeld is a former member of the West German Red Army Faction.

Early life

Born in Wiesbaden, Hogefeld joined the RAF in the 1980s long after its founding members Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Ulrike Meinhof were dead. She became the girlfriend of fellow RAF member Wolfgang Grams and moved in with him.

Arrest

On 27 June 1993, Hogefeld and Grams arrived at a train station in Bad Kleinen where a group of GSG 9 officers were waiting to arrest them. According to the GSG 9 men, Hogefeld and Grams started firing at them on sight; Grams fatally shot an officer named Michael Newrzella. According to the police Grams committed suicide and fell on the train tracks. However, it was suspected that Grams did not commit suicide but was shot by GSG 9 officers. The Staatsanwaltschaft Schwerin investigated these allegations and concluded in January 1994 that they were incorrect. Grams' parents challenged this conclusion in court, but it was upheld by five different courts, including the European Court of Human Rights in 1999. Interior Minister Rudolf Seiters took responsibility for the poor conducting and postprocessing of the operation and resigned in July of the year, as well as Chief Federal Prosecutor, Alexander von Stahl.

Sentencing

Several terrorist activities that Hogefeld was later found guilty of by a Higher Court in Germany were;
In November 1996, she was given a life imprisonment sentence.
In 2008, federal president Horst Köhler denied her clemency request.
Hogefeld was released on parole in June 2011.