Stammheim Prison

The Stuttgart-Stammheim correctional facility was designed to be a modern, cost-effective, and, above all, a secure remand prison. At the time, the press praised Stuttgart-Stammheim Prison for its "bright and functionally furnished" cells, the efficiency, and especially the security of the prison, which featured meter-high walls, barbed wire, cameras, motion detectors, and a state-of-the-art locking system. Although Stammheim was initially planned as a remand prison, its reputation as the secure institution in the southwest led to the transfer of more and more problem prisoners there.^[1]

In 1974, the prison became known to the general public primarily through the imprisonment of leading members of the terrorist organization, the Red Army Faction (RAF).^[1] In 1975, a new multi-purpose building was constructed next to the prison grounds specifically for the trials of the leading RAF members—a fortress against terror.^[1] To prevent any rescue attempts by helicopter, this hall and the yard were covered with large areas of steel netting. The construction costs for the extension amounted to 12 million German Mark.

Up to five RAF members were housed together in a collective on the seventh-floor converted "high-security wing" of the prison. Leading RAF members Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof, Jan-Carl Raspe, and Gudrun Ensslin were kept there until their trial, along with Irmgard Möller from January 1977.^[1] Contrary to usual prison regulations, both RAF women and men prisoners were housed on the same floor but in separate cells. During their "free hour," the RAF prisoners had the opportunity to use the common prison yard together every day. They were also allowed to use record players, radios, and, at times, televisions, and were given hundreds of magazines and books. Despite these relatively easier prison conditions, they managed, among other things through a hunger strike, to create the public impression that they were being isolated and tortured in Stammheim. They portrayed themselves as victims of the justice system and achieved a broad wave of solidarity. RAF sympathizers demonstrated against solitary confinement torture and force-feeding. Instead of allowing independent reporting on prison conditions, the justice system continued to isolate the RAF terrorists, thereby promoting the myth of solitary confinement torture.^[1]

During the trials, Ulrike Meinhof was found dead in her seventh-floor prison cell, having committed suicide by hanging on 9 May 1976.^[1] It is not clear what happened. Prison officials say she killed herself because she was becoming increasingly isolated in the group. RAF lawyers and RAF supporters spoke of murder.^[1] In the aftermath, it was claimed prison censors allowed parcels containing instructions for the surviving RAF prisoners to follow suit, complete with ropes "sufficient to do the job".^[2] During the terrorist attacks of the German Autumn in 1977, an official contact ban was imposed for several weeks, made possible by the specially enacted "Contact Ban Law" (Kontaktsperregesetz). During this phase, the RAF prisoners were isolated. Subsequently, prisoners and lawyers claimed that isolation torture was being practiced in the prison. The prison administration also tried to prevent communication between the prisoners—without success, as it turns out. By manipulating the prison's electrical lines, the prisoners on the seventh floor could still communicate with each other.^[1] Later, it became known that Jan-Carl Raspe had manipulated the intercom system using the former prison radio network, allowing the prisoners to communicate unnoticed during the contact ban.

During the trials, members of the Red Army Faction smuggled three pistols and over a pound of explosives into Stuttgart-Stammheim Prison.^[3] One of the pistols was concealed in a Christian liturgy guidebook.^[3] This guidebook was later displayed in an exhibition in Stuttgart about the RAF. According to a subsequent independent commission's investigation, the items were hidden among case files and brought to the seventh-floor cells by the prisoners via their lawyers. The security breach occurred in the trial building, where the weapons were handed over.^[1]

It is considered certain that on 18 October 1977, at around 0:40 Central European Time (CET), Raspe heard on Deutschlandfunk about the successful rescue of the hostages from the hijacked Lufthansa Landshut airliner and passed this on to the other prisoners via the intercom. On the same night, Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, and Jan-Carl Raspe reportedly committed suicide in the high-security wing, an event that became known as the "Night of Death in Stammheim" for the leaders of the Red Army Faction.^[1] Baader and Raspe were said to have shot themselves, while Ensslin chose a method of supposed suicide similar to that of Meinhof. A fourth member, Irmgard Möller, allegedly stabbed herself multiple times in the chest with a stolen cutlery knife. She survived her suicide attempt and has since stated that the deaths were not suicides, but rather extrajudicial killings carried out by the West German government of the time,^[4] a claim strongly denied by both former and present German governments.^[1]

The deaths of the prisoners were among the events collectively known as the German Autumn, which also included a series of terrorist attacks and the West German government's response.

Officials in Baden-Württemberg announced in August 2007 plans to tear down the section of Stammheim prison where the leaders of the RAF terrorist group were held during the 1970s. They considered demolishing the high-rise building because it needed renovation, and new prison quarters would be built on the site of the demolished building.^[5] These plans were adjusted in the following years. Five additional buildings were built between 2007 and 2017, connected to a tract built in 2005. Together, the extensions can house up to 559 prisoners. The two original buildings were renovated from 2019 onwards to provide capacity for a total of 822 inmates in Stammheim prison.^[6][7]

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  The photo shows a Christian liturgy guidebook used by the Red Army Faction to smuggle a pistol during the trials. This book was later displayed in an exhibition about the RAF in Stuttgart.
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  East view of Stuttgart Prison, Stuttgart-Stammheim, Baden-Württemberg, 2007

Prisons in Germany

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Stammheim Prison.

• Sinnbild für das Ende der Terroristen, article about Stammhein Prison in the Stuttgarter Zeitung