Editing Gudrun Ensslin (section)

=== Red Army Faction leader ===
{{Further|Red Army Faction}}
In June 1967, Ensslin participated in [[political protest]]s against the [[Mohammed Reza Pahlavi|Shah of Iran]] during his visit to Germany. Though Western governments viewed the Shah as a reformer, his regime was also being criticized for oppression, brutality, corruption, and extravagance. In what started as a peaceful but unauthorised demonstration at [[Deutsche Oper Berlin]], fights broke out between pro-Shah and anti-Shah demonstrators and an unarmed protestor named [[Benno Ohnesorg]] was fatally shot in the back of the head by a police officer, [[Karl-Heinz Kurras]]. On the night following Ohnesorg's death, Ensslin angrily denounced West Germany as a [[fascist]] [[police state]] at a [[Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund]] meeting. Also, West Berlin's own urban guerrilla organization, [[Movement 2 June]], named itself after this event.

Kurras was charged with [[manslaughter]] and acquitted on grounds of self-defense on 23 November 1967, which caused further public outrage.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Vinen |first=Richard |title=The Long '68 : Radical Protest and Its Enemies |publisher=Penguin Books Limited |year=2018 |isbn=978-0-14-198253-3 |location=[[London]] |pages=1774, 1775 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Becker |first=Jillian |title=Hitler's Children : The Story of the Baader-Meinhof Terrorist Gang |publisher=Author House |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-4918-4438-0 |pages=40 |language=en}}</ref> Matters eventually cooled, which enraged Baader and Ensslin.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bacon |first=Tricia |title=Why Terrorist Groups Form International Alliances |publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]] |year=2018 |isbn=978-0-8122-9502-3 |location=Philadelphia |pages=107 |language=en}}</ref> She had left Vesper and her child for good early in 1968 and now she, Baader and [[Thorwald Proll]] decided to escalate their fight against the system.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wisowaty |first=David L |title=The Baader-Meinhof Group, 1968–1972 : An Account of Its Activities and an Analysis of Its Ideology |year=1975 |pages=14 |language=English |oclc=38668584}}</ref> They left West Berlin around 20 March, and in Munich decided to firebomb [[department store]]s in [[Frankfurt]], where a [[Socialist German Student Union]] congress was taking place. Together with [[Horst Söhnlein]], they left for Frankfurt on 1 April.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sedlmaier |first=Alexander |title=Consumption and Violence : Radical Protest in Cold-War West Germany |publisher=[[University of Michigan Press]] |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-472-12054-3 |location=Ann Arbor |pages=49 |language=en}}</ref>

The night of 2 April 1968, a department store in Frankfurt was set ablaze, for which Baader, Ensslin, Proll and Söhnlein were subsequently arrested and prosecuted.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Bildung|first=Bundeszentrale für politische|title=2./ 3. April 1968 {{!}} bpb|url=https://www.bpb.de/geschichte/zeitgeschichte/deutschland-chronik/131561/2-3-april-1968|access-date=12 November 2020|website=bpb.de|language=de}}</ref> In October 1968 they were sentenced to three years in prison for [[arson]].<ref>{{Cite news|last=Nettelbeck|first=Uwe|title=Der Frankfurter Brandstifter-Prozeß|url=https://www.zeit.de/1968/45/der-frankfurter-brandstifter-prozess/seite-6|access-date=12 November 2020|newspaper=Die Zeit|date=8 November 1968 |page=6}}</ref> After being released pending an appeal in June 1969, Baader, Ensslin and Proll fled Italy via France when the appeal was denied.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mair |first=Kimberly |title=Guerrilla Aesthetics : Art, Memory, and the West German Urban Guerrilla |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-7735-9875-1 |location=Montreal |pages=63 |language=en}}</ref>

Baader was arrested on 4 April 1970 in [[Berlin]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Miller |first=Steven E. |title=Toxic Terror : Assessing Terrorist Use of Chemical and Biological Weapons |publisher=MIT Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-262-70071-9 |editor-last=Tucker |editor-first=Jonathan B. |location=Cambridge, Mass |pages=96 |language=en}}</ref> Ensslin, Meinhof, who was at that time a well-known [[leftist]] journalist, and two other women freed him on 14 May 1970. One person was wounded. This was the beginning of the gang's violent actions, and the Red Army Faction.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Millward |first=Stephen |title=Different Tracks : Music and Politics in 1970 |publisher=Troubador Publishing Limited |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-78306-476-2 |location=Kibworth Beauchamp |pages=78 |language=en}}</ref> Ensslin became one of the most wanted people in Germany.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nash |first=Jay Robert |title=Encyclopedia of World Crime: A-C |publisher=CrimeBooks |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-923582-00-5 |location=Wilmette, IL |pages=196 |language=English}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Peterson |first=Ltc Roy E. |title=Russian Romance : Danger And Daring |publisher=Author house |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-4634-1512-9 |pages=6 |language=en}}</ref>

In May 1971, Vesper committed [[suicide]] in a mental hospital<ref>{{Cite book |last=McCormick |first=Richard W. |title=Politics of the Self : Feminism and the Postmodern in West German Literature and Film. |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-4008-6164-4 |location=Princeton |pages=67 |language=en}}</ref> and Felix was sent to live with [[foster parent]]s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Melzer |first=Patricia |title=Death in the Shape of a Young Girl : Women's Political Violence in the Red Army Faction |publisher=[[New York University Press]] |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-4798-6407-2 |location=New York |pages=88 |language=English}}</ref>

Ensslin was arrested in a boutique on 7 June 1972 in [[Hamburg]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Commire |first1=Anne |title=Women in World History: Maa-Mei |last2=Klezmer |first2=Deborah |publisher=Yorkin Publications |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-7876-3736-1 |location=Waterford, CT |pages=856 |language=English}}</ref>