Adelheid Schulz

Having trained as a nurse,[1] Schulz moved to Karlsruhe[2] in the early 1970s and took up residence in a flat with Günter Sonnenberg, Knut Folkerts and her boyfriend[3] Christian Klar – who would all at a later time be convicted of terrorist crimes. It was around this time that Schulz was exposed to radicalism, and it was in the seventies that Schulz decided to embark on a life of terrorism.

Schulz became an important member of the second generation of the Red Army Faction.

• In 1977 she rented an apartment overlooking the villa of Jürgen Ponto, from which he was observed (he was later killed by RAF terrorists).
• Later in 1977, Schulz was involved in planning the kidnap-murder of Hanns Martin Schleyer.
• In 1978 she was involved in a gun-battle with four Dutch customs men in the border town of Kerkrade, which resulted in the deaths of two of the Dutchmen.
• Between November 1978 and April 1979, Schulz was involved in at least three bank robberies.[4]
• On 11 November 1982, Schulz (along with Brigitte Mohnhaupt) was arrested when entering a hidden arms cache which had been staked out by police, in a forest in the Offenbach district.[5]

Schulz was charged in connection with nearly all Red Army Faction actions between 1977 and 1981,[6] including the murders of Ponto, Siegfried Buback and Schleyer. She was sentenced to three times life imprisonment.[7]

In prison she took part in hunger strikes, for which she was force-fed. She described the force-feeding as follows;[6]

"hours of nausea, a racing heartbeat, pain, and effects similar to fever. At times one experiences hot flashes; then one is freezing cold."

The hunger-strikes left Schulz weakened, and on account of her poor health she was released from prison in 1998 and eventually pardoned by President Johannes Rau in 2002.[8]

Schulz now lives in Frankfurt, but is disabled as a result of her continued poor health, stemming from her hunger strikes.[9]