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The Audio Long Read

‘Resistance is when I put an end to what I don’t like’: The rise and fall of the Baader-Meinhof gang

The Audio Long Read

The Guardian

Society & Culture

4.32.4K Ratings

🗓️ 24 October 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the 1970s, the radical leftwing German terrorist organisation may have spread fear through public acts of violence – but its inner workings were characterised by vanity and incompetence By Jason Burke. Read by Noof Ousellam. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is The Guardian.

0:09.0

This article contains some strong language.

0:12.3

Welcome to The Guardian Long Read, showcasing the best long-form journalism covering culture, politics and new thinking.

0:18.9

For the text version of this and all our long reads,

0:21.4

go to the Guardian.com forward slash long read.

0:28.0

Resistance is when I put an end to what I don't like.

0:31.1

The rise and fall of the Badam Meinhoff gang by Jason Burke,

0:34.6

read by Nuf Usilam.

0:51.2

In the summer of 1970, a group of aspired revolutionaries arrived in Jordan from West Germany.

0:55.0

They sought military training, though they had barely handled weapons before. They sought a guerrilla war in the streets of Europe, but had never done anything

0:59.8

more than light of fire in a deserted department store. They sought the spurious glamour that

1:05.0

spending time with a Palestinian armed group could confer. Above all, they sought a safe place where they could hide and plan.

1:17.6

Some of the group had flown to Beirut on a direct flight from communist run East Berlin.

1:22.8

The better-known members, Ulrika Meinhauf, a prominent left-wing journalist,

1:26.7

and two convicted arsonists

1:28.8

called Godrun Ensline and Andreas Bada, had faced a more complicated journey. First, they'd had to cross

1:36.0

into East Germany, then they took a train to Prague, where they boarded a plane to Lebanon. From Beirut,

1:42.5

a taxi took them east across the mountains into Syria. Finally, they drove

1:46.9

south from Damascus into Jordan. They were not the first such visitors. Among the broad

1:53.6

coalition of activists and protest groups, known as the new left, commitment to the Palestinian cause

1:59.2

had become a test of one's ideological credentials.

2:02.9

Israel was no longer seen as a beleaguered outpost of progressive values surrounded by despotic regimes

...

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