Terrorist Leader Was Insane in the Membrain

December 20, 2002

The daughter of Baader-Meinhof leader Ulrike Meinhof has succeeded in her quest to have the infamous '70s terrorist's mind and body united in death. University of Magdeburg psychiatrist Bernhard Bogerts has been studying the brain of Meinhof—who committed suicide in 1976 after leading the left-wing Red Army Faction to infamy—for five years. His work continues that of the neurologist who performed the autopsy on Meinhof—and debrained her remains to study whether her terrorist activities may have been caused by imbalances resulting from tumor surgery in 1962. Meinhof's daughter sued on grounds of disturbing the peace of the dead, and has been awarded custody of the brain, which will be buried. (Can this really be the end of the story?) Amazingly, Bogerts says he got results from his Curt Siodmak experiments. "The slide into terror can be explained by the brain illness," he said, adding that Meinhof was always the brains of the operation.