Klaus Rainer Röhl

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Klaus Rainer Röhl (1 December 1928 – 30 November 2021) was a German journalist and author, best known as founder, owner, publisher and editor-in-chief of

political left from the 1960s to the early 1970s. He later became critical of communism
and leftist tendencies.

Journalism

Known as "K2R", Röhl founded the left-wing monthly magazine

German student movement. He had previously founded a weekly newspaper about and for the Hamburg sex trade, St Pauli Nachrichten. After the Communist Party of Germany was banned as unconstitutional in West Germany in 1956, he became a clandestine member of the then illegal party as an act of support.[2]

He was married to Ulrike Meinhof from 1961 until the spring of 1968, before her descent into left-wing terrorism. Their marriage produced two daughters, Regine and Bettina Röhl, who became an author critical of communism and far-left extremism. Ulrike later co-founded the Red Army Faction, also known as the RAF or the Baader-Meinhof Gang, together with Gudrun Ensslin, Andreas Baader, and Jan-Carl Raspe.

Harassment accusations

Articles in konkret openly advocated sex with minors.[3] Röhl's marriage with Ulrike was his second marriage. From his first marriage he also has a daughter Αnja Röhl, who in May 2010 accused him of sexual harassment against her.[3][4][circular reference][5]

Change of course

As a consequence of the radicalization in the late 1960s, and subsequent leftist terrorism, Röhl turned away from Marxism and gave his magazine a more moderate tone. This led to a power struggle between Röhl and those who supported the use of violence against the government (particularly his former wife), and his home in Hamburg was attacked in 1969 by Ulrike Meinhof and some konkret staff members. In June 1970, after Ulrike's command, Monica Berberich and Marianne X took Röhl and Ulrike's daughters from a house where Ulrike's sister, Wienke had hidden the children, in order to transfer them to Gibellina, a commune in Sicily where other left-wing families and communists lived. According to Jutta Ditfurth, Ulrike's biographer, Ulrike believed she would win the custody case over the children from Röhl which meant that Wienke would take custody of the kids. Finally, journalist Stefan Aust, a long-time friend of Röhl abducted the children after Peter Homan misinformed him that Ulrike was about to send the children to a Jordanian boarding house where other children of refugees used to live. By that time, Röhl was on holiday in Italy. Aust delivered the girls to him in an apartment near Plaza Navona. Röhl and his daughters lived under constant police protection for some time, fearing a supposed attack or abduction by RAF members. Röhl was also supporting BKA's investigation providing information about Meinhof's past, places where she could be hiding, etc.[6][7]

The magazine konkret was dissolved in 1973. The year before, Röhl had joined the

Free Democratic Party of Germany after 1995, and was then active in Liberale Offensive, the right-wing faction of the party that tried to revive the national liberal tradition represented by Gustav Stresemann, Thomas Dehler, and Erich Mende, among others. He was also a regular columnist for the newspaper Junge Freiheit, and earned a doctorate in history at the Free University of Berlin under the supervision of Ernst Nolte
in 1993, with a dissertation on cooperation between Communists and National Socialists against the Social Democratic Party (Nähe zum Gegner, published as a book in 1994). He wrote several books critical of communism and the far-left.

Personal life and death

From the early 1970s, his partner was Danae Coulmas, a Greek diplomat and author.

Röhl died on 30 November 2021, a day shy of his 93rd birthday.[9]

In films

Röhl was portrayed by

Der Baader Meinhof Komplex
.

Publications

References

  1. ISBN 978-1-134-21375-7
    .
  2. ^ "Aktuelle Nachrichten, Hintergründe und Kommentare – SZ.de". 31 July 2023.
  3. ^ a b Fleischhauer, Jan; Hollersen, Wiebke. "The Sexual Revolution and Children: How the Left Took Things Too Far". Spiegel Online International. The articles in Konkret that openly advocated sex with minors are at least as disturbing as the accusations of Röhl's daughters Anja and Bettina that he molested them, which Röhl denies.
  4. ^ German Wikipedia, Klaus private life
  5. ^ "The Time is Right to Talk About Paedophilia". Archived from the original on 21 April 2012. Retrieved 6 October 2012.
  6. ^ Ditfurth, Jutta : Ulrike Meinhof. Die Biography pp. 403–405 (Greek translation)
  7. ^ Aust, Stefan: Baader-Meinhof: The Inside Story of the R.A.F
  8. ^ Online, FOCUS. "Lebenslügen". FOCUS Online.
  9. ^ Seidl, Claudius (2 December 2021). "Zum Tod Von Klaus Rainer Röhl". Faz.net. Retrieved 2 December 2021.

External links

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