- Magdalena Kopp
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Magdalena Kopp Born 1948
Neu-Ulm, Bavaria, GermanyResidence Neu-Ulm Nationality German Occupation Photographer Known for Wife and accomplice of Ilich Ramírez Sánchez Home town Neu-Ulm Spouse Ilich Ramírez Sánchez Cecilina Magdalena Kopp was born in Neu-Ulm, Bavaria in 1948. She was a photographer and member of the Frankfurt Revolutionary Cells (RZ). She is known for being the wife and accomplice of political militant Ilich Ramírez Sánchez also known as "Carlos the Jackal".
Contents
Early life
Magdalena Kopp grew up in Neu-Ulm [1] and after leaving school trained as a photographer. In 1967 she went to Frankfurt, where she frequented in the early 1970s in the leftist student circles and lived with friends in a shared flat. She worked for the publication Red Star and was one of the founders of the Frankfurt Revolutionary Cells (RZ). Members of this group, in addition to her new friend Johannes Weinrich were Hans-Joachim Klein, Wilfried Böse and Brigitte Kuhlmann. They were involved in the attack on the OPEC conference in 1975 and in the kidnapping of an Air France plane to Entebbe in Tel Aviv 1976.
With Weinrich she met with the internationally wanted political militant/terrorist Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, known as Carlos who was his friend. Later she moved to France and joined the command "Boudia" led by Carlos, who also became her lover.[2] Soon she worked as a part of his inner circle.
Arrest
On 16 February 1982, she was arrested in Paris by French police, along with the Swiss political militant Bruno Breguet when he shot a policeman who asked for the papers of their Peugeot car which was parked improperly. Breguet attempted to shoot the police officer, but he had not removed the safety catch on the gun. Magdalena Kopp was captured a block away from the scene, while running away. In their vehicle, two full bottles containing five kilos of Penthrit (pentaerythritol tetranitrate) and detailed drawings of various locations were also seized. Finally, it was also determined that they were planning to carry out an attack against the office of Al Watan Al Arabi. The police seized false passports and other incriminating documents from the car.
Time in prison
On May 24, 1982, Kopp was sentenced to four years' imprisonment. Boudia Command carried out several terrorist attacks to pressure the government for the release of Kopp and Breguet. Magdalena was released on May 4, 1985 with a reduction of seven months of her sentence for good behavior but was deported to Germany where she was detained and questioned again, this time by German police. Subsequently she was set free and in less than a month she moved to Damascus, Syria where she met and reunited with Ilyich Ramirez (Carlos). In 1985 they were married.
Later life
On August 17, 1986 she gave birth to her first daughter Elba Rosa Ramirez Kopp. She and Carlos lived quietly until 1990 when, Syria as an ally of United States in the Gulf War, asked them to leave the country. They went to Libya, but it rejected their residency visa and had to return to Syria, where they remained a short time. Kopp and Carlos then decided to separate and she went to Venezuela with his mother while Carlos traveled to Sudan with a diplomatic passport. She lived in Valencia (Venezuela) for a few months until the Venezuelan press found out about her and then made ample references to her past due to her association with Carlos. Kopp then took steps to return to Germany and on finding that the government had no charges against her, returned home where she lives with her daughter and has stayed out of politics since then.
In 2007, she published her memoirs entitled "The years of terror, my life with Carlos." She currently lives with her daughter in her hometown of Neu-Ulm, Germany.
Popular culture
Kopp is portrayed by Nora von Waldstätten in the 2010 French-German television mini-series Carlos.
References
- ^ Colin Smith - Carlos retrieved 20th Dec 2010
- ^ Colin Smith - Carlos retrieved 20th Dec 2010
External links
[1994 http://www.elmundo.es/papel/hemeroteca/1994/08/16/mundo/728475.html article Magdalena Kopp]
[Interview with Magdalena Kopp http://www.noticias24.com/actualidad/noticia/8547/habla-la-ex-esposa-de-carlos-el-chacal/ 2007]
Categories:- 1948 births
- Living people
- People from Neu-Ulm
- Members of the Red Army Faction
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