ABSTRACT
This chapter recognised that the Red Army Faction prisoners in the 1970s were held under unusual and extreme conditions. The strict solitary confinement conditions that most male and female RAF members were held under had not previously been used in Germany. The RAF prisoners were given privileges and detention facilities that according to the Federal Prosecutor were generally not granted to their accomplices. The Federal President Gustav Heinemann pointed out the poor health of the RAF-members in December 1974. It is clear that the conflict concerning the prison conditions for the RAF members determined the public debate about terrorism. While the persons affected and their lawyers spoke about the increased isolation conditions and of torture in the Federal Republic of Germany, the authorities claimed that these were normal prison conditions for common criminals. The elite attitude of the terrorist group was reinforced in catastrophic dimensions, and led to a situation where hardly anyone could escape the RAF peer pressure.
