Petra Krause (19 February 1939 – April 2025) was a German-Italian

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

militant who, along with her gang, supplied weapons to groups including the

Red Army Faction The Red Army Faction (, ; RAF ),See the section "Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang ( ), was a West German far-left militant group founded in 1970 and active until 1998, considered a terrorist organisat ...

(RAF) in Germany and the

Red Brigades The Red Brigades ( , often abbreviated BR) were an Italian far-left Marxist–Leninist militant group. It was responsible for numerous violent incidents during Italy's Years of Lead, including the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro in 1978, ...

in Italy.

Biography

Krause was born in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

on 19 February 1939. In 1975 she was arrested in

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

on suspicion of smuggling explosives and arms for various terrorist groups throughout half of Europe. She was defended by attorney Bernard Rambert of the "Legal Advice Collective" (''Rechtsauskunft Anwaltskollektiv'') and in 1977 extradited to Italy, where she was released after a few days. In 1981, she was sentenced in absentia by the Court of Appeals of the

Canton of Zürich The canton of Zurich is an administrative unit (Swiss canton, canton) of Switzerland, situated in the northeastern part of the country. With a population of (as of ), it is the most populous canton of Switzerland. Zurich is the ''de facto'' Capi ...

. The proceedings against Krause in Switzerland took place against the background of the events of the

German Autumn The German Autumn () refers to the period and political atmosphere in the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) during September and October 1977. This period was marked by a series of attacks by the Red Army Faction (RAF), a far-left mili ...

, and also led to controversy over the conditions of her detention. This was also the time of leftist terrorism in Switzerland. Krause was friends with the German politician and DDR agent

Brigitte Heinrich Brigitte Heinrich (29 June 1941 – 29 December 1987) was a German journalist and a Green party politician. Biography In 1966, she became a press spokesperson for the Socialist German Student Union (''"Sozialistische Deutsche Studentenbund"'' ...

. In Zurich she had worked for a short time with the bookseller Theo Pinkus. On 2 April 2025, it was announced that Krause had died at the age of 86.Morta Petra Krause, la rivoluzionaria degli anni Settanta che attraversò la stagione del terrorismo

References

1939 births 2025 deaths German communists Italian communists Activists from Berlin {{Germany-activist-stub