[1959 Dragon Yearbook]

[1959 Dragon Yearbook]. Warren, PA: Warren High School, 1959. Yearbook, 27.2 cm, 144 pp.; reproductions of b/w photos throughout; blue embossed cloth, lightly worn, small stain recto. Spine starting, pastedowns fragile at hinge.

Yearbook of Warren High School, attended in 1959 by German exchange student Gudrun Ensslin, who would go on to co-found and lead the Rote Armee Fraktion, the notorious far-left militant group (sometimes referred to as the Baader-Meinhof Group).

Like the other RAF members, including her romantic partner, Andreas Baader, she was an excellent student before her radicalization and provided the intellectual framework for many of the RAF’s actions.

Ensslin is listed as a participant in Future Teachers of America, German Club, Orchestra, Student Council, Latin Club, and the National Honor Society. She appears at least five times (pp. 40, 52, 57, 122, and 136) and we believe can be identified in a sixth (p. 43) pledging allegiance with a larger group of students.

A fascinating artifact of one of the postwar period’s most visible proponents of political violence. She argued against the capitalist, imperialist policies of Western Europe and the US, which she had experienced first hand as an exchange student at Warren. The RAF was involved in numerous bombings and hostage situations; Ensslin was one of several members charged with murder and sentenced to life in prison. She died there under mysterious circumstances (in the same evening as two other RAF members) in what became known as the “Death Night.”