Stammheim Prison gained national media attention in the 1970s due to the trials against the Red Army Faction and the imprisonment of its leading members in the high-security wing.

[1] In 1974, the prison became known to the general public primarily through the imprisonment of leading members of the terrorist organization, the Red Army Faction (RAF).

[1] To prevent any rescue attempts by helicopter, this hall and the yard were covered with large areas of steel netting.

Leading RAF members Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof, Jan-Carl Raspe, and Gudrun Ensslin were kept there until their trial, along with Irmgard Möller from January 1977.

Despite these relatively easier prison conditions, they managed, among other things through a hunger strike, to create the public impression that they were being isolated and tortured in Stammheim.

Instead of allowing independent reporting on prison conditions, the justice system continued to isolate the RAF terrorists, thereby promoting the myth of solitary confinement torture.

According to a subsequent independent commission's investigation, the items were hidden among case files and brought to the seventh-floor cells by the prisoners via their lawyers.

[1] It is considered certain that on 18 October 1977, at around 0:40 Central European Time (CET), Raspe heard on Deutschlandfunk about the successful rescue of the hostages from the hijacked Lufthansa Landshut airliner and passed this on to the other prisoners via the intercom.

A fourth member, Irmgard Möller, allegedly stabbed herself multiple times in the chest with a stolen cutlery knife.

Officials in Baden-Württemberg announced in August 2007 plans to tear down the section of Stammheim prison where the leaders of the RAF terrorist group were held during the 1970s.