Waltrude Schleyer

Waltrude Schleyer
Born Waltrude Ketterer
(1916-01-21)21 January 1916
Munich, Germany
Died 21 March 2008(2008-03-21) (aged 92)
Stuttgart, Germany
Occupation physical therapist
Spouse(s) Hanns Martin Schleyer (1939–1977, his death)
Parent(s) Emil Ketterer

Waltrude Ketterer Schleyer (21 January 1916 – 21 March 2008) was the widow of Hanns Martin Schleyer, a high-ranking German business executive who was murdered by the Red Army Faction in 1977.[1][2]

She married Schleyer in 1939. She was the daughter of the physician, city councillor of Munich and SA-Obergruppenführer Emil Ketterer. They had four sons. Waltrude Schleyer was a trained physical therapist and joined the Nazi Party in 1937.

During the couple's times in Prague, Waltrude Schleyer lived in a formerly Jewish owned house whose owner died in a German concentration camp within in the same time period.

Schleyer's husband, Hanns Martin Schleyer, was the head of the employers association in West Germany and a former SS lieutenant.[1] He was kidnapped and then killed by the Red Army Faction (RAF) in 1977,[2] see Kidnapping and murder of Hanns-Martin Schleyer.

Waltrude Schleyer advocated against clemency for RAF members who had killed her husband.[1] One of Martin Schleyer's kidnappers, Christian Klar, was refused a pardon by German President Horst Koehler,[1] but was released on 19 December 2008.[2] Other former RAF terrorist members have also been granted clemency and released. These moves were sharply opposed by Waltrude Schleyer.[1]

Waltrude Schleyer died on March 21, 2008, at the age of 92 in Stuttgart, Germany.[1] Her death was announced in the Stuttgarter Nachrichten daily newspaper, which did not give a cause of her death.[2]

References

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