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

Biography

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 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]

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