Magdalena Kopp grew up in Neu-Ulm, and after leaving school trained as a photographer. In 1967 she moved to Frankfurt, and in the early 1970s was associated with the leftist student circles, living with friends in a shared flat. She worked for the publication "Red Star" and was one of the founders of the Frankfurt Revolutionary Cells (RZ). Members of this group, in addition to her new friend Johannes Weinrich were Hans-Joachim Klein, Wilfried Böse and Brigitte Kuhlmann. They were involved in the attack on the OPEC conference in 1975 and in the hijacking of an Air France plane to Entebbe in 1976.