Background
Kistler was born in Zürich, Switzerland.
Kistler was born in Zürich, Switzerland.
In 1980, she met communists from Turkey who had fled to Switzerland to escape the military coup. In 1986 Barbara Kistler came into contact with sympathizers of the TKP/Master of Laws. On 19 May 1991, she was arrested in Istanbul together with her comrades. She was held incommunicado for 10 days and according to Marcel Bosonnet (a Swiss lawyer) "severely tortured" Kistler was released on September 16 and returned to Switzerland.
Then she went back to Turkey.
She decided to go to the mountains of Turkey to join the armed struggle of the Workers" and Peasants" Liberation Army of Turkey. She was killed in Tunceli Province, in 1993.
She was member of the Group Against Isolation (KGI), which was seeking to build a Communist Party in Switzerland.