Baader-Meinhof: the truth behind the twisted myth

[financeguy]

Three decades after their bloody heyday, when they terrorised Germany with assassinations, bombings and kidnappings, the left-wing terrorists of the RAF - popularly known as the Baader-Meinhof gang - still haunt the nation. The secret worship, and overt scorn, evident at the cemetery are echoes of the trauma that accompanied the darkest chapter in West German history.

While we Germans can at last talk about the Nazi era, the so-called “leaden time” of the RAF is still a painfully unresolved subject. That rawness has been brought to the fore this year by The Baader Meinhof Complex, a feature film (pictured below) based on the group's founders. It opens in Britain on Friday, and has provoked fierce criticism from the victims' families, historians and the daughter of the terrorist Ulrike Meinhof, Bettina Röhl, who long ago decried her mother's violence. “It glorifies brutal killers as good-looking idealists. It trivialises their terror,” she says.

Baader-Meinhof: the truth behind the twisted myth - Times Online

 

[Vincent Vega]

Couldn't see the movie, yet, but I definitely will. So far, I didn't read many critiques about the movie, but certainly heard that it didn't meet agreement among all those related to that era.
About ten years ago I saw a TV movie about the kidnapping of the Landshut airplane and Hanns-Martin Schleyer, a former German president of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations and his killing. Another recent movie told the story of one of the terrorists and how she could find shelter in the GDR after she decided to not being active anymore. The former GDR helped many of the terrorists by secretly temporarily or permanently hosting RAF terrorists.

I think one of the contributing factors why that era is still seen as unresolved is that the German history post WWII is not discussed that much in school and in public. In a way WWII overshadows much of what happened after that, or simply doesn't leave time and space being devoted to say 1949 to 1990. The extensive discussion of WWII and the abyss of humanity displayed during that time is still one of the most important parts in the history curricular, and rightly so, and it's hard to substitute any of that time for another topic. On the other hand, however, German students learn almost nothing about what happened after that. They know of the existence of the GDR, the wall and maybe of the RAF, but not in much detail. One of the unfortunate side-effects is that many students today are a bit clueless of the reality that was the GDR and through much of false nostalgia now have a much rosier picture of that state.
Even less they often do know about the RAF, the state's attempts to fight domestic terror, and what factors led to the founding and actions of the RAF. I hope such movies can help bring it more into the public focus.

He was barely 20 years old, munching popcorn and wearing a hooded jumper. The assiduously factual debunking of the “Baader-Meinhof myth” obviously did not work for everyone in the audience.

I wouldn't be surprised if his hoodie featured the face of Che Guevarra on the front.

 

[purpleoscar]

Early reviews say it's a good movie but not great.

YouTube - Der Baader Meinhof Komplex (DE 2007/2008) (Trailer)

The movie I want to see most is Slumdog Millionaire. Everyone who's seen it seems to like it.

YouTube - Slumdog Millionaire - Trailer

 

[Vincent Vega]

I had hoped for a more closely related movie.

 

[Vincent Vega]

BBC NEWS | Europe | Red Army Faction boss to be freed

Hm, I'm not really sure what to think of that. On the one hand, the legal system is not for revenge, and in light of the re-socialization approach there is case to be made that a person that is considered to not being a threat anymore should get free. On the other hand, according to the ruling he just sat behind bars for the minimum time of his sentence. Yet, he didn't show any change from 26 years ago, refused to cooperate and tell who shot Mr Buback, and I would argue that he still doesn't see any of his actions as being unjustified. He poses no threat anymore because he has no structure that would support him, not because he realized that his way wasn't the right one.
On the other hand, this change of mind wouldn't come even if he served four more years, or ten more years.

 

[financeguy]

Investigation: The Angry Brigade | From the Observer | The Observer

"You can't reform profit capitalism and inhumanity. Just kick it till it breaks."

— Angry Brigade, communiqué.

http://www.akpress.org/2008/items/angrybrigadedvd

 

[financeguy]

Movie Review - The Baader Meinhof Complex - The Journalist Who Exchanged Her Typewriter for a Gun - NYTimes.com

 

[financeguy]

Ackermann Letter Bomb Sent by Anarchists - Bloomberg