Bill SprichtJust another WordPress weblog

The ultra-left Red Army Faction (RAF) terrorized West Germany during the late 1970s, particularly in 1977. Of course in post-communist Europe they are now seen as murderers and as pathetic adherents to a discredited political system, correct? Incorrect. The group, which disbanded only eight years ago, is instead achieving cult-status, as is the entirety of East Germany itself.

In Die Presse of Saturday 12. Aug. 2003, an opinion piece by Barbara Petsch criticizes an exhibition currently underway in Berlin. The exhibition is titled “Mythos RAF”. Petsch points out that the exhibition received a 100,000 euro grant from the “Berliner-Haupstadt Kulturfonds”, which I assume is a governmental or quasi-governmental entity. She also points out that it is often artists who begin this rehabilitation of demons from the past. Specifically, she mentions the new opera about the two most infamous people associated with the RAF, Ulrike Meinhof and Andreas Baader. (You might also see the RAF referred to as the Baader-Meinhof Gang.)

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) online English edition has an article concerning the controversy over this “Mythos RAF” exhibition. The article is from 2000, and points out one of the other sensitive aspects of revisiting RAF history: the current German Interior Minister, Otto Schily (a Social Democrat), represented two of the RAF defendants. According to the FAZ article, Schily now has a “well-established reputation as a hard-liner on law-and-order issues.” And at the time of the article (2000) he vehemently opposed the exhibition and wrote letters to the families of RAF victims, telling them “that their ‘worries are very justified.’”

Interested in more about the RAF/Baader-Meinhof? The following site dedicated to the topic is apparently run by the son of a U.S. Army bomb disposal technician who diffused several of the group’s bombs.

No related posts.