Baader-Meinhof: Urban Guerillas or Barbaric Terrorists
PrintiView Author: Nick (Phoenix, USA)
Email: withheld
Baader-Meinhof: Urban Guerillas or Barbaric Terrorists
As the Rajapaksa government completes it rout of the Tamil tigers, eroding the last remains of the Eelam to a 60×40 box buried 10 feet below, the debate rages on. A separatist martyr or an executed terrorist, a freedom fighter or a merciless murderer? The inventor of suicide bombing or the creator of Eelam? The assassin of Rajiv Gandhi or the savior of the Tamil aspirations? Who is Prabhakaran? 
My father, a core business once quizzed an adolescent me, “You are neither Tamil nor Sinhalese. Prabhakaran, LTTE, T.N.P (He meant TNT 
) are not even in your history books and considering your history score, shouldn’t you be reading Mahatma Gandhi.” More than six years of deliberation later I still am as perplexed, if not more, about all the above questions. So if you expect me to answer any of them, I sincerely apologize for having wasted your time.
In middle of one of the news articles (pointing towards my disdain of news articles) I couldn’t resist myself from thinking aloud “Terrorists? Do you even know what it means sucker?”(The loudest I might have ever thought to have shaken the American besides me). He smiled at me and said with complete bliss “Ones who kills innocent people, like Taliban.” I smiled back with the best sarcastic smile I could foster “Or the Americans of Cuba, Indochina, Congo, Bolivia, Iraq, Afghanistan ……” I think he hurriedly left somewhere between Congo and Bolivia. We, the people, live in the world of jargons without an iota of thought of how big a hypocrite it makes us.
If Prabhakaran is a terrorist, why isn’t Fidel Castro, Bhagat Singh, Che Guevara, or the FLN, or the MNC led by Patrice Lumumba. If he is not, how do you justify death of the order of 70,000, (make that more than 100,000 with latest figures courtesy Times.co.uk, ironically half of them are attributed to government in power) the murder of Alfred Duraiappah, Ranasinghe Premadasa, Rajiv Gandhi, the Central Bank Bombings and a long list of other events? Some might say the comparison is just too inane, Bhagat Singh was a revolutionary. But he killed Saunders much the same way Prabhakaran killed Duraiappah. Picture a 17 year boy without the menacing mustache, an innocent face, avenging the 1974 Tamil conference killings, does it still sound inane? Subhash Chandra Bose used the Japs and formed the INA much the same way Prabhakaran used uncertain means to form the LTTE. Means to an end, but whose end?
Condemn me, it does not matter. History will absolve me.
—Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz
Oh wait, aren’t we reviewing Der Baader Meinhof Komplex, then why this digressing story on LTTE? What does the Sri Lanka of 2009 have to do with Germany of 1960’s? It should be something as follows. It is a very well directed movie with feel and the sense of the time really apparent. Technically a really sound movie, the cinematography, the editing, the screenplay are mind boggling. The acting of each and every character down to Sebastian Blomberg, who plays Rudi Dutschke with only 2 scenes, is the best you might see for a long time. But (no matter how flattering a review there is always a ‘but’) the movie tries to incorporate an entire generation of German thinking in 150 minutes. It cuts and snaps between all the important events without detailing even one of them. While I concede each and every word above is ‘cross my heart’ truth, it is like saying godfather was a movie on the rule of Italian mafia sometime in mid 1900s, period.
I believe we need to start by admitting we don’t really understand terrorism to be able to even augment what Stefan Aust, Bernd Eichinger and Uli Edel are trying to portray. Charlie Kaufman simply said and he is hardly so simple in his articulation,
Knowing that you don’t know is the first step to knowing, you know!
—Charlie Kaufman
Germany of 1960’s was up in flames but the politik and the citizenry alike were too entangled in their own mess to notice the smoke. The country was divided and not just by the Berlin Wall (actually talking about West Germany only). The ideological gap between a generation that grew up on a conservative totalitarian diet, a bane of the Nazis, and the politically, sexually liberated even radically anti fascist younger generation was just too wide. The Bundestag completely dominated by the conservative class had traces of the old Nazi sympathizer, leading to a tendency towards authoritarian government. The media actually followed suit with Axel Springer AG which quickly acquired a string of papers and magazines to become the only influential voice.
In 1966, the coalition of CDU/CSU/SPD compromising of 95% of the Bundestag, come to power which completely eroded the opposition. The coalition made Kurt Georg Kiesinger, a former member of NSDAP for 13 years and part of Nazi foreign office, the chancellor. This led to the formation of APO or ‘Extra-Parliamentary Opposition’, deemed as the starting point of the student’s movement. Various policies such Germany’s support of the American war in Vietnam and other countries and the emergency legislature were questioned by the APO.
The film starts with the happening of June 2, 1967. Students led a massive protest against the visit of the Shah of Iran. They believed the government’s co-operation to a suppressive and sadist dictatorial government was a sign of its own advent towards anarchy or the Nazi era. During the first demonstrations the Berlin police and the Iranian service attacked the protestors which led to the death of one Benno Ohnesorg. The movie shows graphic images of police brutality during the attack and its aftermath which left students injured in hundreds. The subsequent propaganda by the Bild-Zeitung tabloid of the Axel Springer publication branded the students as brutal and aggressive. The officer who shot Ohnesorg is still a favorite topic of conspiracy theorist but the fact that he was promoted enraged the students further, also leading to fears of a police state.
This is the Auschwitz generation.
You can’t argue with people who made Auschwitz.
They have weapons and we haven’t. We must arm ourselves!”
—Gudrun Ensslin
Young scholars like Ulrike Meinhof and Holger Meins increasingly influenced by the writings of leftist laureates like Mao Zedong, Antonio Gramsci and Herbert Marcuse extensive wrote supporting the student’s movement. Both of them later went to be among the founders of Baader-Meinhof gang. The moment was at its high in 1968 with independents accounts showing the strength of almost 100,000 members. But the alleged indoctrination of the masses by the tabloid led to an attack on the then face of the movement, Rudi Dutschke. The student replied with rioting, damaging the Bild publication office. But the loss of Dutschke (severely injured, he died a decade later, of the injuries sustained during this attack) was too much of a dampener for the movement.
Throw a single stone, and that is a crime.
Throw a thousand stones and that is a political action.
Set fire to a car, and that is a crime.
Burn a thousand cars and that is a political act.
Protest is saying: “I disagree with this and that.”
Resistance is saying: “I will put a stop to this and that.”—Ulrike Meinhof
Along the while in spring of 1968 Gudrun Ensslin and Andreas Baader with help of two others decided to set fire to empty department stores in Frankfurt, majorly in protest of German participation of Vietnam War. All four were convicted of arson and endangering human life. While on trial, Ulrike Meinhof published several sympathetic articles. She even met Gudrun in jail. The most defining moment of the film was this initial conversation between the two.
Meinhof: Can one stop the genocide in Vietnam by burning down a department store?
Ensslin: No. It was an error, as I said in court. It was an act of rebellion. While Fascism grows as strong as it was under Hitler. This time we offer resistance out of responsibility before history. People, here and in America, must eat. But they do not think about it, they just consume. We wanted them to think a little.
Meinhof: So you burned down a department store?
Ensslin: I will never resign myself to doing nothing, never! If people try to murder us, like Ohnesorg and Dutschke, then we will shoot back. That is only consistent.
Meinhof: Do you really mean that?
Ensslin: All over the world comrades fight with guns in hand. And if the fascists throw you into prison for that, so be it. Or do you believe that you’ll change something with your grand theory (Meinhof’s writings)?
This conversation, I believe, radicalized an already hardened Meinhof. She then went on to play an important role in the escape of a recaptured Baader. Hence along with the Baader, Gudrun and the lawyer defending them Horst Mahler went on to create the Baader-Meinhoff gang later know as the Red Army Faction. They then went on to rob banks, train with Palestinians for a short while, bombing US Embassy and the list goes on
One of things I would really appreciate about the movie is that it has tried its best to maintain a neutral stature without taking sides especially as it is an all German staff.
The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat,
For which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator,
While the wolf denounces him for the same act,
As the destroyer of liberty.
—Abraham Lincoln
From a neutral point of view, I might as well go ahead say, it has succeeded to a great extent. But for the German masses, who even today more than a 3rd of a century later, still associate a lot of emotions to RAF and related incidences, it will be the most difficult question. The hoopla that the pardoning of Christian Klar created about 6 months ago, is a point in case. This is exactly what makes me appreciate the maturity with which the movie has been dealt with.
The biggest criticism of the movie has been it does not delve into the background of the German history leading up to the events. I would defend this by just pointing out that it wasn’t meant to. It is meant to usher in a culture of an educated set of audiences who do their homework. I believe it was intended not to spoon feed, something that I plead guilty to in this article. Der Baader is a definite watch for anyone and everyone.
Tags: The Baader Meinhoff Complex
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Great blog Nick…its high time some one reviewed such movies..loved the way you presented background
i felt same way about Baader being termd as terrorist..but in all i feel the movie is more about anti-capitalist agenda
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politically loaded post …
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amazing amazing article!!!
The violence of the state is at the best mildly chided by the media and commentators. Reactionary violence are described with an apocalyptic tone and violent retributions by state are praised as ‘Strong and committed response’.
You have nicely brought out the theme of the film and any spoonfeeding in this regard is always welcome.
Take a bow!!
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I have just downloaded the movie.. good to see a review here,, though i didnt read it beyond ur LTTE outburst . Though u have mentioned FLN here, u should have pointed out Battle of Algiers. That movie I think is seminal and from what i read on wiki was supposedly Baader’s favorite movie.
I think what u fail to understand wrt to LTTE was after so much success , they failed to capitalise on it. They failed to transform into what could have been legitimate political expression maybe as a political party. They stifled almost any other political Tamil expression except for LTTE. Like an over chewed gum they outlived the revolution. Anyway this is not political forum. But yeah the story is as filmi.
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Great post, worth preserving, and i agree with your views, in fact i don’t think anyone who approves of the notion of strife to defend one’s country, or for that matter, of preparing for war or deterrence against ‘external’ threats cannot denounce terrorism in principle, because the premise that governs patriotism and terrorism is the same
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The success of such a film lies when it raises a hundred questions about the issue in your head when you walk out of the theater. Baader Meinhof does exactly that. Yes, the movie to me was a mirror image reflecting what we are currently facing. When individual to groups embrace an ideology to the extent that causing harm, damage and pain around become irrelevant. Case in point: the burning of the shopping mall, the blasts in the police building and many other scenes in the movie. Yet what was such a very very clear projected understanding was how ideology even if remains the same from every next batch of people joining the movement, there is a definite shift in thought and action from the originators and the shift keeps growing wider and wider… even though the persuit is for the same set of goals…! That to me is an extremely difficult thing to convey on screen, which this movie does so easily. Your post references too, are very relevant to the movie and I’m happy to see your width of view of the issues and problems
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@sammy, crazyral, jaiganesh, vishal. thanks guys.
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@sg 1) battle of Algeirs is the best movie I have seen. For this movie i said it tried its best to be objective and neutral. Algiers movie was objectively objective without an iota of doubt. To be honest and not modest, even after watching algiers for 15th time, I find myself a little too inexperienced to review it. Chota muh badi baat ho jayegi
About LTTE, you take me wrong there, sir.
Maybe I am digressing again but,
Newton said for every action there is a equal and opposite reaction.
He wasnt too clear on what is action and what is reation though. because reaction is also an action and it is a continuous chain like butterfly effect.
My pov is very simple.
You cannot look at the reaction without the context of the action. I am sure you will agree with me there.
we do the same thing when we call him a murderer of Rajiv gandhi or whatever you said about the opportunity we had.
not fair.
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@8 we had = prabhakaran had
@oz: The point you put across, sometimes thought about it myself.
Not even Idealogies, languages, culture, even the perception of right and wrong changes with time.
that way these organizations are no exceptions. i dunno if i am saying it correctly what i mean.
for example Imagine a person walking into a park nude, i think in almost all countries the person will find his/her ass in jail. this might not be true maybe lets say 50 years down the line. is it good bad i dunno again.
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nick, yes i do agree. Somehow i had similar feelings when the mumbai , gujarat, bangalore etc multiple bombs were planted..it sounds abhorring but i was fascinated by the deviousness. Indian mujahideen mails and all..at that time they looked more like a bunch of anarchists with just the jehadi connotations .. and anarchists are cool arent they?
from the baader meinhoff trailor , they look uber cool almost rock stars
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@10 I am sorry sir but i cant be much clearer. they might sound cool to you, they do not to me. IMO it is the most dastardly act.
I donot condone the actions of any element where civilians die and that was not the objective of the article at all.
this is my last attempt to reiterate what i already said. I always look at any action from the context of the time and the background leading up to the act. That is exactly what i have done here.
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oh forgot to mention I am no big fan of rock music
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nick , i didnt mean in that sense. it was most audacious and dastardly act culminating into the Mumbai attacks and perhaps more to come. But I didnt like the tone when Peerbhoy was caught and TV channel were full of evil mastermind headings.
I dont disagree with anything in ur post and cant agree anymore regarding media categorizations lacking proper contexts.
havent seen Baader yet.. rock star part was just my take from the trailor. will see it in some time and will then read rest of ur past.
and yes i do share a morbid fascination for anarchists even since i read about Kaczynski and his essay on the modern leftism..
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just completed watching it . its truly remarkable. the characters were indeed glamorous to begin with but the movie did maintain balance. though baader’s character looks shallow and psychotic. dont know how close is movie in potraying him.
The characters too are introduced and bounced off very easily especially i felt for the actress playing petra or maybe coz she is more identifiable then rest of the actors playing the secondary chars.
Rest of your post is interesting too .with your context makes it easier to understand the significance of gudrun’s parents conversation about their feelings.
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@sg it has been brought to my notice that all your comments have an uncanny resemblance to Imdb message boards.
I found that rock star comment of yours on imdb.
Common man if you haven’t seen the movie whats the point of all this.
if you have then tell me what you really think not what others think. even if it is my article pr the movie is a piece of shit, i can take it.
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lol.. dont get so worked up!! i never ever post on imdb and its not that i dont go over imdb but i dont follow the forums there either and specifically for baader i didnt.
rock star comment is too generic soemthing of an initial impression that anybody would form while watching the trailor with no knowledge about RAF(which i didnt), leather jackets, over sized glasses, fast cars etc. i didnt post about the movie until i watched the movie .. anyway sorry if you find my comments so trite.
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on the note of right and wrong, would you call the FLN a bunch of terrorists or heroes? same holds for our very own bhagat singhs and azaads. We all know how history is conveniently filtered to suit our preconcieved notions, who knows how many innocent children, both british and indian, may have died from the bomb blasts by our revered heroes of the independence struggle.
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@vishal
“Would you call the FLN a bunch of terrorists or heroes?”
You can’t do that my man, your stealing my question.
The point of the article was to raise the exact same question and not to take media and other stories at face value. Understand the context and then make an objective unbiased call on the situation which is rarely done.
Thanks for the comment though, it tells me at least a few people understood my pov.
And for the record (i know you used it just as an example but to clarify) Bhagat Singh was involved i believe, in only the then parliament blast. There is no controversy regarding the fact that no one did in that blast.It is corroborated by a lot of independent sources.
You could question the judgement behind the leaking the bomb making technique to public. if i remember top of my head it was used in 2 blast in lahore i think, not sure here.
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