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filled with fascinating information and piquant details
--Literary Review
--Literary Review
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`Stephen Aust's meticulously researched chronicle of German left-wing terrorism.'
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32 of 34 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I first read this in the 1980s, and it was then out of print for ages,being republished now as the film "The Baader-Meinhof Complex" (based on this)was released earlier this year.
This isn't the 1980s book,it has been substantially revised and updated,with some of the new material emerging from the Stasi archives after unification in 1989.Stefan Aust worked together with Ulrike Meinhof before she went undergraound in 1970, and so is one of the few outsiders to know one of the founders of the RAF(Red Army Faction) personally.He pulls few punches,noting that the armed struggle("the struggle of 6 against 60 million" as Heinrich Boll quite correctly pointed out)was a disaster for the left in Germany and more generally across Europe.It served only to strengthen police and security services,alienate ordinary citizens from leftist activists,and led to the untimely deaths of people who shouldn't have died, and didn't deserve to die.
Inside Stammheim prison after 1972,the leadership of the RAF fragmented and was divided aginst each other-not widely known,but Aust describes it well.
In retrospect,the climax of this period of German history is "The German Autumn" of 1977,the low points being the kidnapping of Schleyer,the hijacking of a Lufthansa plane,eventually stormed by German commandos in Mogadishu,Somalia,and the suicides of the remaining RAF leaders in Stammheim.Aust gives an excellent description of the coordination of activities of Palestinians and Germans,mainly directed from Iraq.He also has interviews with the German leadership,including General Wegner,the commander of the German special forces,the GSG 9.
One thing comes out of his description of these times,which is that Andreas Baader,in his discussions with German officials,more or less agreed that if the leadership of the RAF were flown off into exile,they wouldn't return to Germany and/or bother the German authorities again.So much for the people's war-so long as Baader,Eneslin et al were safe in South Yemen or Iraq,the revolution could wait.In their own way,the RAF leaders were every bit as corrupt and immoral as the bourgeois leadership of western Europe that they professed to hate
Autumn 1977 was pretty much the end of far-left terrorism in Germany,and the underground RAF eventually threw in the towel in the 1990s.Aust's history is a brilliant description of modern German history,which still has echoes even today.Last week,an RAF prisoner was released after 26 years in prison-it isn't quite all in the past.
This isn't the 1980s book,it has been substantially revised and updated,with some of the new material emerging from the Stasi archives after unification in 1989.Stefan Aust worked together with Ulrike Meinhof before she went undergraound in 1970, and so is one of the few outsiders to know one of the founders of the RAF(Red Army Faction) personally.He pulls few punches,noting that the armed struggle("the struggle of 6 against 60 million" as Heinrich Boll quite correctly pointed out)was a disaster for the left in Germany and more generally across Europe.It served only to strengthen police and security services,alienate ordinary citizens from leftist activists,and led to the untimely deaths of people who shouldn't have died, and didn't deserve to die.
Inside Stammheim prison after 1972,the leadership of the RAF fragmented and was divided aginst each other-not widely known,but Aust describes it well.
In retrospect,the climax of this period of German history is "The German Autumn" of 1977,the low points being the kidnapping of Schleyer,the hijacking of a Lufthansa plane,eventually stormed by German commandos in Mogadishu,Somalia,and the suicides of the remaining RAF leaders in Stammheim.Aust gives an excellent description of the coordination of activities of Palestinians and Germans,mainly directed from Iraq.He also has interviews with the German leadership,including General Wegner,the commander of the German special forces,the GSG 9.
One thing comes out of his description of these times,which is that Andreas Baader,in his discussions with German officials,more or less agreed that if the leadership of the RAF were flown off into exile,they wouldn't return to Germany and/or bother the German authorities again.So much for the people's war-so long as Baader,Eneslin et al were safe in South Yemen or Iraq,the revolution could wait.In their own way,the RAF leaders were every bit as corrupt and immoral as the bourgeois leadership of western Europe that they professed to hate
Autumn 1977 was pretty much the end of far-left terrorism in Germany,and the underground RAF eventually threw in the towel in the 1990s.Aust's history is a brilliant description of modern German history,which still has echoes even today.Last week,an RAF prisoner was released after 26 years in prison-it isn't quite all in the past.
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I agree with much of the sentiments in the above review - it is by far the best and most balanced book on the subject in English, avoiding the mythologization of RAF's futile and delusionary 'armed struggle' characteristic of some later English language works while giving some clue into motivations and characters of Baader et al. Paradoxically, this refusal to demonize the RAF tends to underline their brutality and moral culpability, at least in my view, although the book is not didactic and leaves plenty of scope for readers to reach their own conclusions.
The book's only really weakness apart from some, in places, clunky translation from the German is its fragmented structure and highly journalistic style - it reads as series of vignettes or a compendium of high class news magazine articles. This makes for a fast and compelling read with some distinctly filmic qualities - it's easy to see why the book has been turned into a movie - but left me wanting to know more about the social and political background that spawned the RAF and also the psychology, background and personalities of those individuals who became active terrorists (Clearly, many, indeed most, German radicals of 1960s and 1970s chose other paths). Given that the context of the RAF is so historically distant, especially for English language readers, this would help avoid the tendency (evident in the film of the book) to reduce the "German Autumn" to a sort of Maoist Bonnie and Clyde.
An additional point not picked up by Aust (or the excellent above review) is that British SAS troops participated alongside German police special forces in the operation to free hostages in Mogadishu. The recently published Special Forces Heroes has the whole story.
The book's only really weakness apart from some, in places, clunky translation from the German is its fragmented structure and highly journalistic style - it reads as series of vignettes or a compendium of high class news magazine articles. This makes for a fast and compelling read with some distinctly filmic qualities - it's easy to see why the book has been turned into a movie - but left me wanting to know more about the social and political background that spawned the RAF and also the psychology, background and personalities of those individuals who became active terrorists (Clearly, many, indeed most, German radicals of 1960s and 1970s chose other paths). Given that the context of the RAF is so historically distant, especially for English language readers, this would help avoid the tendency (evident in the film of the book) to reduce the "German Autumn" to a sort of Maoist Bonnie and Clyde.
An additional point not picked up by Aust (or the excellent above review) is that British SAS troops participated alongside German police special forces in the operation to free hostages in Mogadishu. The recently published Special Forces Heroes has the whole story.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
As a History teacher who is used to worrying about the validity of sources and also somebody who lived through the student riots of the 1970s I found this book excellent. First and foremost I wanted to know what the RAF was all about, in the 1970s I wasn't politically interested but wondered why they were killing people, but never asked. Now I am a retired I was interested, and have the time, to find out what they wanted and what really happened. Stefan Aust's book answered those questions really well, it was easy to read but detailed enough to explain the philosophy of the RAF and explained the events of the "German Autumn" very well. The section on the imprisonment and trial of the 5 RAF leaders was both fascinating and incredulous by modern standards of Human Rights, I began to feel quite sympathetic towards their plight. It was at this moment that the History teacher in me kicked in and I began to wonder how neutral an author Aust was, after all he knew most of the main players, and worked with Ulrike Meinhof. Certainly he went some way to explain how he became a journalist when they became active revolutionary fighters, but there again as a primary source of events 30 years ago he was excellent and the additions from modern evidence enhanced the credibilty of the book for me. A wonderful read for anybody who wants to know about the Baader Meinhof Group.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Death was too good for them!
I had been seeking a comprehensive English-language study of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon; one that would incorporate an in-depth study of the group within the wider political... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Devil's Advocate
Must read
This is one of the best books I have ever read. I seem to remember this story on the news as a child and it has remained with me throughout my life so I thought it was time I found... Read more
Published 18 months ago by C. Griffith
Revolutionary politics gone wrong
Journalism is the 1st draft of history,it's not definitive in itself. Commentaries,biographies,psychological development,political analysis and evaluation must be brought to bear... Read more
Published on 24 Feb 2010 by technoguy
Worth reading even if you have seen the film
I bought this after seeing the film and glad I did. It provides more detail. It also shows you where the film uses poetic licence. Read more
Published on 14 Aug 2009 by katyn1940
Complex by name, complex by nature!
A fascinating book which deals with a horrible time for West Germany. The book contains many great and almost unbelievable stories of Police ineptitude and the whole spirit of the... Read more
Published on 10 Mar 2009 by L. Gibbs
Insight into a the post war German Teerorists
In no other country in Europe has political theory and violence been so important in making the modern state. Read more
Published on 20 Feb 2009 by Mr. David Myles
Excellent but film is better.
I bought this book because I was so fascinated and intrigued by the film that I wanted to know more. Read more
Published on 13 Feb 2009 by A. Gilchrist
sensational, journalistic, badly written
this could be alright if you are a beginner to the RAF, but it is written in a totally unengaging language, and even though it pretends to be an 'objective' account of the story,... Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2009 by M. Kotsopoulou
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