Screening the Red Army Faction: Historical and Cultural Memory by Christina Gerhardt (review)

Much of the previous work on the 1960s and 1970s West German political activist group the Red Army Faction (RAF) has been social, historical, or journalistic accounts of their activities within the context of West Germany's politics. However, the RAF’s filmic, print, and artistic representations have not been the subject of serious study, although the Oscar-nominated film The Baader Meinhof Complex (Uli Edel, 2008) did shed new light on the group and its activities. Christina Gerhardt’s book Screening the Red Army Faction is a complete and exhaustive volume of all the works on the subject, situating these films within German cinema’s three prolific ages: Weimar cinema, New German Cinema, and the Berlin School.

Gerhardt uses a historical and cultural method of analysis whereby she divides the filmic representations and social dynamics of the RAF’s emergence chronologically into two eras, which she dubs the “long sixties” (1957–1975) and the “long seventies” (1967–1982). She situates the RAF’s emergence within the context of the traumatic effect felt by 1960s youth. This generation, she argues, became politically active for a variety of reasons, such as the trauma felt due to World War II and the Nazis’ rise to power, the Holocaust, and the conservative and distorting media representations of youth movements in the Springer media. She divides the book into six chapters based on the political activities of the RAF; the films that dealt with the RAF and issues of labour politics by film-makers such as Alexander Kluge, Volker Schlöndorff, Margarethe von Trotta, and Reiner Warner Fassbinder; and representations of the RAF in different media (film, print, art, etc.).

The first chapter examines the political and historical context of 1945–1970 from which the RAF came into existence. Here, Gerhardt looks at both domestic (the assassination of labour activists and communist party leaders) and international (colonial liberation wars and the Vietnam War) events. This chapter lays out the social and cultural background of the period extensively, with discussion of debates around NATO, the use of nuclear weapons, and the limits of representative democracy. Following this line of argumentation, the book successfully illustrates how political parties failed to address issues raised by citizens, and left-wing groups tried to fill the political vacuum through non-violent actions such as sit-ins, demonstrations, and marches. The role of corporate media and the limits of state surveillance also inform Gerhardt’s analysis, and which illustrates how representations of the RAF in films depict their political responses to these issues.

The second chapter shifts the focus to print media and social movements in West Germany between 1968 and 1972. Here, the comparison between the right-wing corporate media of Springer Press and leftist publications such as Agit 883 sheds light on the framing and depiction of the left in West Germany at the time. Gerhardt compares the corporate media’s efforts to situate itself as consensus journalism—seeking broad cooperation with government and shying away from conflict (Bild)—while portraying student and labour activists as criminals. The 1960s witnessed a rise in critical, investigative journalism that sought democratization (Der Spiegel, Stern) by establishing a more participatory public sphere and supporting student movements. The Red Army Faction, as Gerhardt proposes, was thus able to find its voice in this kind of media.

In the third chapter, Gerhardt turns to issues of terrorism, state surveil-lance, and the German Autumn (1975–1977), focusing on an analysis of The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (Völker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta, 1975) and Germany in Autumn (various, 1978). Her analysis positions the films as taking on the relationships of institutions of power like the political establishment, the legal system, and corporate media. Gerhardt argues that the passing of repressive laws in West Germany in the 1970s created a hostile environment for social movements and led to more violent action by the RAF. This expression of repression, she argues, is found both thematically and...