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The Baader-Meinhof Complex

by Stefan Aust, Anthea Bell (Translator)

3.97 of 5 stars 3.97 · rating details · 415 ratings · 45 reviews

The rise and fall of the Baader-Meinhof group constitutes one of the most remarkable phenomena of post-war Europe. A group of young people, most of them from solid, middle-class backgrounds, took the law into their own hands, and by means of arson, bombing, kidnap and murder sought to alter the direction of national, and indeed international, politics.

Rooted in the student...more

Paperback, 480 pages

Published November 6th 2008 by Bodley Head (first published January 1st 1989)

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Jan 29, 2009 Keiti rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'd been eyeballing this book for months and decided to pick it up after I saw the movie (which was good, too, but left me with a ton of questions). My interest in the Red Army Faction goes back to my childhood growing up in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and a RAF-planted bomb exploding at the base in 1985. The book itself answered a ton of questions, but it was terribly difficult to get through. There is an overall sense of linear narrative, but the book seemed to bounce back and forth between di...more

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Nov 18, 2011 Thomas Paul rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I grew up with protests against the Vietnam War and with radical leftist organizations like the Weathermen and the RAF. The RAF were perhaps a little more mysterious because they were in far off and, at the time, divided Germany so I was always interested in them. When I discovered this book by Stefan Aust I was excited about the opportunity to read it. I was soon very disappointed. It’s not that there isn’t a lot of interesting information in the book. The problem is that the author didn’t actu...more I grew up with protests against the Vietnam War and with radical leftist organizations like the Weathermen and the RAF. The RAF were perhaps a little more mysterious because they were in far off and, at the time, divided Germany so I was always interested in them. When I discovered this book by Stefan Aust I was excited about the opportunity to read it. I was soon very disappointed. It’s not that there isn’t a lot of interesting information in the book. The problem is that the author didn’t actually go to the trouble to write a book.

The main problem is that there is no structure to the book. There is no logical flow that makes this history of the RAF coherent. After struggling through the beginning of the book, I felt like there were pieces to the puzzle all over the place but no coherent image of what the puzzle looks like. The book doesn’t flow as a series of events or topics, in fact it doesn’t flow at all. The first 100 pages included more than 40 chapters. Each chapter reads like a brief essay that may or may not have anything to do with the previous chapters. One chapter might take place in 1971 and the next in 1965 and the next in 1967. A chapter might be two pages about a person who gets mentioned once (probably five pages earlier) and then not mentioned again. The biographical essays tell virtually nothing about a person other than straight facts but really give no help in figuring out how they ended up in a radical leftist terrorist group. We read about Andreas Baader’s escape from prison without knowing what he was in prison for because that doesn’t happen until later. The book reads more like a bunch of notes randomly thrown together as if the author didn’t feel like actually editing his notes into a book. As a side note, there are many characters who are mentioned occasionally so a cast of characters such as found on Wikipedia could have been helpful. Also, a map showing the key cities and towns mentioned and their relationship to East and West Germany would also have been helpful. Also, the author mentions Berlin quite often without making it clear if he is talking about East or West Berlin.

This could have been a very interesting, perhaps even a great book. There is plenty of good information scattered around the book. Also, a better translator who could assist the American reader would have been helpful (not everyone will know that the GDR is East Germany – it has been nearly 20 years since Germany was reunified). The great book on the history of the RAF is still waiting to be written. Meanwhile I would avoid this book unless you have a true thirst for knowledge on this topic and are willing to put up with the poor structure and writing.(less)

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Jul 23, 2011 Bryan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Baader-Meinhof: The Inside Story of the R.A.F." is an interesting and important book that explores the history of a group of self-described revolutionaries and their attempts at revolution in then West Germany. The primary focus of the book is on the founding members of the group called variously the Red Army Faction, the Baader-Meinhof group or the Baader-Meinhof gang (the first by the group itself, the latter two by supporters or detractors, respectively), a group that was active from 1970 th...more "Baader-Meinhof: The Inside Story of the R.A.F." is an interesting and important book that explores the history of a group of self-described revolutionaries and their attempts at revolution in then West Germany. The primary focus of the book is on the founding members of the group called variously the Red Army Faction, the Baader-Meinhof group or the Baader-Meinhof gang (the first by the group itself, the latter two by supporters or detractors, respectively), a group that was active from 1970 through the 1990s and whose actions included bank robberies, bombings, murders, kidnappings and the hijacking of a German passenger jet. The story of the R.A.F. is a look at politics taken to its bitter end by group for whom compromise was not an option.

The group’s core — Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Ulrike Meinhof — and many of its early members were the children of what they called the “Hitler generation.” Born in the 1940s, they saw the state of West Germany as a new version of the authoritarian, fascist policies of the Third Reich. They were part of a larger leftist movement in consisting mostly of college students and young intellectuals not only in Germany but throughout Western Europe at the time. In Germany during the late 1960s, student movements and demonstrations led to responses from the government that reinforced the belief among the future R.A.F. members and others that West Germany intended to create a new police state. The involvement of U.S. forces in Vietnam further antagonizes students who see the military action as a form of repression by an invading force — one that has bases in West Germany that support the war effort.

For the founding members of the R.A.F., the response is to meet violence with violence as a way to bring the Communist revolutionary struggle to West Germany. The violence that ensues is both tragic and senseless — blood spilled not just for a losing cause but for what at times seems hardly a cause at all.

The author, Stefan Aust, is a contemporary of the R.A.F. members and himself from the leftist movements. He is not, however, a proponent of the methods used by the group during its reign of terror. At the same time, he’s not willing to give the West German government a free pass for its actions in fighting terrorism. The result is a book that is not entirely objective, yet at the same time isn’t a booster of either side.

Aust writes for a German audience (the book was translated to English by Anthea Bell) whom he assumes knows the basics of the Baader-Meinhoff story. The book is divided essentially into three parts — the founding of the group and its early actions, the trial of the four founders and later efforts to free them. He chooses to skip chronological order, especially in the beginning, assuming his audience knows how the story plays out. This, combined with Bell’s British-English translation, might leave some U.S. readers a little unsure of how events unfolded and also the impact the group had during its heyday. The latter two sections are structured more chronologically and give the reader a better sense of how the story plays out.

For U.S. readers, the story of the R.A.F. is interesting in three ways. First, it offers a look at Germany after World War II. In U.S. history books, after the war West Germany becomes an ally of the United States in the fight against Communism. The story of the R.A.F. shows the distrust of some aspects of German society to the new government and perhaps of government of any kind. The founders of the R.A.F. saw the United States as an aggressor in Vietnam and as a supporter of the new police state in West Germany. The actions that the R.A.F. takes against the West German government and against U.S. troops in West Germany gain a bit of support at various times by the German people themselves.

The book also offers a glimpse of the hypocrisy of revolutionaries themselves. The group’s writings, mostly done by Ulrike Meinhof, a former journalist, outline what the R.A.F. is fighting against, but rarely discuss what the group hopes the revolution will bring about. For the Baader-Meinhof gang, the fight itself is the cause; however, there is no thought as to when the fight will be won. What constitutes victory? What will take the place of the authoritarian, capitalist society that they fight against? How will the changes take place? The writings of the R.A.F. — as outlined in the book — give little regard to the outcome of the struggle.

The group instead becomes the very thing it says it is fighting against. The supposed violence of the state is met with violence. The police state they fear is at hand is in part created as a response to the violence and disorder created by the group. Authoritarian society is matched by the authoritarian leadership of the R.A.F. itself, which refuses to tolerate questions of its leadership by those inside the group. The leadership of the R.A.F. is so committed to its cause — or at least itself — that it creates a dichotomy of for or against, in or out, pig or human that crushes dissent at the expense of the personal freedom that it alleges to espouse.

This leads to the most interesting question raised by the book — what is the limit of personal convictions? The R.A.F. is created in part by the following of revolutionary politics to its logical end. They perceived themselves, perhaps rightly so, as the only group willing to see the revolution carried out to the extent its creators intended. And once they reached this extreme, many found it impossible to come back to the center. If you believe in revolution, then you must become a revolutionary. The implications of this resound to this day.

The fall of the Berlin wall and later the Soviet Union itself has taken the luster off of the Communist utopia. But that has not brought an end to utopian dreams. Now, those with extreme convictions, whether religious or political, are looking to create a world without compromise, a world that follows their beliefs to the extreme, whether or not their logic makes sense in a larger, global context. The message of this book, one perhaps not intended by its author, is that extreme stances often lead to extreme measures to make them come about. The importance of compromise is not always in the specifics of the compromise but that compromise often blunts the extremes that people are willing follow.

Business classes teach that often negotiations are not about claiming a piece of a pie, but expanding the pie so that everyone gets their fill. In the same measure, the R.A.F. could have played a political role in creating a Germany that valued more the individual at the expense of state power. In the end, it chose to operate in its own extreme political spectrum, and the legacy it left behind is one of murder and oppression rather than freedom and understanding.
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Mar 06, 2013 George Ilsley rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, non-fiction

Having recently seen the movie based on this book, I wanted to learn more about events I barely am able to remember. (The movie is very faithful to the book).

In this telling, we can glimpse the rise of the Big Brother surveillance state, as well as modern techniques for negotiating in hostage situations (ie never give them anything). Even modern prison systems seem designed to prevent things that happened with the RAF members while imprisoned.

Also, there is always a stock character in these narr...more

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Apr 09, 2012 Niklas Pivic rated it 4 of 5 stars

The German avant-garde group Einstürzende Neubauten's name means "collapsing new buildings" in English; it points to a couple of relevant things as far as the RAF is concerned:

1. They were young, they collapsed.
2. The name can refer to the state of Germany - and/or its youths - to youths growing up just after the Second World War.

The RAF - also referred to as the Baader-Meinhof group - seems to me a desperate yet affectionate bunch of terrorists. They had strong political beliefs, wanted to topp...more The German avant-garde group Einstürzende Neubauten's name means "collapsing new buildings" in English; it points to a couple of relevant things as far as the RAF is concerned:

1. They were young, they collapsed.
2. The name can refer to the state of Germany - and/or its youths - to youths growing up just after the Second World War.

The RAF - also referred to as the Baader-Meinhof group - seems to me a desperate yet affectionate bunch of terrorists. They had strong political beliefs, wanted to topple the imperialist establishment with their theological basis lifted from hard-core leftist/anarchist believers who thought theory was of little use; "the gun speaks" is one of their axioms.

In short, a very charismatic leader - Andreas Baader - met Gudrun Ensslin - a preacher's daughter - and gelled together politically and as lovers. They adopted the feel of the changing times and extreme frustration over the fact that a lot of people talked but did nothing. They started fires in German department stores and conspired further.

I think the very moment they recruited Ulrike Meinhof, at the time a respected and well-known political reporter and documentary film-maker, as she helped to spring Baader from custody and in the process killing a security guard, is the breaking-point where all was let loose for the RAF. Everything must go. The gun spake.

From there, they went underground. And they went abroad, making sure that Baader-Ensslin could rule the band and that very little that was critique against them could escape unhurt - and that went both for people on the inside and the outside.

The RAF assassinated, kidnapped, robbed and created propaganda and terror all throughout their maintenance; against popular belief, the group existed even after the suicides/murders in the Stannheim prison in 1978, when the founding members and additional members were found dead - except for one survivor.

The author does a splendid job at remaining fairly objective while binding facts to the RAF's belief-system, thus creating a bird's-eye view of the entire matter. The book is mostly chronologically written, but starts off with the Stannheim deaths in a very strong way.

Did the German government wire-tap the prisoners' cells during the night of their deaths? Did they in fact allow the guns that killed some of the prisoners to be imported? Did they know of a suicide pact and totally failed to prevent it? Were the prisoners in fact murdered or did they commit suicide? We'll probably never know.

Aust has also been involved with the screenwriting for the film with the same name as this book, which I think is very good too. The book, however, delves a lot deeper and especially exposes Baader as a more two-faced and hypocritical person than I think the film did.

The RAF did do something, which was their forté; the fact that they killed people at all is despicable, but didn't the government do the same in the process?

All in all, this is a thoroughly interesting book which could be considered great company with Olivier Assayas' great three-piece documentary on Carlos Sanchez, titelled "Carlos".(less)

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Nov 11, 2011 Jeff rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Stefan Aust's Baader-Meinhof: The Inside Story of the R.A.F. is probably as good a narrative of these confusing events as we are ever going to get. Using a journalistic and chronological fact-driven approach, Aust delivers the core points of the narrative without dwelling on excessive historical analysis - that task is largely left to the reader (and quite correctly so). [return][return]In the end, the point of the story is illuminating, depressing, and still quite relevant to the contemporary w...more

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Nov 18, 2011 Jessica rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, library-owns

If you haven't seen the movie yet, just watch that. It covers the same material in much less time.

If you have seen the movie and want more information about the political philosophy or the social circumstances (institutional sexism/feminism, post WWII reconstruction, etc.) that lead to the creation of the RAF, you won't find it here. The author seems to have deliberately eschewed almost any analysis in order to be unbiased in his painstakingly detailed recreation of events.

However, Aust does ref...more

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Feb 26, 2011 Devin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Meticulously researched to the point of nearly drowning within the chaos of the terrorist activities of the Red Army Faction. This is a riveting account of how the idealism of opposing the rise of the right wing in 1960s and 1970s West Germany began to emulate the same atrocities and intolerance within its own ranks through an embrace of violent means. The RAF managed to unleash a wave of crime that forced the German authorities to modernize their means of investigation and prosecution. And for...more

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Sep 14, 2012 Stephen Nicholas rated it 4 of 5 stars

So, the questions left in my mind are: how much of the RAF terrorism was a reaction to American imperialism in Indochina; how much was due to the self absorption of the RAF members, and delusions of their own self importance; how much was down to the ineptitude of the German authorities; and what caused the "radicalization" (I know the word is anachronistic in this context) of these young people, was it societal anomie, was it youthful idealism, or was it a reaction against the claustrophobic an...more

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Aug 03, 2011 Susu rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: import-visual-bookshelf

Kaum hatte ich die Vorschau auf den kommenden Film gesehen, dachte ich, ich muss das noch einmal lesen. Man kann die hierin aufgehäuften Fakten und Details ja nicht ewig im Kopf behalten. Ich habe das Buch jetzt zum zweiten Mal gelesen - zum ersten Mal in der überarbeiteten Neuauflage. Ich staune immer noch, wie man diese schiere Masse an Informationen und Zusammenhängen so in Form bringen kann. Das alleine ist schon beeindruckend und ich bin jetzt gespannt, wie der Film das schaffen wird (ab En...more

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Dec 10, 2009 Kristine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Extremely detailed account of Germany's urban guerilla Baader-Meinhof Group from its beginning in 1970 to the deaths of the original leaders in Stammheim in 1977. The group later known as the Red Army Faction continued its terrorism through the 80's and 90's, but this account focuses on the years 1970-77 from its inception with Baader, Ensslin, and Meinhof. Fascinating to read about how such a group came to be, their terrorist training in Jordan, how the police tried to catch them, and later the...more

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Jul 29, 2012 J.K. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ich habe das Buch als Vorbereitung auf den Kinofilm (den wir mit der Schule schauen sollten) gelesen und für mich ist es im Gegensatz zum Film wirklich gut. Der Film zielt viel zu sehr auf Unterhaltung ab und distanziert sich nicht vom Terrorismus. Das Buch ist für mich DAS Werk über die RAF. Eine detailierte Auseinandersetzung mit dem deutschen Herbst die einen über alles geschehene informiert. Auch wenn man selber nicht dabei gewesen ist, meint man nach dem Buch diese Zeit und ihre Themen zu k...more

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Apr 28, 2010 Meave rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Of course I saw the film first, because I didn't know anything about the RAF at all before the film, but after seeing it--and it's really great, incidentally--I had to know everything I could about it. This book is really quite good. I'd give it five stars except it's a little choppy in places, and could've been a bit clearer in some of its explanation of the timeline, but I appreciated how plainly Aust tried to tell the story with as little judgment as possible, on either side. I still cannot u...more

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Apr 01, 2013 Kittaroo rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ho comprato il libro solo perchè il film che ne hanno tratto mi piacque assai... Na palla pazzesca! Il libro ti ammorba di dettagli, chi ha fatto cosa, a che ora e dove, ma si perde là dovo io volevo profondità. Mi sarebbe piaciuto un approccio più articolato alle motivazioni che hanno spinto dei ragazzi a mollare tutto, studi, famiglia, amici, per abbracciare la lotta armata. invece questo aspetto viene trattato solo di striscio, e nemmeno in modo soddisfacente.

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Aug 09, 2011 Jay Roberts rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: politics, history

This covers the events of the German Red Army Faction. They were leftist terrorists fighting the remnants of the Nazi culture in Western Germany from the late 1960s until the mid 1990s. Their methods were crude compared to today’s standards, yet the police at the time had never dealt with their level of sophistication. This book is an important lesson… never piss off the left wing to the point of violence. When the intelligent finally are provoked to anger, their minds are hard to stop.

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Apr 11, 2013 Julie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: colin-read

A disappointingly superficial and journalistic survey of the peak years of the Red Army Faction in the 1970s. This never really seems to get to grips with the origins of the movement or to get inside the minds of the main players - which surely is the point of main interest. What was it that drove this desperate band of Maoists and pseudo-Maoists to murder, bomb and shoot their way through 1970s West Germany?

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Aug 01, 2011 Peter Jakobs added it · review of another edition

650 pages about 7 year in Germany's 1970s and 47 deaths.

Most of the text can be read as a adventure story and it

probably was the most thrilling aspect of my childhood.

Not really recommended if one really wants to learn about

the background of this rather brutal and irrationale aspect of

BRD society that time.

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May 01, 2011 Marcel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Eigentlich ein hervorragendes Buch, dass die Geschichte des RAF Terrors detailiert beschreibt und dabei auch Hintergründe aufdeckt. Für mich aber häufig langwierig weil ich vieles schon wusste und kannte. Wenn man sich schon länger mit der RAF beschäftigt hat sind einige Passagen eben nicht mehr so spannend. Dafür kann aber das Buch nichts!

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Jan 10, 2013 Jed rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was a slog in some places, but Aust's goal was meticulous detail and accuracy in describing the formation and evolution of the Red Army Faction rather than readability. While not always an easy read, this is an exhaustive account of the attacks, trials, planning, and imprisonment of those involved in the group.

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Apr 24, 2013 David Ramirer rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: early-readings

eine sehr gute übersicht über die RAF und deren aktivitäten. mir gefällt die erzählweise, die mosaikhaft von vielen seiten die verflochteten biographien abrollt - dadurch wird ein spannendes bild der historie geboten. gut zu lesen, besser als viele andere historische bücher.

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May 13, 2009 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

Smart, committed and murderous people are interesting to read about. I was a military policeman in Germany in the mid-80's and remember memorizing pictures of the last wave of RAF members. Responded to their bomb threats as well. I recall how the wanted posters had fewer and fewer members each time they were reprinted, which was fine by me, as they were intent on murdering US servicemen during this period.

Anyway, the book is entertaining, and tends to jump around quite a bit. One can tell this w...more

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Dec 13, 2012 Simon Sleightholm rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

Gripping, if complex, retelling of the Red Army Faction's roots, shoots, and demise. Fairly neutral in tone, this book seems to take no sides but instead aims to deliver a straight factual account of an extraordinary period in German history. Absorbing.

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Feb 09, 2012 Carst van der Molen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, germany, raf, history

This book gives a great view into post war Germany. For me the most amazing thing about RAF is that it's history is so near, and so recent; it's a story about one generation before me.

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Jan 30, 2011 Fenny Lita marked it as to-read · review of another edition

i saw the movie first, opening my mouth and heart-beat strucked during it! So tense even more than a thriller movie!

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Nov 26, 2010 Tony rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Fascinating book, but a really awkward translation (embarrassing at times).

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Nov 24, 2010 Col Ani rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Zie de discussie over dit boek op: http://www.colani.nl/oppositie/?p=1015

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Sep 15, 2009 Verkhovensky added it · review of another edition

i've found that speech is useless without an action.))

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Apr 09, 2013 Katja rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Nie fand ich Geschichte spannender. Punktum.

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May 15, 2012 Anna Maria Ballester Bohn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Excellent, differentiated, extensively documented, doesn't shy away from difficult questions. Now THIS is what I call a page turner!

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Sep 02, 2011 Antiloquax rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: politics

I read it in English. Superb. The film is cool too!

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