Baader Meinhof

So yesterday was one big day of changed lives.

“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” John 5:24

How exciting to be able to share how Jesus changes and radically re-prioritizes with someone who is wonderfully beginning that journey as of yesterday! It proves as far as proof can be used that it is true, lifechanging and wonderfully good news.

The day ended with us going to the cinema to see the Baader Meinhof Komplex. Interesting. It was a German film about history (there's a surprise) and it had an interval in the middle, which killed the mood for a while. Apart from that, it was really thought-provoking and made my brain hurt, and that wasn't because I was translating the German constantly. In fact, somehow, the language didn't seem to be a problem.

The content of the film and the fact that it was being filmed in such a way showed that Germans are still completely messed up as a nation. What do they do with a famously gruesome past that actually did not stop at 1949, but one that continued for sure until 1989 and is still dealing with the relatively high number of neo-Nazi sympathisers? This is, of course, not reflected in your average German – they are not really much different from my experience of Brits, if direct to the point of seeming rudeness – but the whole idea of the film was somewhat chilling.

It was about a group of students in the late 60’s who demonstrated against the Shar of Persia, the Vietnam War and other low points in capitalist history, but who, along with Ulrike Meinhof, a sympathetic journalist, begin to descend into terrorism to make their point clear. They represent a generation struggling to come to terms with the crimes of their parents’ generation, but, in order to show their separation from the modern-day fascism they see in events all over the world, they resort to violence and cold-blooded brutality to wipe out this “wrong” and make the world a better place.

The film was gruesome – possibly a bit too much – and had the odd effect of glamorising the terrorists and alienating us from any Establishment figures presented – apart from the head of the police force. I had wondered if the Germans are the best people to deal with these Vergangenheitsbewältigung films, but an advert before the film came on of a new film with Tom Cruise about a plot to blow up Hitler did make me feel uncomfortable. Who is allowed to put this horrific reality on screen? Dealing with history that is so fresh and often overlooked is a very hard job, but the first attempt should most certainly be done by those who are trying to come to terms with it as an integral part of their national identity. The result was a film that reflected the Germans in general – uneasy, self-conscious and meticulous. I wonder, however, whether it is possibly too dangerous a thing to have made already. Is this, or any kind of collective condemnation of the acts of the Baader-Meinhof group in fact a commemoration?

This country continues to be totally fascinating.