The Baader-Meinhof Complex

Oct 29, 2024 11:18 PM

Author:Stefan Aust

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 protest movement of the late 1960s, the story of the group begins in May 1970 with the freeing of Andreas Baader - imprisoned for planting fire bombs in protest against the Vietnam War - by Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin and others. They spent the years that followed requisitioning apartments from left-wing sympathisers, stealing cars and robbing banks in preparation for attacks on US military bases.

After an intense manhunt, the ringleaders of the group, which now called itself the Red Army Faction (RAF), were finally captured in 1972. Their prolonged trial began in 1975 and lasted for almost 2 years, in the course of which Ulrike Meinhof hanged herself in her cell. The other members of the group were convicted and received life sentences.

The 'war of six against sixty million' (Heinrich Böll) reached its climax in the autumn of 1977 when supporters tried to secure their release by kidnapping the president of the German Employers' Association, Hanns Martin Schleyer, and later by hijacking a Lufthansa jet, which was eventually captured by German special forces at Mogadishu airport. On the morning the rescue was announced, Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe were all found dead in their cells. The 'German Autumn' marked the violent peak of a journey that had begun with peaceful protests against the American war in Vietnam : moral outrage had turned into blatant immorality.

Stefan Aust's utterly absorbing account of these events reads like a first-class thriller. The Baader-Meinhof Complex is the definitive chronicle of seven years that changed Germany.

Reviews

Tautly written, gripping and suspenseful

—— Guardian

Filled with fascinating information and piquant details

—— Literary Review

Stefan Aust is well placed to write the history of the most notorious of several terrorist groups

—— Michael Burleigh , Sunday Telegraph

Stephen Aust's meticulously researched chronicle of German left-wing terrorism

—— Philip Oltermann , Guardian

Meticulous history of the most famous German terrorist group

—— Dominic Sandbrook , Daily Telegraph

Stefan Aust chronicles in thorough and fast-paced detail the short but dramatic history of these violent, urban revolutionaries... His account is unique

—— New York Times Book Review

Stefan Aust has written as fine a book of its kind as this reader has had the pleasure of devouring into the small hours. The publishers liken it to a political thriller; it is all that, and a political chiller to boot

—— Irish Times

A gripping and graphic account... cool, objective... convincing

—— Times Literary Supplement

An excellent investigation

—— Times Educational Supplement

Well researched ... Helen Rappenport successfully evokes the claustrophobic atmosphere within the house

—— Saturday Telegraph

The appalling end of the last Romanov and his enchanting family is well described by Helen Rappaport ... Utilising sources only recently accessible, she traces the story from abdication to slaughter, including much fascinating detail...

—— Literary Review

Rappaport exhumes the last days of the Romanovs and, relying on archival sources and neglected memoirs, tries to offer the most up-to-date account possible... Vivid...

—— Scotland on Sunday

Eminently readable but still fastidiously researched, no compromising on scholarly or evidence-based investigation... There is a very powerful sense that you are reading the words of someone who is witnessing the sights and sounds of the place first hand, is returning to primary sources and conjuring up the atmosphere with an accomplished writer's eye. The trouble with reading any book about the Romanovs is the sure and certain knowledge of how it will end, yet despite this the book feels fresh and spell-binding ... Compelling reading

—— dovegreyreader.com

Utterly absorbing, a really good read, sensitive and balanced and surely the definitive last word on the subject

—— Dr Harry Shukman, Emeritus Fellow of Modern Russian History, St Antony’s College Oxford

Rappaport narrates her story in an original fashion, focusing on the final two weeks inside the Ipatiev House before the murders

—— Times Literary Supplement

Brilliantly shows how history is never simple but always enthralling when written with this style

—— The Bookseller

Extraordinary and powerful ... Having uncovered enlightening new sources, Rappaport has produced a highly accessible account of the last 14 days in the lives of the former tsar Nicholas, his wife Alexandra and their children

—— Western Daily Press

Riveting account of turbulence, social upheaval and murder in early 20th-century Russia, which draws on new evidence uncovered in the icy, remote city where Tsar Nicholas and his family met their bloody deaths. Juxtaposing fascinating domestic details with analysis of the international political scene, the author strips away the romance of their incarceration and the mythology surrounding their murders to reveal an extraordinary human situation and its seismic worldwide repercussions

—— Sainsbury’s Magazine

Rappaport precisely imagines those last few days ... As the pages turn quickly towards an end that is never in doubt, a picture emerges of a devout, loving and rather commonplace family

—— Waterstone’s Books Quarterly

The great strength of Rappaport's book is her tight focus on the royal family's final three months in the Iaptiev House... She has told the human story, and the truly appalling tale of what man can do to man

—— Independent (Ireland)

A tragic and thrilling account ... Ekaterinburg is really a twofold triumph for Helen Rappaport ... On top of the impressive level of research that Rappaport has conducted in order to produce Ekaterinburg, she also has an excellent and engaging writing style and succeeds in maintaining the tension and mood throughout ... Gritty and compelling

—— suite101.com

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