Missing Parts...

February 12, 2007 9:39 AM

Bader Meinhof Gang Member To Be Released And we thought that death and taxes were the final arbiters of human existence, there is always more, and I guess if you don't go with the flow, there are alternative funeral planning options. Self immolation is sounding better all the time. If you want to be sure of your final destination. You can go home again. Apparently enough can't be said about having a living will, as long as your will hasn't been surgically removed.
posted by Oyéah (18 comments total)

Wait, what?
posted by Faint of Butt at 9:48 AM on February 12, 2007

this is creative, I like it
posted by matteo at 9:55 AM on February 12, 2007

The RAF, what wankers.
posted by davy at 9:56 AM on February 12, 2007

I'd never heard of Bader Meinhof until a few weeks ago, and now I'm seeing references to them all over the place.
posted by MrMoonPie at 10:11 AM on February 12, 2007 [1 favorite]

Gerhard Richter's Baader-Meinhof cycle, October 18, 1977, has a painting called Funeral (Beerdigung) and the description of the circumstances seemed apropos:

This largest painting of the cycle is of the massive funeral of Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, and Jan-Carl Raspe in a Stuttgart cemetery a week after their deaths in Stammheim prison in 1977. Ensslin's father had struggled to find a cemetery that would allow him to bury his daughter. Manfred Rommel, the popular mayor of Stuttgart (and son of war hero Irwin Rommel), unilaterally decided that the terrorists must be allowed to be buried in a Stuttgart cemetery. "After death, all enmity must cease," said Rommel.

Also, Richter's painting of the record player found in Andreas Baader's cell is strangely moving. An Eric Clapton b-side was on the turntable.
posted by otio at 10:23 AM on February 12, 2007

I lived in Frankfurt with my family during the heyday of the Baader-Meinhof in the early 70s. Our quarters were about three blocks from what was then called the I.G. Farben Building, which housed the Fifth Corps headquarters. One Saturday evening, as we were sitting in the Catholic chapel about one block away from the I.G. Farben, we heard a huge explosion. The chaplain continued with the mass, but all the servicemembers immediately left the chapel to see what had happened. The Baader Meinhof had planted a bomb in the rotunda of the headquarters, and the blast had killed a lieutenant colonel with whom my mother worked and with whom she had eaten lunch just the day before. The following year was pretty much one bomb scare and evacuation after another.l

I remember that many of the Baader-Meinhof gang died under mysterious circumstances in prison. It was commonly believed that they were executed by the guards, and this was fine with the general public.
posted by ereshkigal45 at 10:32 AM on February 12, 2007

otio writes "An Eric Clapton b-side was on the turntable."

Which may explain the suicide.
posted by OmieWise at 10:33 AM on February 12, 2007

Gerhard Richter's Baader-Meinhof cycle is currently on display at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. It has a room to itself, and if I am not mistaken, is now part of MoMA's permanent collection.
posted by R. Mutt at 10:34 AM on February 12, 2007

Ich gehöre nicht zur Baader-Meinhof Gruppe. (Commercial link, oddly enough.)
posted by RogerB at 10:49 AM on February 12, 2007

Hmm, curiosity sparked by the wording of your post has led me to the disappointing conclusion that "Arbiter" is no etymological relative of "Arbeiter." FYI.

For a tremendous film about the Bader Meinhoff gange, see Mother Kusters Goes To Heaven, from the invaluable Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:50 AM on February 12, 2007

The site RogerB links has been posted here before; it's a great resource, put together by a guy whose dad was head of a bomb disposal unit in Berlin while Baader-Meinhoff was active.
posted by mediareport at 11:04 AM on February 12, 2007

My Mother, the Terrorist, by Bettina Röhl, daughter of RAF (Red Army Faction) terrorist Ulrike Meinhof.

Who's Who in the Baader-Meinhof Era, excellent bios and info about the terrorists and the people involved.

CrimeLibrary's well written essay by Denise Noe on the Baader-Meinhof terrorists.
posted by nickyskye at 11:13 AM on February 12, 2007 [1 favorite]

heh. Reminds me of 'Possessing Genius'. The whole school of thought that you could see structural differences in the brains of either super-smart or mentally disturbed people. I suppose it seemed like a good theory until it revealed a whole lot of nothing.
posted by GuyZero at 11:20 AM on February 12, 2007

Thanks for the post and especially for all the links in the comments.
posted by serazin at 11:31 AM on February 12, 2007

December 2006 issue of Scientific American Mind, Daniel Strueber, Monica Luek and Gerhard Roth cover the latest work from brain researchers devoted to the subject of violence and aggression.

Psychopathy and the Brain. The Psychopath's Brain by Renato M.E. Sabbatini, PhD (images). Homicidal Vanity.
posted by nickyskye at 11:32 AM on February 12, 2007

Brigitte Mohnhaupt was quite cute at the time of her arrest. Is it wrong to find terrorists hot?
posted by rhymer at 12:37 PM on February 12, 2007

No. Many of the Baader-Meinhof folks were pretty nice to look at. I've always thought that was part of the whole gestalt around the group and the fascination with it.
posted by OmieWise at 12:52 PM on February 12, 2007

(self link)
I'm pretty sure my blog post in May of 2001 is the first online chronicling of the term "Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon".
posted by norm at 1:18 PM on February 12, 2007