The return of the Red Army Faction (RAF): German tales of terror.

The Return of the RAF: German Tales of Terror investigates representations of politically motivated violence since the 1960s. The thesis focuses on post-Wall representations of the Red Army Faction (RAF), Germany's oldest and most notorious 'urban guerilla' group, including fictional films, 'docu-fictions,' literary sources, and a controversial museum exhibit. My thesis combines detailed formal analysis with investigations into the historical context of each artifact to trace how aesthetic variations serve conflicting assessments of politically motivated violence. An assessment of representations of the RAF in post-Wall discourses provides insight into the impact of National Socialism, the student movement, and the RAF on contemporary developments while laying the foundation for a fuller understanding of the current crisis of transmission triggered by the (re)unification process. To answer the question of why representations of the RAF's 'fascinating terrorism' have not lost appeal, but continue to trigger strong emotional reactions and heated debates in post-Wall Germany, I analyze the origins of the symbolic value of RAF images. The RAF consciously deployed Holocaust iconography and aesthetic strategies central to fascism to create symbolically charged images linking contemporary events and politically motivated violence to Germany's National Socialist past. This link to the defining historical moment of German twentieth century history explains why artists have repeatedly turned to representations of the RAF to negotiate post-Wall narratives of German history and identity formation. My assessment of the post-Wall artifacts suggests that their conflicting symbolic values represent a crisis of transmission in which historical narratives and generational objects crucial to the New Left are questioned. The crisis over the legacy of New Left was triggered by the collapse of socialist regimes around 1989. The Fischer affair has become one of the most prominent examples, because it links contemporary politics and politicians to Germany's violent past, raising questions about the student movement's and the New Left's responsibility for and relationship to politically-motivated violence. Since the student movement and its violent aftermath serve as a central touchstone of German politics and culture, the current crisis of transmission challenges historical narratives crucial to German identity formation.PhDCommunication and the ArtsFilm studiesFine artsGerman literatureLanguage, Literature and LinguisticsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/126544/2/3253389.pd