Baader Meinhof and Rote Armee Fraktion

Badder-Meinhof

I thought the movie Badder-Meinhof was very inspiring. The younger generation basically rebelled against everything that they grew up with. They first tried taking a stand using their voices but then it escalated to violence. After one person did one act of violence it seemed as though the next person outdid the person before with an even bigger act of violence. It didn’t take long for things to get out of hand. An example of this would be when they made bombs and put them under the judge’s car. Some women even went to the extreme of giving up their life and children to help get their voices heard. Although, they wanted to get their voices heard, I do not agree with their actions. Violence is never the answer.

Rote Armee Fraktion

The Rote Armee Fraktion, also known as the Red Army Faction, was developed by students that were trying to fight against the apparent Nazism that they thought was in the German government. Not only did the Rote Armee Fraktion fight against Nazism, but also in Vietnam. 

In the first generation they supported by doing bank robberies and  by taking part in terrorist bombings. Along with that, they kidnapped and killed many popular political and business people. Most of these acts were done in West Germany. Every once in a while they joined forces with different Palestian groups. Following that was the second generation and third generations.

The second generation ran in the middle to late 1970’s. This was all after several former members of the Socialist Patients' Collective joined. Following that was the third generation. The third generation was in existence from the 1980’s to the 1990’s. the end of the RAF came about from and eight page letter that was sent to the Reuters News agency which said that the group no longer was going to be in existence.

I would have to say that similarities with the RAF and today’s terrorist attacks would have to be the bombings. Bombings still have all the time today from terrorists.  Not only that, but they also had one common mission, which was to be heard by all. They both think that they have a great plan that would be great for society. However, with that being said there are a couple differences. In today’s day and age we normally have no idea who is a terrorist and who is a regular citizen. We might have a general idea of where they come from, but that is about it. This is different from the RAF because they were able to tell who did certain attacks. Today we cannot trust anyone. For all we know our neighbor that lives across the street is a terrorist.