Better to be angry than sad

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In the non-fiction book, written especially for young people, Better angry than sad. The life story of Ulrike Marie Meinhof from 2003, the author Alois Prinz describes the life of Ulrike Meinhof , who became known as a journalist in West Germany, later founded the Red Army faction as a member of the terrorist Baader-Meinhof group and died in prison in 1976.

action

Meinhof, who was raised by Renate Riemeck , a friend of her mother's, and who had a deeply Christian view of life, grew up to be a serious but also popular young woman who quickly became enthusiastic and was of the opinion that people should not be put off to the afterlife , but must improve his life now.

As a journalist, she accused social injustices and wrote against Adenauer's policies, whose rapprochement with the West she rejected as well as the nuclear arms race. She wrote for the leftist magazine concretely , the editor in chief Klaus Rainer Röhl was nevertheless not averse to the pleasures of life and nude photos reprinted, in order to increase the support after the State Security of the GDR ceased financial support.

In 1962, after the Spiegel Affair and during the Vietnam War , Meinhof took the position: "When you shoot, you don't change the world, you destroy it."

With her educational articles and reports she tried again and again to change a society that was often indifferent to war and social injustices and for which the journalist acted as an alibi to calm her conscience.

After her divorce from Röhl and the move to Berlin with the twins Regine and Bettina , the journalist joined the APO , which wanted to form a real opposition in the face of the grand coalition . The death of the student Benno Ohnesorg in June 1967 and the attack on the student leader Rudi Dutschke led to a radicalization of the movement.

Meinhof, who passed the stones forward to those who threw them during the protests against the Axel Springer publishing house , which the students blamed for the attack on Dutschke, wrote a day later: "You throw one "It's a criminal act. If a thousand stones are thrown, that's a political action. If you set a car on fire, it's a criminal act, if hundreds are set on fire, that's a political action." For them, the shattering glass had a "liberating sound".

In June 1968 the Emergency Acts were passed. Meinhof saw her journalistic activity as a wrong means, she demanded "to go over to the fight", "against social powers", for the "democratization of state and society".

When she was supposed to report on a lawsuit against alleged department store arsonists, she met suspects Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin . Meinhof did not see a revolutionary act in this, but Fritz Teufel would be right when he said it was better to set fire to a department store than to run it.

When Baader and Ensslin went into hiding after their conviction, Meinhof took them in when they returned to Germany. Baader was caught later anyway. Meinhof took part in his liberation and was on the police wanted list from May 14, 1970.

Baader, Ensslin, Meinhof and others, including Horst Mahler, flew to Jordan to a Fatah terrorist training camp . Meinhof, who had her children brought to a barracks camp in Sicily, planned to let them grow up as Palestinian orphans in a refugee camp. The journalist Stefan Aust prevented this. The Fatah orphan camp where the twins should have been placed was later completely destroyed in a bomb attack.

The fugitives decided to found an underground organization to wage a guerrilla war against imperialism. To do this, they raided banks and set off several bombs in May 1972.

Meinhof, Baader and Ensslin were arrested in June. In May 1975 the trial of the "Baader-Meinhof gang" began in Stuttgart-Stammheim. Numerous hunger strikes , mutual psychological terrorism and numerous failed attempts by the Red Army faction to release the prisoners - including the hostage-taking and murder of Hanns Martin Schleyer and the kidnapping of Landshut by Palestinian terrorists - shaped the period that followed.

On May 9, 1976, Ulrike Meinhof was found strangled in her cell. There were always doubts about the official result of the autopsy, "Suicide".

description

Framed by a brief description by the author of how he sought access to the controversial person without finding him, the author tries to clarify the question of how it came about that a woman who had much to be envied for: a career, a husband, two daughters and a villa in Blankenese , chose this path. He draws a line from her childhood, her training, her professional activity to the encounter with Baader and Ensslin and the step into illegality. He always tries to do justice to the complex person and paints a picture of post-war Germany, which made this life possible.

He always finds memorable images to show social developments. He refers to the résumés of the writers Hermann Lenz and Ricarda Huch to describe life in the Third Reich .

Awards

Reviews

  • Die Welt : “... he tells everything that is important, including a lot that has not yet been heard. "
  • Die Zeit : “Alois Prinz has got down to work, he has put together everything there is to know about 'the Meinhof' ... And what you would not have thought possible, he has really achieved: If you have the book if you close it, you have new insights ... "
  • General-Anzeiger : “This extremely captivating book is at the same time an exciting story of the FRG of the 1960s and 1970s, in which not only politicians, but also cultural witnesses, painters, musicians and writers come to life. Alois Prinz brings together pieces of the mosaic piece by piece, balanced and factual. It simplifies without blurting out and shows the path of a person who gets caught in the rope of ideology and ultimately perishes in it. "
  • Neue Zürcher Zeitung : "Alois Prinz's book about Meinhof gently but firmly shakes the stuck enemy images."
  • Südkurier Konstanz : "For younger readers who are interested in the RAF, a good and easy-to-understand introduction to the subject."
  • Sender Free Berlin: Ulrike Meinhof. Attempt to approach. Feature by Regina Leßner, directed by Wolfgang Bauernfeind. Prod .: SFB-ORB / NDR, 2001. (Audio book, ISBN 3-89813-269-2 ) Review: Hans-Jürgen Krug, - Print version from: CUT 6/2001

Age recommendation

The Goethe-Institut recommends the book for young people aged 14 and over.

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