Read | 16. Sep 2021

Baader, Meinhof - And Aust

I just finished Stefan Aust´s Memoir - well, I did not read it but listened to it.

Stefan Aust is one of Germany´s top journalists, my personal admiration started with his TV show: SPIEGEL TV was on every sunday evening and I used to watch it with my room mates; there are singular reports I will never forget, as Aust and his team invented a complete new way of story telling.

The he became the editor of the print magazine, the highest reputated job in German publishing - and again, did it so mcuh better than anyone else before and after him.

So learning more details about those moments in his life is kind of fun - especially because he tells the story himself, a perfectly trained anchor man with his laconic narrative.

But the most interesting part of his pretty straight life and career i without any doubt his book on Germany´s most infmaous terrorist group of the last century, the RAF (Rote Armee Fraktion - reda army party), also knowns as "Baader Meinhof"-Bande.

As Stefan Aust was so much more than a contemporary witness (he started his career as an editor for Meinhof´s then husbands magazine "Konkret").

The book became a feature movie, winning Oscar and Golden Globe nominations.

Before you waist too much time by following Aust´s life into so many specific details, you might rather go for the Baader Meinhof book, just out in a new edition. Or listen to the wonderful feature Aust produced for audible about the RAF phenomena. Again: in his own words but also featureing original clips.