Everybody Talks About the Weather . . . We Don't The Writings of Ulrike Meinhof

by Meinhof, Ulrike; Bauer, Karin; Jelinek, Elfriede; Rohl, Bettina; Von Flotow, Luise

• ISBN13: 9781583228319
• ISBN10: 1583228314
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-06-03
• Publisher: Seven Stories Press

Summary

No other figure embodies revolutionary politics, radical chic, and the promises and failures of the New Left quite like Ulrike Meinhof (1934-76). In the 1960s, she was known in Europe as a journalist and public intellectual, leading an exciting life in Hamburgrs"s high society with her publisher husband and twin daughters. Ten years later, Meinhof gave up her bourgeois existence to form, with Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin, the Red Army Faction (RAF). Also called the Baader-Meinhof Gang, the group was notorious for its politically motivated acts of violence, including bombings, kidnappings, bank robberies, and shootouts with police. What impels someone to abandon middle-class privilege for the sake of revolution? Meinhof, who spent the 1960s writing a column for the popular leftist magazine konkret, began to see the world in increasingly stark terms: the United States was emerging as an unstoppable superpower and Germany appeared to be run by former Nazis. Never before translated into English, Meinhofrs"s 1960s columns published in konkret show a woman in transition, reflecting upon the major political events and social currents of her time. An essay by Karin Bauer contextualizes Meinhofrs"s writings and mesmerizing life story within the political developments of the German Left. Bauer also explores Meinhofrs"s afterlife and asks why Meinhofrs"s ghost still haunts us today. A relentless critic of her mother and of the Left, author and journalist Bettina Rouml;hl, one of Meinhofrs"s daughters, contributes an afterword that aims to tear down Meinhofrs"s iconic status. Noting the increasingly desperate tone of Meinhofrs"s writing, Nobel Prize Laureate Elfriede Jelinek reflects in her foreword on Germanyrs"s missed opportunity to learn from Meinhofrs"s writings. Ulrike Meinhof (1934 -1976) was one of the most influential thinkers of the German Left in the 1960s, known primarily through her columns in the magazine, konkret . She became an internationally known fugitive when she aided in the prison escape of Andreas Baader and formed the Red Army Faction, also known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang. She was imprisoned in 1972 and found, four years later, hanged in her cell. Karin Bauer is associate professor and chair of the Department of German Studies at McGill University.

Author Biography

ULRIKE MEINHOF (1934–1976) was one of the most influential thinkers of the German Left in the 1960s, known primarily through her columns in the magazine, konkret. She became an internationally known fugitive when she aided in the prison escape of Andreas Baader and formed the Red Army Faction, also known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang. She was imprisoned in 1972 and found, four years later, hanged in her cell.

Table of Contents

Ulrike Marie Meinhof: a preface	p. 8
In Search of Ulrike Meinhof: an introduction	p. 12
Columns by Ulrike Meinhof
Shadows of the Summit Pointing West (1960)	p. 101
New German Ghetto Show (1960)	p. 110
A Man with Good Manners: A Day in Court with Karl Wolff (1964)	p. 121
On the Topic of July 20 (1964)	p. 130
Dresden (1965)	p. 134
Hitler Within You (1961)	p. 138
Human Dignity is Violable (1962)	p. 144
Deutschland Deutschland among Other Things: Fifteen Years of the Constitution (1964)	p. 150
Germany without Kennedy (1963)	p. 153
Vietnam and Germany (1966)	p. 157
Three Friends of Israel (1967)	p. 161
Under Visa Duress (1968)	p. 166
Open Letter to Farah Diba (1967)	p. 171
Jurgen Bartsch and Society (1968)	p. 178
Everybody Talks about the Weather (1969)	p. 184
False Consciousness (1968)	p. 190
Women in the SDS: Acting on Their Own Behalf (1968)	p. 209
Water Cannons: Against Women, Too (1968)	p. 214
File Number XY: Dissolved (1968)	p. 224
Napalm and Pudding (1967)	p. 229
Counter-Violence (1968)	p. 234
From Protest to Resistance (1968)	p. 239
Setting Fire to Department Stores (1968)	p. 244
Columnism (1968)	p. 249
Icon of the Left, Propagandist, and Communist: an afterword	p. 256
Biographical Notes	p. 265
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