Hindsight turns German militants into T-shirt icons

They were Germany's homegrown terrorists of the 1970s and 80s, who kidnapped and killed prominent establishment figures in the name of left-wing idealism. During the so-called German Autumn of 1977, the campaign of militant violence by the Red Army Faction (RAF) – and West Germany's heavy-handed response – shocked and polarized the postwar generation.

But 25 years later, in a unified, confidently democratic Germany, those wounds are healing. A host of new movies, documentaries, novels, and pop culture take the RAF, also known as the Baader-Meinhof Group, as their subject. The reexamination of this turbulent phase has sparked a lively discussion about Germany's political culture.

"The Red Army Faction wasn't just a group of terrorists," says Joscha Schmierer, the former editor of a left-wing magazine and now an adviser in Germany's Foreign Ministry. "It was the extreme-most expression of a generation, and it marked a constituent phase of the Federal Republic."

Mr. Schmierer sees the upsurge in interest in the RAF and the German Autumn as healthy "historical curiosity," a way for younger generations – and former East Germans – to understand his generation.

The RAF emerged in West Germany in late 1960s as the militant wing of the student-led protest movement. The protesters took aim, above all, at their parents' generation, those who had participated in World War II. The student radicals charged that their elders had failed to take to heart the lessons of the past, and that the West German state preserved many of Nazi Germany's structures.

The Red Army Faction militants went a step further, as did like-minded groups in postwar Italy and Japan, branding the state as a reincarnation of its fascist predecessor. The only way to change it, they argued, was by overthrowing it through armed struggle.

The violence culminated a quarter century ago this month, when the movement's imprisoned leaders were found dead in their jail cells. The cause of their deaths – suicide or murder – remained controversial for years after the event. While the RAF dissolved itself in 1996, former activists are still serving prison sentences for the bombing campaigns and assassinations.

"Back in the 1970s, you were either on the side of the RAF or you were on the side of the state. It's hard to comprehend now, but the left-right dichotomy in postwar Germany was that strict," says Stefan Reinicke, who has written extensively about the movement.

In contrast to previous works about the German Autumn, the new films and books shy away from casting judgment on the leftist militants or the German authorities.

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