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Dying for the Cause: Choreographing the Myths of Ulrike Meinhof and Wolfgang Grams

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Dying for the Cause: Choreographing the Myths of Ulrike Meinhof and Wolfgang Grams Middlesex University Research Repository An open access repository of Middlesex University research http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk Kolb, Alexandra (2010) Dying for the cause: choreographing the myths of Ulrike Meinhof and Wolfgang Grams. The International Journal of the Arts in Society, 5 (3) . pp. 275-284. ISSN ISSN: 1833-1866 [Article] Published version (with publisher’s formatting) This version is available at: https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/8628/ Copyright: Middlesex University Research Repository makes the University’s research available electronically. Copyright and moral rights to this work are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners unless otherwise stated. The work is supplied on the understanding that any use for commercial gain is strictly forbidden. A copy may be downloaded for personal, non-commercial, research or study without prior permission and without charge. 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See also repository copyright: re-use policy: http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/policies.html#copy Dying for the Cause: Choreographing the Myths of Ulrike Meinhof and Wolfgang Grams Alexandra Kolb, University of Otago, New Zealand Abstract: This paper analyses contemporary choreographic responses to the left-wing terrorist organ- isation Red Army Faction. It uses the Austrian Johann Kresnik’s ‘Ulrike Meinhof’ (1990/2006) alongside the Czech Pavel Mikuláštík’s ‘Tatort: The Seven Deaths of Wolfgang G.’ (1994) to examine how these choreographers tackle the highly contentious subject of violent anti-state activism in their country of residence, Germany. The works centre on (in)famous members of the organisation, who died early deaths, highlighting the ideological and physical confrontation between the anarchist ter- rorists and police powers. The choreographies, however, apply different artistic strategies inre-evalu- ating RAF history and its fatal consequences from a left-wing perspective. Keywords: Dance, Choreography, Terrorism, Red Army Faction, Johann Kresnik, Pavel Mikuláštík HE YEAR 1998 marked a milestone in Germany’s violent post-war history: the silent passing of the Red Army Faction. Since its inception in 1970, the RAF – Germany’s post-war terror organisation, also known as Baader Meinhof gang – had spread na- Ttionwide anxiety. Its anti-state rhetoric and urban guerrilla tactics, such as the ‘remov- al’ of leading figures in banking, police and the military, politics and business through hit- and-run violence and the ‘expropriation’ of big business-owned resources through thefts and robberies, constantly produced headlines. Cases such as the kidnapping and subsequent killing of the industrial representative and former SS-member Hanns Martin Schleyer, whose body was subsequently found in the trunk of a green Audi, at the height of the conflicts in 1977 impressed upon politicians that the RAF was prepared to use any means available to further their goals. The group sought to ‘punish’ the German state for the lack of internal resistance against the Nazi Regime and what they perceived as West Germany’s ineffective de-nazification in the post-war period. Other targets included the Vietnam War, alleged police and state repression, and the social authoritarianism which they saw as a hangover from the country’s fascist past. While the RAF was a minority group whose activities were grossly disproportionate to the attention they received, its demands did lead to an effective war of ideologies within West-German society. The RAF demanded strict solidarity with their cause: when in 1972, most of the first-generation members were incarcerated, accounts of the insufferable, inhuman conditions they faced in prison were soon disseminated. The group decried measures such as the total isolation of its prisoners from other inmates, the deprivation of external (including acoustic) stimuli and reading materials, severe restriction of contact with relatives and lawyers, and other practices they saw as psychologically damaging. Comparing the punitive treatment of their members with the Nazis’ tactics of extermination and genocide, they cast themselves in the roles of victims. With these allegations they thus cemented their view that the West- German state in general and certain politicians in particular were ultra-authoritarian and even The International Journal of the Arts in Society Volume 5, 2010, http://www.arts-journal.com, ISSN 1833-1866 © Common Ground, Alexandra Kolb, All Rights Reserved, Permissions: [email protected] THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF THE ARTS IN SOCIETY fascist (see also Varon 2005: 250). The people were likewise cast in black and white terms as either “human being or pig [...]. There is nothing in between” (Meins 1974). On the other hand, the state, the majority of the public, and in particular the mass media – notably the widely-read yellow-press BILD newspaper – launched equally robust campaigns against the terrorist group itself. Those who were seen as helpers, fellow-travellers or even simply in agreement with elements of the RAF’s ideology were swiftly labelled with the derogatory term Sympathisanten (‘sympathisers’). One was either a good citizen of the state or a terrorist ally. Labour Chancellor Helmut Schmidt reacted to the RAF with particularly harsh measures, viewing them as a threat to West Germany’s democratic principles and, with their militarism and refusal to accept a plurality of values, akin to fascists themselves. Even more moderate left-wingers, such as philosopher Jürgen Habermas, attacked the RAF’s contempt for the institutions of West Germany’s liberal democracy and its use of violence as undermining its moral justification and as “left fascism” (cited in Kraushaar 1998: 259). Thus, both the RAF and the political ‘establishment’ justified their hatred for the other partly with reference to Germany’s Nazi history. However, with the RAF’s roots in the West-German leftist student movement, some on the left refused to criticise the group publicly, and others while not approving of its deeds still stood up for its underlying principles. Artists were at the forefront of those engaged in the debate, a famous example being the author and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1972, Heinrich Böll. In a journal article, Böll pleaded for mercy for the RAF founder- member Ulrike Meinhof before her arrest in 1972, and entered a bitter dispute with the mainstream BILD newspaper for its hostile and allegedly unjust treatment of her. Böll’s claims earned him numerous attempts at intimidation, including anonymous death threats and retaliation from BILD in the form of denunciatory articles targeting the author himself. His famous book The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (1974) explored the theme of tabloid sensationalism and the values of contemporary West German society against the backdrop of 1970s militant action. The RAF has continued, moreover, to attract artistic and literary interest: as recently as 2005, the author Christoph Hein – alluding to Böll’s earlier text – published a sympathetic account of another RAF member, Wolfgang Grams, which conflicted significantly with official state accounts of his career and death. The terrorists Meinhof and Grams play central roles in two dance choreographies that were created in the early 1990s and which constitute attempts to analyse and evaluate the RAF from the perspective of the political left. This essay examines how the choreographers Johann Kresnik and Pavel Mikuláštík, like the authors Böll and Hein in the literary sphere, tackle RAF terrorism through the lens of the lives and identities of these two figures, navig- ating the ideologically-contested terrain outlined above. Drawing on dance analysis, cultural history and the artistic and political contexts in which they were created, I shall consider Kresnik and Mikuláštík’s choreographic retellings of the RAF story; how they question the official ‘establishment’ version and challenge our perspectives on this chapter of German history. The Death and Resurrection of Ulrike Meinhof Johann Kresnik is among Germany’s most forceful and outspoken dance artists. Originally from Austria, he is renowned for the belief that dance should promote political awareness, knowledge and action, rather than merely disinterested pleasure. He is among the few cho- ALEXANDRA KOLB reographers to tackle current issues of state and governmental politics in a straightforward and intentionally biased manner: “Dance [...] must have to do with content. A fresh start is needed – the theatre has to become political again” (Kresnik 2010: 87). Politically, he has maintained an outspoken
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