The Baader-Meinhof Gang on Trial

The film rebuilds the Stammheim trial, which began in May 1975. The defendants are leading names of the Red Army Faction: Baader, Meinhof, Ensslin and Raspe. The hearings were held inside the maximum security prison at Stammheim and ran over a hundred and ninety two days. The trial ended with a life sentence for every defendant. The screenplay was written by the journalist Stefan Aust, out of the research he had done for his book on the subject. The account puts at its centre not the actions but the courtroom itself. When it appeared the film set off hard argument in Germany. That same year it won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. Ulrich Tukur and Therese Affolter appear in Reinhard Hauff’s hundred and seven minute German film, completed in 1986.