German Autumn in the classroom

Germany. Yael Roth is repeatedly asked about an event she recently organized with other pupils and her history teacher during a project week. The “German Autumn” was the subject; the school cafeteria was filled down to the last seat; even TV crews were there and the press reported the event. Yael had not reckoned with so much interest when she decided to treat the subject as part of a history project group.

Steles on the way to school

Karl-Heinz Jörgens is a history teacher at the Empress Friedrich Grammar School in Bad Homburg. Every day he and his pupils pass three steles commemorating the assassination of Alfred Herrhausen. The bank manager was murdered on 30 November 1989 by the Red Army Faction (RAF), only a few metres away from the grammar school. For Jörgens this was the occasion, forty years after the German Autumn, to offer a project week on probably the most difficult crisis in the history of the Federal Republic.

Relevant today

Three pupils registered for the project for the most different reasons. Yael Roth lives in Oberursel, where the German bank manager Jürgen Ponto was murdered in 1977 by members of the Red Army Faction. Her parents and grandparents have talked a lot with her about the mood then: the fear of terrorism, but also the occasional sympathy of many young people with the RAF.

Paula Schmidt likes to read history books, is following the current trial of the right-wing terrorist group NSU and often reflects on the quotation engraved on one of the stele at the site of the Herrhausen assassination: “It is reasonable to expect people to bear the truth”. A sentence written by the poet Ingeborg Bachmann, which Herrhausen often quoted. 

The terrorism of Islamist groups gives Johanna Barop food for thought. She can hardly imagine that terrorism was also a major issue in Germany in the late 1970s.

Always fresh questions

At school the three pupils studied the German Autumn intensively. There were always fresh questions. They therefore organized a panel discussion entitled “The German Autumn: Forty Years Later”. They wanted to pursue the question of what was more important – to find out the truth, or to guarantee the security of the state. And they were interested in whether the answer is dependent on the time and circumstances in which it is posed.

Prominent podium guests

They were able to gain Michael Buback and Klaus Pflieger for the discussion. Both have a special relationship to the German Autumn. Buback is the son of the former German Attorney General Siegfried Buback. Who fired the shots that killed him still remains unclear. Michael Buback is convinced that grave errors were committed in the investigation of the murder. Klaus Pflieger was then a young lawyer in the offices of the Stuttgart District Attorney and closely engaged in various aspects of the trial of the RAF terrorists. He has denied the allegation that the authorities deliberately hampered the investigation.

The school children introduced the subject and a lively and controversial discussion ensued. The question “Truth or State Security?” could not be answered in the end. But it became clear that the German Autumn still affects young people today.

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