IF NOT US, WHO?

Germany, 2011, 124 minutes, Colour.
August Diehl, Alexander Fehling.
Directed by Andres Veiel.

The title could also be translated idiomatically like the song title, 'Who else but us...?'

Made for a German audience which remembers or knows about the movements of the 1960s, it also has a narrative for audiences beyond Germany.

It could be watched as a piece of history without much detailed knowledge of the period and the personalities involved. The screenplay, focusing on author and publisher, Bernward Vesper and his relationship with student then revolutionary, Gudrun Ensslin, especially after she teamed up with Andreas Baader, offers a study of their development and the background to their stances. Knowledge, however, of the real life characters and having some background before seeing the film makes it more relevant to continuing world politics. (And, watching the 2008 Baader Meinhof Complex offers different angles on situations and characters, especially comparing Moritz Bleibtreu's portrayal of Baader with that of Alexander Frehling's here.)

One of the theses of this film is that the generation of Germans born prior to World War II or in its early years, carried an enormous psychological burden which could be either acknowledged or repressed. Vesper's father wrote for Hitler and expressed anti-Semitic statements after the war. Gudrun Ensslin's pastor father fought in the war though he did not approve.

This legacy made its mark as the 1960s progressed, after the stability in West Germany with Adenauer and Erhard. But, 1961 brought the Berlin Wall, the succeeding years brought the Cuban missile crisis, the assassination of President Kennedy and escalation of the war in Vietnam.

As groups of students and young adults became more socially conscious and active in Paris, in Prague, in the anti-war protests in the US, Germans dissatisfied with what they saw as complacency and labelled 'fascism', set them up to be more daring and reckless. The danger was that ideology became a passionate crusade that blinded the true believers' to the human and inhuman consequences of their rigid commitment to mission.

Bernward Vesper published political tracts and essays (and Stokely Carmichael's incendiary speeches, one of which is re-enacted here) and wrote rather than turn to violence. Gudrun Ensslin, on the other hand, had an almost savage personality and, despite giving birth and experiencing maternal tenderness, gave in to self-sacrificing brutal activism. August Diehl and Lena Lauzemis give rounded performances as Vesper and Ensslin. Andreas Baader was a conceited conquistador who was at home with disruption in the name of his chosen cause, no holds barred.

That was the 1960s. These principal protagonists killed themselves. The pendulum swings and history has its ups and downs - as it does almost half a century later.


1. German post-war history? For German audiences? World audiences?

2. How much did the film depend on background knowledge? Germany in the 60s and 70s?

3. Audience interest in the 60s revolutionary movements, in the personalities?

4. The prologue of 1949, Bernward, his mother and the servant, serving the soup, the father’s arrival, the scene of the cat and the chickens in the nest, the cat eating the chickens? Bernward hiding the cat from his father? His father finding it, shooting it? His reading his son the story about the cat? Bernward at the end? The assistant reading the story that he wrote in his novel? Insight into his character, relationship with his father, to himself?

5. The film’s use of places and dates? Tubingen in 1961? Bernward and his being late for the lecture, his question about Nazi writers? The discussions over the issue? His publishing, the publishing house of his father? Wanting to publish his father’s books? His hopes, ideas? His meeting with the students, meeting Gudrun? The other women in his life, the ménage? His carefree attitude?

6. The context of post-war Germany, the image of the Berlin wall, of J.F. Kennedy, of the Cuban missile crisis? The scenes from the Vietnam War, especially the pilot and his commentary, the bombings? The quotations from Martin Luther King? The reference to the Black Panthers, Stokely Carmichael’s speech in Germany?

7. Bernward’s story, his father’s death, the book launch and the author’s mockery? With Gudrun, going to Berlin? Her leaving him, his search, visit to her parents, the search in the Alps, her self-mutilation, his finding and saving her? Settling down? His behaviour, the books, the money and lack of money? The elections, the meetings, the pamphleteering, the slogans?

8. Gudrun and her family background, religious, as a wilful personality, meeting with Bernward, the ménage? Her attitude towards the women, wanting to love him so that he needed no other women? The PhD, meeting the author, getting the information about her research subject? Visiting the author in spite after discovering Bernward with the women? The suicide attempt, the self-mutilation, self-destructive? Settling down, reading Martin Luther King, translating him, the engagement party, the dancing and the happiness, the speeches of the parents? Her pregnancy, giving birth?

9. Ideas and ideology in the 1960s, West Germany and its provincial attitudes? The beginnings of revolutionary movements? Anti-capitalist, anti-US? The episode of the visit of the shah, the riots, the shooting? The television footage included?

10. Andreas Baader, coming out of prison, his background, making up stories about his past? His style, apprenticed to the other revolutionaries? Conceited, imposing, wanting action, anti-books? The attraction to Gudrun? Her rationale? Speeches, decisions? Her being with the baby while Bernward was interviewed, her stance? The decision to leave Bernward and the baby? Yet in prison, her phone calls, the domination by Baader?

11. The bombing of stores, the arrests, making converts, public opinion against them? The prison governor visiting her in her cell, the discussions about her aims, talking about the lowlands of change?

12. On the run, visiting her father, the story of the arrests and escapes? Imprisonment?

13. Bernward, taking psychedelic drugs, wanting to write a novel and transform the world? His love for his son? Throwing the furniture out the window, with Felix at the window, handing him over to be reared by another family?

14. Bernward and his appearing naked, his mental deterioration, the arrest, in the institution, the reading of his book, the possibility of getting out? The information about his suicide? The success of his book in later publishing?

15. The role of these revolutionary movements, in the 1960s, in Germany? The personalities, self-destructive attitudes, the information about the deaths of Gudrun and Baader in jail?