The «first generation» of the West-German Red Army Faction. Legacies of the ‘68 Movement and the question of subjectivity (1970-1975)

Abstract

The aim of this article is to explain the ideological framework of the first generation of the Red Army Faction (RAF), a West-German armed organization. This framework will be linked to the question of subjectivity developed by the student movement in The Federal Republic of Germany in 1968. In order to achieve a logical explanation for these questions, firstly, we will consider summarizing the intellectual connection between the student movement and the theories developed by the Frankfurt School. Secondly, we will analyse the most important theoretical papers of the first generation of the Red Army Faction. As for the main results of this analysis, we could say that this terrorist group adopted a classical position on the problem of subjectivity. In other words, at the beginning of its history, the RAF considered the German working class as the Revolutionary Subject. Then, thanks to the theoretical works of one of the most charismatic leaders of the group, Ulrike Meinhof, the RAF finally embraced the anti-authoritarian paradigm, which has a clear relationship with the student movement of ’68 and the Frankfurt School philosophers