by FELIX BOHR and KLAUS WIEGREFE
Jean-Paul Sartre after his visit with Andreas Baader in 1974. The appearance was heavily criticized.
Jean-Paul Sartre’s meeting with RAF leader Andreas Baader was long considered to be one of the philosopher’s great missteps. A transcript of the meeting, which has only now been released, shows the Nobel laureate actually wanted to persuade him to stop murdering people.
A large entourage of journalists gathered at the Stuttgart airport, awaiting the arrival of the short-statured intellectual. French star philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre’s visit to Andreas Baader — the top terrorist of Germany’s Red Army Faction (RAF), the radical left-wing group also known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang — was a worldwide sensation. It was Dec. 4, 1974.
Based on the transcript, there can be no doubt that Sartre took a more critical view of the RAF than his statements at the press conference scarcely an hour later suggested. He repeatedly tried to persuade Baader to abandon his fight.
Sartre: The masses — the RAF has undertaken clear actions that the people don’t agree with.
Baader: It’s been established that 20 percent of the population sympathizes with us …
Sartre: I know. The statistics were prepared in Hamburg.
Baader: The situation in Germany is geared to small groups, both in terms of legality and illegality.
Sartre: These actions might be justified for Brazil, but not for Germany.
Baader: Why?
Sartre: In Brazil independent actions were needed to change the situation. They were necessary preparatory work.
Baader: Why is it any different here?
Sartre: Here there isn’t the same type of proletariat as in Brazil.
The RAF initiated the meeting after Sartre described the Baader-Meinhof Gang as an “interesting force” with a “sense for the Revolution.” Ulrike Meinhof suggested that Sartre should interview Baader. Her justification: to make it “a bit harder for the cops” to kill Baader. The RAF member was at that point in the middle of a hunger strike ostensibly with the aim of improving the conditions of her imprisonment. But it was actually an attempt to attract public attention. That’s where the world-famous Frenchman came in.
Spiegel Online for more
(Thanks to Harsh Kapoor of SACW)