In his new book Gerd Koenen is writing about the icons of the RAF (Red Army Faction) during the so called »Red Decade«, Gudrun Ensslin and Andreas Baader. Based on their private notes, Koenen describes their path to terrorism in the late 60s, their motives to leave their families and children to found the RAF as well as their inner conflicts. Bernward Vesper, son of the Nazi poet Will Vesper, fiancé of Gudrun Ensslin and father of her child, was the unfortunate third of the trio. At the time when Ensslin and Baader gave up their regular life to join armed underground cells, Vesper had his own trip full of drugs, erotic experiences, and a pitiless self analysis that was aimed at making him a revolutionist. His autobiographical report Die Reise was published posthumously in 1977 and is considered one of the most important and authentic documents of the radical era.
Vesper, Ensslin, Baader is not only an extreme love story, it also exemplifies the part of German history that is regarded as a myth today.
