A German Youth

2015 | Documentary

What an absolutely essential and historically important documentary that chronicles the incredibly heated climate that ultimately set fire to germany of the late-60s and 70s.

It understands the most universal thing a documentary of this kind has to understand: letting the people speak for themselves, letting the archival footage and interviews breathe - all that is so much more interesting and exciting than endless talking heads only talking about what happened.

It draws a clear picture of a rotten, capitalist society that never got rid of the fascism of yesteryear - a society that to this day lives under the delusion that there was something like a successful denazification in west germany - and the children it inevitably birthed. Children that were fed up with all the consumerism, the propaganda, the police violence and the empty promises of politicians from a generation that not only fundamentally misunderstood the world, but also followed a fascist regime only 20 years earlier.

What those children ultimately became - what society forced them to become - will never cease to be controversial. What shouldn’t be controversial is that - whether you disagree or agree with their practices and their actions - their motivations, the reasons they started this fight, were beyond justified.

And this doc gives so much room to everything that happened. It’s not nearly the most exhaustive or detailed presentation of these times, but it doesn’t strive to be. It’s a concise presentation that gets to the point of what happened.

And the struggle continues. Globally. In germany, fascism might very well be as strong as it hasn’t been since Hitler finally put a bullet in his head. Far-right fascism is on the rise and all the established and big political parties not only stand by and bear witness, but actively copy the fascists policies they themselves deemed extreme a couple years ago. And while people take to the streets in solidarity and take anti-fascist action, they’re harassed, provoked and brutally beaten by the pigs.

Personally, I honestly believe that we’re on direct route to something similar to a fourth generation. Maybe not a fourth generation precisely, but something similar. Both in ideology and action. And I can only hope that there are enough people who will not stand by, who will not stand by and do nothing while capitalism inevitably turns into fascism again. People who recognize a system devouring itself more and more to the detriment of the proletariat and who get out of their comfort-zone of doing absolutely fucking nothing in their capitalist-consumerism induced coma and not only partake in radical change of mind - a consistent and intersectional rethinking of the capitalist indoctrination we’ve all fallen victim to since we took our first steps - but also take action into their own hands and realize that the system can’t be changed through the system.

Oh well. Anyways, this is an outstanding documentary that couldn’t be more topical. If we’re still able to make films forty years from now, we will get a documentary like this about the present day.

Also, this not only opens with ‘The Internationale’, but also includes footage of “Zabriskie Point” and Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s segment in “Deutschland im Herbst”.

2015 | Documentary

What an absolutely essential and historically important documentary that chronicles the incredibly heated climate that ultimately set fire to germany of the late-60s and 70s.

It understands the most universal thing a documentary of this kind has to understand: letting the people speak for themselves, letting the archival footage and interviews breathe - all that is so much more interesting and exciting than endless talking heads only talking about what happened.

It draws a clear picture of a rotten, capitalist society that never got rid of the fascism of yesteryear - a society that to this day lives under the delusion that there was something like a successful denazification in west germany - and the children it inevitably birthed. Children that were fed up with all the consumerism, the propaganda, the police violence and the empty promises of politicians from a generation that not only fundamentally misunderstood the world, but also followed a fascist regime only 20 years earlier.

What those children ultimately became - what society forced them to become - will never cease to be controversial. What shouldn’t be controversial is that - whether you disagree or agree with their practices and their actions - their motivations, the reasons they started this fight, were beyond justified.

And this doc gives so much room to everything that happened. It’s not nearly the most exhaustive or detailed presentation of these times, but it doesn’t strive to be. It’s a concise presentation that gets to the point of what happened.

And the struggle continues. Globally. In germany, fascism might very well be as strong as it hasn’t been since Hitler finally put a bullet in his head. Far-right fascism is on the rise and all the established and big political parties not only stand by and bear witness, but actively copy the fascists policies they themselves deemed extreme a couple years ago. And while people take to the streets in solidarity and take anti-fascist action, they’re harassed, provoked and brutally beaten by the pigs.

Personally, I honestly believe that we’re on direct route to something similar to a fourth generation. Maybe not a fourth generation precisely, but something similar. Both in ideology and action. And I can only hope that there are enough people who will not stand by, who will not stand by and do nothing while capitalism inevitably turns into fascism again. People who recognize a system devouring itself more and more to the detriment of the proletariat and who get out of their comfort-zone of doing absolutely fucking nothing in their capitalist-consumerism induced coma and not only partake in radical change of mind - a consistent and intersectional rethinking of the capitalist indoctrination we’ve all fallen victim to since we took our first steps - but also take action into their own hands and realize that the system can’t be changed through the system.

Oh well. Anyways, this is an outstanding documentary that couldn’t be more topical. If we’re still able to make films forty years from now, we will get a documentary like this about the present day.

Also, this not only opens with ‘The Internationale’, but also includes footage of “Zabriskie Point” and Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s segment in “Deutschland im Herbst”.