FILM PEOPLE BACKSTAGE PRESS BOOK
  book

Book

"Each and everyone of us will die, however.
The question is just how and how you lived"
(Holger Meins)



Gerd Conradt
Starbuck - Holger Meins
A portrait as a time picture
Ca. 192 pages, ca. 150 illustrations
and documents. Large format. Hardback
€ 20 / sFr 38.90 / $ 20
Product category 1-558
ISBN 3-88520-788-5
http://www.espresso-verlag.de/zeitgeschehenfr.htm

Starbuck, the pilot from Moby Dick, was the code name for Holger Meins. He was the first of the Red Army Faction prisoners to die. He died in solitary confinement on 9th November 1974 in Wittlich after fifty days on hunger strike against the solitary confinement.
Who was this person whose death propelled him to become the icon of the illegal struggle?
His personal data: he was born in Hamburg in 1941, he was a Christian boy scout, conscientious objector, painter, photographer, film maker, cameraman and cannabis rebel, he was a member of the SDS (Association of German Socialist Students), of Commune 1 and then finally of the Red Army Faction.
This book introduces documents from the life of Holger Meins and from his time: photos, pictures, drawings, comics, placards, letters, minutes, agreements, reports, and leaflets. The discussions in this book revolve around these documents. The interview partners can be seen on a photo with Holger Meins, or took a particular photograph themselves, received a letter, studied with him, were his teachers, lived with him, worked, persecuted him, defended him, were with him underground, or loved him.
The reminiscences about these fragments are complementary or contradictory, they describe stages in people's lives, showing the way beyond the person and so producing a time picture.

Claudia von Alemann, Michael Ballhaus, Bommi Baumann, Susanne Beyeler, Manfred Blessmann, Gerd Conradt, Hellmuth Costard, Regine Dermitzel, Christian Deutschmann, Gretchen Dutschke, Enzio Edschmid, Harun Farocki, Thomas Giefer, Siegfried Haag, Danielle Huillet, Alfred Klaus, Rainer Langhans, Peter Lilienthal, Holger Meins, Wilhelm Meins, Alfred von Meysenbug, Wolfgang Petersen, Ralf Reinders, Margrit Schiller, Otto Schily, Daniel Schmid, Peter Schneider, Jean Marie Straub, Hans-Christian Ströbele, Wim Wenders, Peter Paul Zahl and others.

The author
Gerd Conradt, born in Schwiebus in 1941, spent childhood in Thuringia,
has lived in Berlin (West) since 1955.
1966-68 studied at the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin (DFFB). Got to know Holger Meins there. Since 1982, he has been freelancing as a "video pioneer" for television. He conceives his films as conceptionally formed time pictures and portraits. His themes are the city of Berlin, the Red Army Faction as part of the student movement, and his homeland Thuringia. He has already made one video film about Holger Meins back in 1982 and is now working on a follow up for cinema. He has made research journeys to many countries of the world and participated at numerous exhibitions and festivals.