Conclusion: Remembering the Violent Woman

Summary

IN THE GERMAN HISTORY MUSEUM's permanent exhibition, the centerpiece of the exhibit dedicated to West Germany's terrorist past is a pram (fig. 32). The same pram was used in the kidnapping of Hanns- Martin Schleyer on 5 September 1977, an event that marked the start of what has become known as the German Autumn. As I demonstrated in chapter 1, the use of the pram in this violent operation was deemed highly provocative. Its image was designated “Bild der Woche” (photograph of the week) by Welt am Sonntag, and the author of the article expressed indignation that the object (“das Symbol menschlicher Liebe und Nestwärme” [the symbol of human love and of family warmth and security]) could be used to such violent ends (fig. 4). There I referred to the image, along with the baby-bomb photograph reproduced in Der Spiegel a month earlier (fig. 3), as a visual demonstration of the paradox of women taking rather than giving life. I also suggested that the two images make the woman terrorist start to appear mythical, according to Roland Barthes's notion of myth.

That the pram has become a part of modern Germany's historical narrative is demonstrated by the front cover of the publication Gedächtnis der Nation (Memory of the Nation), available at the museum shop of Berlin's German History Museum. The front cover shows three objects (one of which is the pram), which the curators have selected to stand for the history of the nation.