Press release: 14.6.2018

A temporary exhibition of the German Museum of Books and Writing of the German National Library in Leipzig in cooperation with the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig. The exhibition was curated by Günter Karl Bose, Felix Holler, Jaroslaw Kubiak, and Daniel Wittner.

Terrorist groups use symbols, texts, and images as weapons. The exhibition “Symbols as Weapons. By the Example of the Red Army Faction´s Insignia” investigates how images and letters become weapons. It opens on 21 June and runs until 6 January 2019.

Terrorist groups force political action by harnessing the might of the media in the same way as explosives and automatic weapons. The exhibition places the emblem of the Red Army Faction (RAF), a figurative and verbal composite consisting of a five-pointed star, a submachine gun and the three letters, in a contemporary historical context and attempts to deconstruct it. It uses this example to explore how graphic symbols can become acts of violence.

Writing from Stammheim prison in 1973, Gudrun Ensslin, one of the RAF’s leaders, stated: “... words, concepts are actions, actions are concepts.” This logic is still followed in communiqués, avowals of responsibility, manifestos, and propaganda videos issued by terrorist groups today. Violence is promoted by symbols. Letters are not blameless in this situation, and concepts are never harmless. Instead, they are transformed into weapons.

The RAF emblem first appeared in May 1971 on the cover of “The Urban Guerilla Concept”. In autumn 1977, it appeared on the photos of Hanns Martin Schleyer taken after his abduction. The letter with which the Red Army Faction announced its dissolution in April 1998 is not authenticated by signatures, but by the group’s emblem. Today, this graphic legacy of the RAF has long since become a pop icon. The keynote speech to be given by former Chief Public Prosecutor Klaus Pflieger at the opening of the exhibition is accordingly titled “Campaigning for the RAF – from a Prosecutor’s Perspective”.

For the German Museum of Books and Writing, the subject of the exhibition is a prime example of how “the tools of communication – symbols, letters, images – are never neutral, but always convey interpretations of reality,” as museum director Stephanie Jacobs explains. Being able to demonstrate this using a modern-day example makes the exhibition an important element of the programme offered by the German Museum of Books and Writing.

Speaking on behalf of the team of curators, Günter Karl Bose elaborates: “The attacks on the World Trade Center have made the immense scale of the interaction between terrorism and global mass communication apparent. Terrorism is a communication strategy. The media response to acts of terrorism is more important than the acts themselves. This is why it makes sense to tackle the subject of the RAF at a place like the German Museum of Books and Writing.”

The exhibition is accompanied by the book “Name, Waffe, Stern. Das Emblem der Roten Armee Fraktion”, written by Felix Holler, Jaroslaw Kubiak, and Daniel Wittner and published by the HGB Leipzig’s Institute of Book Arts. It is available at the museum for 19 euros. The exhibition was curated by Günter Karl Bose, Felix Holler, Jaroslaw Kubiak, and Daniel Wittner.

Symbols as Weapons. By the Example of the Red Army Faction´s Insignia

Exhibition of the German Museum of Books and Writing of the German National Library in Leipzig in cooperation with the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig

22 June 2018 to 6 January 2019
Tuesday to Sunday 10:00–18:00, Thursday 10:00–20, on national holidays 10:00–18:00
Free admission

Exhibition opening: Thursday, 21 June 2018, 19:30

Welcome: Michael Fernau, Director of the German National Library in Leipzig
Introduction: Dr. Stephanie Jacobs, Director of the German Museum of Books and Writing
Klaus Pflieger, retired Chief Public Prosecutor: “Campaigning for the RAF – from a Prosecutor’s Perspective”
Günter Karl Bose, Professor of Typography: “Becoming RAF”

Guided Tours

5 July 2018, 16:00 | 8 August 2018, 15:00

Background

The curators

Jaroslaw Kubiak (b. 1985 in Wroclaw, Poland, studied painting at the University of the Arts in Bremen), Daniel Wittner (b. 1983 in Heidenheim an der Brenz), and Felix Holler (b. 1987 in Hamburg) studied book arts /graphic design at the HGB (typography class taught by Prof. Günter K. Bose). They were awarded a distinction for their joint diploma project on the emblem of the Red Army Faction, “Name Waffe Stern” (“Name Weapon Star”). All three of them live and work as graphic designers in Leipzig.

Günter Karl Bose was the Professor of Typography at the HGB from 1993 to 2017 and directed the Institute of Book Arts in Leipzig. From 1980 to 1995 he worked as a publisher in Berlin [Brinkmann & Bose]. He has compiled numerous publications on cultural and media history. Most recently, in 2017, his history of books in photography, titled “Bookish”, was published by the Wallstein Verlag. He lives and works as a designer and collector in Berlin.

German Museum of Books and Writing of the German National Library in Leipzig

The book has shaped our culture and civilisation like no other medium. For centuries our knowledge about the world and its peoples has been stored in books. The task of the German Book and Writing Museum of the German National Library is to collect, exhibit and process evidence of book and media history. Founded in 1884 in Leipzig as the Deutsches Buchgewerbemuseum (German Book Trade Museum), it is the oldest museum in the world in the field of book culture, and also one of the most important with regard to the scope and quality of its holdings. The museum interlinks its holdings through national and international cooperative projects and feeds them into the widest possible range of academic disciplines.

Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst / Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig (HGB)

The HGB is one of Europe’s oldest and most prestigious art colleges. For more than 250 years, the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig has been synonymous with artistic training at the highest level. It owes its outstanding reputation to its many renowned alumni and teachers. At present, around 600 students are registered on the four diploma courses in painting/graphics, book art/graphic design, photography, and media arts or the Master’s degree course on “Cultures of the Curatorial”. The HGB lives up to its reputation for tradition and innovation with facilities such as art workshops equipped to high standards.

Contact person
Dr. Stephanie Jacobs