The Baader Meinhof Complex (Der Baader Meinhof Komplex)The Baader Meinhof Complex (Der Baader Meinhof Komplex) - Internet Movie Firearms Database - Guns in Movies, TV and Video GamesThe Baader Meinhof Complex (Der Baader Meinhof Komplex)
The Baader Meinhof Complex is a 2008 German film which depicts the history of Germany's radical leftist Red Army Faction (otherwise known as the Baader Meinhof Gang) in the 1960s and 1970s. It was nominated in the 2009 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. Bernd Eichinger, the film's producer and screenwriter, had previously worked on Downfall (Der Untergang), and two of the leading actors from that movie, Bruno Ganz and Alexandra Maria Lara, have supporting roles in this film.
The following firearms are seen in The Baader Meinhof Complex:
Most of the Federal German police officers in the film are armed with Walther PP pistols, including the officer who shoots and kills Benno Ohnesorg (Martin Glade) during the demonstration against the Shah of Iran at the Berlin Opera. After being arrested and taken to interrogation, a PP is dropped in front of Holger Meins (Stipe Erceg), and the officers dare him to fight his way out with it.
During the depiction of the attempted killing of Rudi Dutschke (Sebastian Blomberg), the would-be killer, Josef Bachmann (Tom Schilling) uses a small framed revolver which appears to be a Weihrauch revolver. It appears this revolver is also used by some of the RAF members.
Several of the RAF terrorists are shown to use SIG P210 pistols throughout the movie. Andreas Baader (Moritz Bleibtreu) uses one in the shootout with the police which leads to his arrest.
When the RAF is freeing Andreas Baader (Moritz Bleibtreu) from police custody while he's being interviewed by Ulrike Meinhof (Martina Gedeck), Gudrun Ensslin (Johanna Wokalek) uses an Erma Werke Model E M1 .22 LR self-loading rimfire rifle with a sawed-off barrel and stock
While the RAF are procuring arms for their first bank robbery, they can be seen buying Chinese Norinco Type 56-1 assault rifles, but these weapons are never used on-screen..
West German Federal police can be seen throughout the movie using Heckler & Koch MP5A3 submachine guns, all with the old-style straight "waffle" magazines. When Ulrike Meinhof (Martina Gedeck) is arrested, the police find several MP5A3s and magazines in her dwelling. In real life, the MP5A3 was known as a favorite weapon of RAF members in the 1970s (their flag featured an MP5A3 emblazoned over the Red Star), but for some reason, none of the terrorists in this film are ever seen actually firing MP5s in any of the assassinations or bank robberies depicted.
When Petra Schelm (Alexandra Maria Lara) is fleeing the police after getting caught at a checkpoint, she uses an FÉG PJK-9HP pistol to fire at the officers. The P9R is a Hungarian-made, double-action version of the Browning Hi-Power; its use in the film is an anachronism (Petra Schelm was killed in 1971; the P9R was introduced about 10 years later).
During the bombing of the US military barracks at Frankfurt in 1972, the US Army MPs guarding the base are armed, curiously, with what appear to be Adler-Jager AP-74 .22-caliber clones of the M16, standing in for the M16A1 rifles that would have been standard-issue at the time.
When the RAF gunmen who seize the West German embassy in Stockholm are arming up, one of them is given a Skorpion SA Vz 61 machine pistol, but it is not seen in use during the siege itself (only Uzis are used).
The next-generation RAF members can be seen using Heckler & Koch HK33-series assault rifles on several occasions. One of the two motorcycle gunmen who assassinates Siegfried Buback (Gerald Alexander Held) uses an HK33 with a chopped barrel and a stockless butt cap in lieu of a fixed or telescoping stock. Later, when the RAF kidnaps Hanns-Martin Schleyer (Bernd Stegemann), both Ruth (Sandra Borgmann) and Willy Peter Stoll (Hannes Wegener) use HK33 variants. Ruth's is an HK33A2 (fixed stock) with a chopped barrel and two magazines "jungle-taped" together, while Willy's is the collapsible-stock HK33KA3.
Note: The actual assassination of Buback took place with a semi-automatic HK43 rifle, not with a HK33, though the prior is a civilian derivative of the latter.
During the kidnapping of Hanns-Martin Schleyer, Peter-Jürgen Boock (Vinzenz Kiefer) is armed with a Croatian Mini Ero submachine gun, yet another weapon which did not exist during at the time in which the scene takes place.
Christian Klar (Daniel Lommatzsch) uses a Mossberg 500 with wood furniture, a sawed down 16" barrel and open blade sights during the kidnapping of Hanns-Martin Schleyer.
