In a significant way Schlöndorff`s films Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum and Die Stille nach dem Schuss reflect the change in intellectual discourse about politics in Germany after 1945, presenting it with different aesthetic means. The film Die Verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum is a reconstruction of the ideological situation in 1968 in which Schlöndorff in close cooperation with Böll takes a provocative position. In Die Stille nach dem Schuss, however, Schlöndorff outlines the public discussion about the political and ideological antagonisms in the former GDR and the coming to terms with its Stasi-past after 1989. Schlöndorff also critically evaluates his own position as a Western intellectual towards the GDR and in Germany after reunification. In contrast, the recent films Der Baader Meinhof Komplex and Die innere Sicherheit open up new perspectives on the extraparliamentary opposition and the Baader Meinhof group. Eichinger´s and Edel´s film puts the story into a historical context and denounces all heroism, whereas Petzold´s film shows the consequences of this political movement focusing on people´s private life in a way characteristic of the so-called "Berlin School".
Intellectual discourse; extraparliamentary opposition (APO); state of emergency law; Baader Meinhof group; fall of Berlin wall; discourse of guilt; aesthetics of film; critics of ideology