Everybody Talks About the Weather . . . We Don’t: The Writings of Ulrike Meinhof

Ulrike Meinhoff was a respected left wing journalist, and eventual terrorist, in West Germany during the Cold War. She gradually abandoned her chic life as a middle-class columnist in favour of more radical stances due to her disillusionment as the United States became the sole global super power. This book offers a biographical account of her life, an anthology of her columns and a surprisingly scathing afterword from Meinhof’s daughter, making this a balanced and well-rounded look at a fascinating life. I dipped in and out of this book at different places and that worked as well as a cover to cover read due to its structure which can be broken into distinct parts. As a whole this book tells the tragic tale of a compelling individual as her hope and innocence drifted towards emptiness and cynicism.

The historical context given by the biography definitely made the columns have more impact and it was quite clear as the years went by there was a growing cynicism towards possibilities for democratic change. I didn’t know until reading this that there were people in the West German government who were previously Nazis!! This utterly baffled me and altered my perception of Germany which I assumed was more liberal due to attempts at distancing the republic from fascism. Meinhof was involved in a number of social movements and observed the ineffectiveness of different political action groups, there are many parallels to be drawn between her era and the present day! In some of her writings, she does sound particularly self-righteous which may result from preaching to the converted and not being quite as influential as she would have liked, her ideas for West Germany were basically the opposite of the shift rightward that was occurring in the country. All this being said, she was still a significant figure of the German Left writing in an authentic and stylish manner which even appealed to liberal on particular progressive issues. It’s hard not to be taken in when someone writes so well. This can be seen particularly in her articles ‘False Consciousness’, ‘Everybody Talks About the Weather’, ‘Germany Without Kennedy’ and ‘Counter Violence’.

One column I did question was ‘Dresden’ in which Meinhof discusses the Allied bombing of the city and the inhumane nature of it being swept under the rug of history. The facts of what occurred in one of World War 2’s greatest atrocities are still greatly debated and I’m no expert however the main statistics cited are from notorious holocaust denier David Irving so I am sceptical, to say the least. Although the bombings were definitely much worse than the Allies suggested and at this point in time Irving was still a credible historian in the eyes of many. Generally, her writing seems well researched and back up with statistics and often infallible logic. All of the columns are worth reading to get a better grasp on the time they were written in and to familiarise yourself with various left perspectives on subjects from war to effective protest to women’s liberation. As a professional woman in a sector dominated by men, Meinhof was passionate about systemic injustice and exposed abuse and highlighted the subordination of women through her writing, a compassionate voice is always a welcome one. It’s a different type of book to my usual but a welcome change and I definitely learnt a lot from exploring it!