Germany: The German government has come under attack for providing €100,000 for an exhibition about the Red Army Faction (RAF), the left-wing guerrillas lead by Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof.
The planned exhibition has caused a storm of controversy before it even opened, with critics saying it will glorify the RAF's 25-year campaign of robberies, bombings and assassinations that left over 30 people dead.
"We're not interested in glorifying the RAF - it's exactly the opposite. We want to undertake a critical examination of the history and the reaction to the RAF in art and culture," said Ms Beate Barner, head of Kunst Werke, the Berlin gallery which is planning to hold the exhibition in November 2004.
"There's a whole generation now that did not experience the RAF directly through the press and television. We need to counter that," she said, pointing to how, in the years since it disbanded, the fashion industry has co-opted the group's imagery to develop a whole line of "terrorist chic" clothing.
Ms Antje Volmer, a Green Party politician and deputy leader of the parliament, said the exhibition was a legitimate use of tax-payers' money. "Compared to other countries like Spain and Northern Ireland, we have been able to end the terrorism," she said. "Only then are you able to reflect on what societal developments took place and what you can learn from it for today."
The exhibition, originally planned for later this year, is expected to include works of art, films and objects that once belonged to RAF leaders Baader and Meinhof, who both died after apparently committing suicide in prison. Relatives of those killed by the group have sent letters of protest to the Chancellor, Mr Schröder, and the Interior Minister, Mr Otto Schily.
"We are disturbed not only because of our personal embarrassment at this exhibition, but are also worried that the legend of the Red Army Faction will be glorified along with its activities for the younger generation," wrote Ms Hergard Rohwedder, widow of Detlev Rohwedder, head of the state privatisation agency and the last man to be murdered by the RAF in 1991.
Mr Schily, who defended RAF guerrillas in several court cases, said he was opposed to the exhibition.
"I have serious doubts about the exhibition," he wrote in a reply to the letter. The conservative Bild newspaper savaged the idea of a "terror exhibition" while the left-wing Tageszeitung argued that "those who turn moral considerations into the ultimate criterion are aiming for a ban on artistic expression".
