The 61-year-old Proll joined the RAF in 1969 and was jailed twice -- in 1971-74 and again in 1978-80 - for her activities with the group. After leaving the RAF, Proll worked for the German magazines Tempo and Der Spiegel as well for the American magazine Time. In 2004, she published a book of photographs of the RAF from 1967-1977 called Pictures on the Run.
Proll's visit to Budapest was timed to coincide with the opening of the new film The Baader Meinhof Complex. The film, which has been praised by critics and nominated for an Academy Award, will be shown in Budapest for the first time on March 11, as part of German Film Week. It will go on general release in cinemas the following day.
"The Baader Meinhof Complex is a successful film that tries to be truthful with the Red Army Faction, but it is an action film about violence, not a documentary - it can't show the true story of the RAF," Proll said of the film.
Proll said the RAF had its start in the student protest movement in Germany in the late 60s; but while that movement lost its wind, "we were still in a state of excitement".
Founded by Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof and Gudrun Ensslin, the RAF carried out many attacks on the establishment, including a U.S. Army barracks in Frankfurt and the headquarters of publisher Axel Springer in Hamburg. All three founders were captured in 1974 and put in the high security Stammheim Prison in Stuttgart. There they all committed suicide, though conspiracy theories on their actual fate abound.
"To this day, we don't know exactly what happened to them. Ulrike Meinhof was sent to her death -- detained in awful conditions, she didn't have the strength to survive," Proll said.
Proll distanced herself from the RAF, saying she had changed much since her youth.
"I've been told many times that I'm just a former terrorist, but I strive to live just like any other person. What memories of the Baader-Meinhof Gang live inside me? That was my youth. Since then, everything has changed. Before this film, I hadn't even spoken the word 'Baader-Meinhof' for ten years."
The Baader Meinhof Complex is directed by Uli Edel and produced by Bernd Eichinger. It stars Moritz Bleibtreu, Martina Gedeck and Bruno Ganz.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI) / Photo: MTI
