The state memorial service of Hanns-Martin Schleyer, leading German industrialist and head of the Daimler-Benz corporation,[5] kidnapped and killed by members of the RAF.

A series of dialogues between Rainer Werner Fassbinder and his mother, his ex-wife Ingrid Caven, his boyfriend Armin Meier and others reflecting on the news of the alleged suicides of RAF members Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe in the top-security prison of Stuttgart-Stammheim.

Gabi Teichert, from the earlier sequences, is in the audience studiously taking notes during a speech by Max Frisch.

The RAF co-founder Horst Mahler is interviewed in prison by a TV company and claims that fascism continues to exist in West Germany after the Nazi era.

They film the German singer Wolf Biermann performing 'Girl in Stuttgart' a monologue which questions the official version of events regarding the Stammheim death night.

Written by Heinrich Böll and directed by Volker Schlöndorff The film concludes with Kluge's footage from the funeral of Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe, which is attended by hundreds of protestors, some of whom are subsequently arrested.

The film begins and ends with the same quote from 'Frau Wilde (mother of five)', April 1945: ‘When cruelty has reached a certain point, it no longer matters who is responsible – it simply has to stop’.

Mozart's Requiem in D minor is heard at the funeral ceremony of Hanns-Martin Schleyer and when the three-pointed star flags at Daimler-Benz are at half-mast.

After the funeral of Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe of the RAF, the film ends with the song "Here's to You" by Joan Baez and Ennio Morricone in homage to anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bart Vanzetti, while a young mother with her little daughter in the red jacket escapes public disturbances at Dornhalden cemetery.