Stefan Aust was born in 1946 and was for many years the chief editor of the Spiegel news magazine and the Spiegel TV Magazine he cofounded. Since 2009 he has been working as a film producer, media consultant and TV presenter. Aust has written numerous television documentaries and books, of which The Baader-Meinhof Complex, the standard work on the history of the RAF terrorists in Germany, caused quite a stir.