You say it's specifically German, and I'm sure there's some truth to that. Also, because of the history, perhaps some of these middle class youth felt they had to make up for something, to atone for something because of the Nazis. This is the big question. Many of the terrorists are still in prison, many are dead. But what happened in the GDR with Rita is also important.
Terrorism is only the background for the character.
She went to the GDR to follow her ideals. I think he's right. He's from there, he lived there for a long, long time. She wants to continue with her ideas, and she comes to understand that she has to make her big ideas fit a smaller space, and then she goes into the private, more intimate realm with this big idea. Perhaps the population was sincere.