After almost two months of climbing Mount Fassbinder, I have finally arrived at the top. 40 features later and I'm exhausted, but not without reward. Watching his films have improved the way I view class structures, outsiders, victims and victimizers, the way I contemplate deep-rooted prejudices towards race, sex, and sexual orientation, the way I see terrorism grow on the political right as well as left, and overall the way I think about systems that fail and abuse people. Fassbinder's unique cinematic voice has placed me in better touch with history, with humanity, with German postwar life, and above all, the horror and shame a whole generation of youth felt while growing up in the dark shadow cast by the Nazi regime.