A look at the West: Fan violence and right-wing radicalism in Bundesliga stadiums

The police in the Federal Republic of Germany were present in and around football stadiums from the early 1950s to ensure order and security. Violence in European football stadiums had been on the rise since the 1970s at the latest. Skinheads and hooligans fought their battles in public in the stands and dominated the atmosphere in the stadiums. The sad climax was the catastrophe at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels during the European Champions Cup final in 1985, when 39 people died in a mass panic triggered by hooligans. Politicians throughout Europe tried to put an end to the violence. The MfS observed the measures taken in the West and a working group analysed the press. The GDR security agency’s assessment of the situation was coloured by its ideology. They interpreted fans’ violent behaviour in GDR stadiums solely as the ‘glorification’ and imitation of Western subculture. In this way, the SED state absolved itself of responsibility with regard to the causes of fan violence.

In West Germany the police tried to combat violence and right-wing radicalism in football stadiums with a two-pronged strategy. They took a tough stance against violence and, at the same time, focused on prevention work to hinder future violence.

The first fatality in Germany was Bremen Werder fan Adrian Maleika in 1982, who was attacked by a right-wing extremist hooligan group from HSV and hit in the head with a rock. After Maleika’s death, the state criminal investigation agencies and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (the domestic intelligence services) focussed even more intently on violence in the football scene. While the violence problem was barely mentioned in public in the GDR, a broad social discourse developed in the Federal Republic and played out in both the media and in academia. Photos and film footage of stadium violence repeatedly reignited the debate.