Violence update - Oktober 1992

Ich habe in den Jahren 1991-1994 für die Usenet-Forum soc.culture.german über viele Fälle von rechts-gerichteter Gewalt berichtet, die mit kleine Notizen in den Zeitungen erschienen sind. Ich habe einige wiedergefunden über Google, ich verlinke sie hier mit einer Überblick.

• 1.10.1992:
  
  • Berlin: A member of the Bezirksverordnetenversammlung (a borough parliament in Berlin) in Neukölln has stepped down. The member of the Green Party, who was born in Iran, received eight threatening calls to his unlisted number after a verbal fight in the BVV. The right-wing party "Republikaner" had requested a statistic about the percent of criminals who are foreigners, and used this as a starting point for one of their typical tirades against the foreigners in general. As tempers rose the member tried to calm down both sides. After the threats, that included threats against his children and the suggestion that he "go home" (he is now a German citizen!), he made the personal decision to step down.
    
  • Altlandsberg (Brandenburg, north of Berlin): There was a fire bombing of a house over a Turkish grocery store here about 10 days ago, it was reported on the Brandenburg pages of the tagesspiegel. The owner of the grocery shop, a Turk, suffered third degree burns and is still not able to talk with police. The German persons living over the store managed to get out before they were hurt. The police have no clues at to the persons that committed the crime, the wife of the man hurt has said that they do not appear to by trying very hard.
    
  • Berlin: A young musician from Brazil was attacked in the U-Bahn and will lose three fingers as a result. A dozen youth were in the well-filled car at around 10pm as it went through the western city center in the direction of Ruhleben. One of the youth came up to the Brazilian and kicked him. The Brazilian said (in English) "Please, I do not want trouble". Not one of the passengers said a word, the Brazilian attempted to get out at Wittenbergplatz. The gang grabbed his bicycle and threw it out of the car, they held the Brazilian, put one of his hands in the doorway and slammed the door on it three times. Hard. They opened the door again, threw him onto the floor, kicked his face, and continued on their journey with the subway. The musician had unfortunately pulled his jackknife out in an attempt to protect himself, the knife opened as the door was slammed on his hand, severing the tendons in three of the fingers, that were only still attached to his hand by strips of skin. He will lose the fingers. Not *one* of the many passangers has called the authorities to even describe the youth that must have ridden on in the car at least one station. The Brazilian has refused to file a complaint for fear of retribution.  
• 2.10.1992:
  Munich: Foreigners are staying away from the Oktoberfest...
  Cottbus: The sentences in the trial of the youths for burning down the shelter in Schwarze Pumpe are between 9 and 22 months on parole, plus 60-100 hours social work.
  Jork: Store owners are fastening switch brooms over their doors to "ward off gypsies"...
• 3.10.1992:
  A Tagesspiegel (Berlin) reporter tells me on the phone that he thinks that little stuff like fire bombs being thrown and all should not be reported at all, so that the youth don't have the satisfaction of seeing their actions reported in the paper.
• 9.10.1992:
  The Bundestag has passed a resolution in which they condemn the violence against foreigners.
  Mellenburg: Three men threw two fire bombs at a refugee shelter...
  Karlsruhe: Two youth, aged 21 and 24, have been arrested in connection with the defacing of graves...
  A group called "Archiv fuer Sozialpolitik" puts together a daily list of incidents. For the period 12.8-8.9 they have 139 incidents.
• 11.10.1992:
  Jueterborg: Four Skins drove up to the refugee shelter here in a Trabant station wagon and threw stones and foggers against the building...
  Hanau: A German gypsy family was lucky that a shot fired at their caravan lodged in a package of disposable diapers and did not hit anyone.
  Firebombs thrown at two shelters in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and one in the Saarland...
  Magdeburg: 60 Skins were arrested
  Gregor Gysi (PDS) asks: "Would we be just watching what is happening this long if the firebombs were being thrown against the Landtag in Schwerin or even the Deutsche Bank?"
• 12.10.1992:
  Nazi flyers impounded in Spandau and Hohenschoenhausen.
  Potsdam: 6 Skins arrested after beating patrons at a billiard cafe with baseball bats. 5 persons were hurt, 2 critically.
  The Skins are supposed to be responsible for a fight in Paretz near Ketzin, as well.
  Goldberg: 500 persons demonstrate against plans to put a refugee shelter in this town.
  Remplin: Five youth threw two fire bombs at a shelter ...
  Hinrichsfelde and Friedberg: Windows at refugee shelters smashed.
  Grossraeschen: A shelter was set on fire, was extinguished by the fire watch.
  Liebertwollchitz: Stones thrown at refugee shelter
  Meissen: Someone fired shots from an air gun at a refugee shelter.
  Frankfurt/Main: Police arrested and mishandled a Marroco man.
  Bad Cannstadt: Defacing of Jewish cemetary.
• 13.10.1992:
  Kolbermoor: An explosion of dynamite at a refugee shelter ...
  Olbernhau: Around 20 youth armed with bludgeons threw stones at a refugee shelter here.
  Remlin: Fire bombs were thrown at a refugee shelter.
  The federal Secretary for Youth, Angela Merkel (CDU) notes that the sentences of right radical youth for committing violence seem to be a tad on the lenient side. She does not feel that the laws need change, and notes that the youth just seem to want attention.
  "Autonomen", anarchist youth in the Berlin bourough of Kreuzberg have been setting fire to luxury cars (Mercedes, BMW, Volvo) parked in the area...
• 15.10.1992
  • Hmmm. No reports in either tagespiegel or taz, both yesterday and today. Have things really quited down, or is some sort of (perhaps self-imposed) gag order in effect?
    
  • There is a beating reported from Monday that I missed, some Polish citizens were sleeping in an unlocked bus in Germany near the German boarder. They were brutally beaten and robbed, there are no clues as to the identities or nationalities of the perpertrators.
    
  • There have been about 70 calls to the police hot-line on Sachsenhausen, including one anonymous one. The police published a call for that person to please call again.
    
  • The (n+1)th iteration of the asylum code is being discussed by the political parties.
    
  • I was at the exhibition opening for Guenter Grass on Tuesday. Bjoern Engholm gave one of the speeches, and pleaded for his version of "the boat is full, we have to stemm the tide". Grass, a vehement opponent of changing the constitution, fought back in reading a new essay he wrote, "Loblied auf Willy", including a description of Willy Brandt's life as a refugee.
    
  • One note from the taz: Three copies of a 28-page pamphlet in rhymed couplets titled "Der Asylbetrueger in Deutschland", the refugee con-artist in Germany, have appeared in Fax-machines in the Berlin area. One bears the sending address of a large German automobile manufacturer, who when asked said that someone must have been doing a "joke". The taz prints one of the couplets: "Herr Asylbewerber, na wie geht's?" -- "O, ganz gut, bring Deutschen AIDS", and notes that the Berlin DA office is considering whether to open proceedings on this. [Germany, the land of poets.]
• 16.10.1992
  • No direct reports of violence, but a lot of related news.
    The Bundestag voted yesterday (CDU/CSU/FDP yes, Green/PDS no, SPD abstained) that chapter 16 (the one regulating asylum) in the constitution needs to be changed.
    
  • The leader of the DNP party, Dienel, was released from prison yesterday. He had been arrested on charges of "Volksverhetzung", but it has been determined that there is no reason to keep him in jail until the trial - no danger of him leaving the country or trying to cover up his deeds.
    
  • Refugee's payments from the social offices are to be reduced to 75% of the current amount. That is 381 instead of 508 DM for the head of a family. Most of that goes for paying for the shelter and food: 76 DM a month is to remain as pocket money. That's about 2,50 a day. A newspaper costs about a mark, the movies start at 6 DM on cheap night.
    
  • Three men have been arrested in connection with the explosion at the refugee shelter in Kolbenmoor.
    
  • The Berlin Abgeordnetenhaus debated about rightist extremists yesterday. They could not, however, decide to join a call for a nationwide demonstration on Nov. 7, because they refuse to sign anything the PDS signs, on the grounds that two Stasi-persons are PDS members of parliament.
    
  • Frankfurt/Main: The CDU-Landrat Johann Riebel gave a press conference yesterday, in which he stated that the (German) wives of refugees are "all welfare recipients or drug addicts", and added that the marriages are all "Scheinehen", marriages that exist on paper only. Mr. Riebel is responsible, among other things, for the refugee shelters in his area. The chief of the Multicultural Affairs office in Frankfurt has requested that the district attorney's office initiate proceedings to determine if this is a punishable offence.    
  • Three apprentices were sentenced to between 6 and 9 months on parole for their role in defacing a Jewish monument. A fourth youth, who was on parole for another crime at the time, is to spend a year in prison.
    
  • Kiel: The Ministry of the Interior has suspended a police officer for beating up a foreigner that he had arrested.
    
  • Hannoversche Minden: A company has written a letter to the local authorities threatening to move the company and the jobs if a central refugee office is located in the town. Seems the homes of the managers of the company are right next to the casern in which the office is to be located, and they are worried that their properties will devalue.
    
  • A cartoon in the taz: politicians standing around a coffin, looking grave and one saying "Yes, there must be a right to asylum -- in Norway or in Sweden, but not in Germany!"
• 20.10.1992
  • An update on the brutal attack in Thale (Kreis Quedlinburg, Sachsen-Anhalt): All of the youth connected with the attack that included shooting fireworks at the house, breaking down the doors and furniture, and the attempted rape of 3 women, have been arrested. Three girls (aged 13 and 14) have been returned to their parents' custody, the rest are youth up to about age 18. It was not an organized attack, they said.
    
  • Dyrotz (Brandenburg): A fight between right and left wing youth broke out here this weekend, as well as in Brandenburg (Brandenburg).
    
  • Schwerin (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern): A warrant for the arrest of a 20-year old man connected with the first riots in Rostock has been set for the crime of attempted murder.
    
  • Goldberg: 300 persons blocked the street into town for 10 minutes to protest the first busload of 104 refugees that are to be quartered in the town. The townspeople do not want a refugee shelter here.
    
  • Rostock: 46 persons were arrested here after a protest by French Jews. They had blocked a street, put up a placard at city hall, and then tried to unroll a banner from the city hall window with the statement
    "Germany, don't forget history". At that point, the police broke up the group and arrested 4 youth. Other youth freed the four from the police and escaped to their bus. The police surrounded the bus and a "violent difference of opinion" resulted. The action was accompanied by Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, active campaigners against old and new Nazis. [I can't help notice how fast the police were to react against a leftist protest, that in addition was not violent. -dww]
• 23.10.1992
  • Adenstedt (Lower Saxony): A refugee shelter caught fire in a fire bombing. 22 persons were rescued by way of a fire escape, two Lebanese children, one only 2 weeks old, suffered from smoke inhalation and were hospitalized.
    
  • Greifswald (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern): Around 60 masked youth, armed with baseball bats, stones and molotow cocktails attacked a college dormitory here in which about 20 foreign students live. The students fought back, and called the police, who arrested some of the attackers.
    
  • Oeckermuende (M-V): A refugee shelter was fire bombed here, police were able to arrest some of the attackers.
    
  • Kitzingen (Baden-Wuerttemberg?): A black woman, a dental technician with the American army and her German friend were denied service in a cafe here. On being interviewed, the owner replied that Americans cause fights, and that he can pick his customers, he doesn't have to serve everyone.
    
  • Also in Kitzingen, 5 cars belonging to American soldiers were spray- painted with slogans "Ami go home" and swastikas [American service people have special license plates -dww].
    
  • Rostock (M-V): A youth has been sentenced to serve a year in jail for his participation in the first round of violence in Rostock. His crimes were throwing rocks and injuring a police officer. [Injuring police officers appears to be a more dastardly crime than attempted murder of foreigners. -dww]
    
  • Hamburg: 50 authors and artists published the "Hamburg Manifesto", which warns not to change the constitution and keep the basic right to asylum.
    
  • Senftenberg (Brandenburg): Police arrested 7 members of a "Wehrsport- gruppe" in raids of a number of homes.
• 25.10.1992
  • Greifswald (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern): A third night of violence has been reported in Greifswald. After a peaceful demonstration of about 250 persons against the violence, a group of about 30 masked youth attacked a youth club next to the dormitory that has been the scene of violence the past two nights. Fighting erupted, the police stepped in, the masked youth turned their baseball bats, stones and air guns against the police, battering and damaging police cars. When the police fought back, they ran into the dormitory. Two "Hundertschaften" [I'm still not sure after all these years exactly how many police officers belong to a company, called a group of hundred. -dww] of police were brought on to the scene and the dormitory was "cleaned out". The radio did not say how many arrests or injured persons, nor whether the masked youth were found or if they had disappeared out the back.
    
  • Westerroenfeld (Schleswig-Holstein): Skins attempted to set a refugee living container (a little metal box set up as temporary quarters) on fire with fire bombs. One foreigner was hurt by glass splinters.
    
  • The Berliner Morgenpost did its part to heat up the mood by publishing stories on how the refugees don't need all that welfare and are to be given just 75%, on how many more refugees came last month than the one before, and a big article on criminal "Southamericans" explaining how
    they pick pockets, and how they bring drugs with them when they enter the country and what they do with the passports and checks they steal. Seems they work in groups, one asks for directions, the second steals and gives the booty to a third. [I'd say that's the way it works in most cities! -dww] After reading the article most people will surely be fearful of foreigners asking for directions.  

   And then I got a real job - nor more time to read the papers regularly... so just the occasional report.

Copyright 1991-2020 D. Weber-Wulff. CC-BY-NC-SA