Racist attacks in 1992
Rostock fans provoke with Lichtenhagen reference
November 26, 2023, 10:33 a.m
Lichtenhagen is not only a district of Rostock, but also the scene of massive racist attacks by right-wing extremists for days in August 1992. In the second division game against FC St. Pauli, Hansa fans show a huge banner that alludes to the attacks 30 years ago.
When Hansa Rostock plays against FC St. Pauli, two fan camps meet that largely reject each other. The mood was correspondingly heated on Saturday lunchtime in and around the Ostseestadion, where after a hard-fought 90 minutes there was a narrow 3-2 win for the neighborhood club. However, it was less the sporting events that caused a stir, but rather the large-scale choreography of the Hansa team before kick-off. “What looked spectacular turned out to be a racist scandal,” writes the WAZ, while the “kicker” made “at least a trivialization of xenophobic acts” – as happens again and again in this northern duel.
A poster was spread across the entire block with the words “Plattenbau Rostock” in front of it. On the one hand, that is the name of a fan group. And on the other hand, especially in connection with the sunflower house pictured in Rostock-Lichtenhagen, an allusion to the racist attacks on that very house in August 1992.
Hundreds of rioters, including numerous right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis, had spent days attacking the central reception center for asylum seekers and a dormitory for former Vietnamese contract workers in the so-called Sunflower House. The attacks, which included Molotov cocktails, were accompanied by applause and cheers from over 1,000 onlookers, according to NDR.
Hansa fans had already flirted with allusions to the pogrom in the past, for example in August 2022, on the fifth matchday of last season and shortly before the 30th anniversary of the attacks. “Which is why they are accused of having sympathies or at least trivializing the xenophobic acts,” as the “Kicker” writes. While St. Pauli President Oke Göttlich publicly took a position against it and criticized the Rostock banner, FC Hansa Rostock failed to distance itself.
The symbolism chosen in November 2023 appears correspondingly clear. Especially since dark smoke was pouring out from under the block flag, as can be seen in photos from the stadium. The club was subsequently fined by the German Football Association for the banner shown last year. It remains to be seen whether this similar behavior will have consequences this time too.