On October 17, 1982, the Bremen football fan Adrian Maleika died after a hooligan attack near the HSV stadium. His death marked a turning point in the fan scene of both clubs.
On October 16, 1982, Hamburger SV defeated Werder Bremen 3-2 in the second round of the DFB-Pokal. Horst Hrubesch and Lars Bastrup (two) scored the goals for the Hanseatic League when Thomas Schaaf and Johnny Otten conceded. 20,000 spectators were present in Hamburg’s Volksparkstadion – a young Bremen fan would have liked to be there too, but he didn’t see the kick-off of the game: Adrian Maleika was attacked by HSV hooligans on the way into the stadium and hit by a stone in the head. The 16-year-old glazier’s apprentice died the next day in the Altona hospital.
His death meant a turning point in the Hamburg and Bremen football fan scene. Up to this point, the relationship between the Werder and HSV supporters had been considered quite normal. In retrospect, Bremen fan veterans even characterize it as “sometimes almost friendly”.
Plaques at the stadiums
Werder manager Willi Lemke always emphasized that Maleika’s death was the saddest moment of his tenure – but both clubs struggled with the memory of the tragedy in Hamburg’s Volkspark for a long time. Around ten years ago, searches on the homepages still yielded no hits – if you combed through the forums on the club’s websites, there was at least one entry or two. The Adrian Maleika Memorial Tournament has not been held since 2004 – also because the relatives had their problems with the well-intentioned events.
30 years after the event, on October 20, 2012, Werder Bremen unveiled a commemorative plaque in the east stand of the Weser Stadium. This Monday (October 17, 2022) HSV will do the same at the Volksparkstadion. “Also as a reminder for the future,” as they say.
Ambush in the People’s Park
What exactly happened on October 16, 1982? Adrian Maleika went to the away cup game at HSV with his fan club “Die Treuen”. What is frowned upon today under the “Ultras” – namely walking around peppered with club emblems, coats of arms and other identification signs – was common practice back then. It was the time of the denim frock wearer. But Maleika had renounced fan air, was in civilian clothes. In contrast to most other Bremen fans, the Maleika group got off the S-Bahn one station too late and made their way from Eidelstedt station to the stadium without any police protection.
Almost 150 young people were ambushed in the confusing Volkspark. The right-wing infiltrated HSV fan club “Die Löwen” and skinheads shot at them with gas pistols and flares, then thick bricks flew. The Bremen fled. However, Adrian Maleika, who sought shelter in the bushes, was hit in the back of the head by a stone and collapsed. Hours later, his unconscious body was found. The next day, the 16-year-old died as a result of a fractured skull base and severe cerebral hemorrhage.
Stone thrower was never identified
The public outcry was great. 600 people attended the funeral, including the Bremen team and club managers Lemke and Günter Netzer from HSV. The stone thrower was never identified. Eight Hamburgers were charged, three convicted of serious breaches of the peace and dangerous bodily harm. The ringleader received a prison sentence of two years and six months.
With the support of the Hanseatic city, Hamburg’s sports youth set up the HSV fan project that still exists today. One of the merits of this (socio-)pedagogical and youth-political project is that parts of the radical right-wing scene that had emerged around HSV in the 1980s and early 1990s were pushed back. The strict separation of fan groups, which was not common in the 1980s, became the norm, as did video surveillance in the stadiums.
Rivalry between Werder and HSV continues
To this day, Maleika’s death overshadows the relationship between the two fan camps. The “Peace of Scheeßel” in January 1983, in which both sides refrained from taking revenge actions, did not change that.
The majority of the Bremen fan scene sees what happened today as an “extremely tragic accident”. The name Adrian Maleika is still present – unfortunately also because some incorrigible people chanted it as an insult (“Adrian Maleika – the stones keep flying”) at the North Derby in 2004. The response from Bremen was a poster showing bomber planes over Hamburg. So the rivalry continues to burn in the two supporter groups. And that despite the fact that a generation of fans had previously learned the right lessons from Adrian Maleika’s death.
Hamburger SV and Werder Bremen fans in typical frocks at the “Peace of Scheeßel” in 1983.
Lemke: “I still won’t let go today”
Lemke still drives regularly through the row house settlement in Bremen where Adrian Maleika lived with his family. “We used to be almost neighbors,” Lemke told the “Deichstube” portal, and in front of Maleika’s former house he always felt “a heavy heart. To this day, I just can’t let go of the matter.”
This topic in the program:
sports club | 10/17/2022 | 12:00 a.m
