SECTION: Stau 1990/2020

In the 1990s the influx of right-wing extremist parties and right-wing extremist subcultures was one of the ugly side effects of the unification process in east Germany. In a similar way to today the "New Right" strived for an authority to interpret certain topics; as can also be observed today, youth subcultures played a major role "on the street", similar to today there were places that became "hotspots" of right-wing extremism. In the last few years of the GDR criminologists and filmmakers explored a topic that did not fit into the official image of socialism and was played down as "hooliganism". The so-called “baseball bat years” followed after reunification, as violent attacks increased, often with fatal consequences for the victims. The attacks on the dormitories in Hoyerswerda, Wittenberge and Rostock-Lichtenhagen number amongst the most infamous incidents of this period; likewise, today we see the persecution of foreigners in Chemnitz, the attack on the synagogue in Halle and Third-Reich-era war flags in front of the Bundestag.

Right-wing extremist subcultures ermerged in the grey areas between protest behaviour, opposition to socialist state doctrine and political conviction. The current renaissance of symbolic, right-wing extremist actions is fatally reminiscent of those years. STAU 1990/2020 takes us back to the 1990s with cinematic examples. Filmmakers, contemporary witnesses and experts discuss the events of that time from today's perspective: what long-term effect have the so-called “baseball bat years” had on the ongoing brutalisation of and threat to political culture, as practised by the far right in eastern Germany?

The “Stau 1990/2020” film series is supported by the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship.