Spiegel tv documentary on right-wing violence after reunification
A new Spiegel TV documentary examines the wave of right-wing extremist violence in the early 1990s following German reunification. It highlights attacks on foreigners and asylum seekers using baseball bats and other weapons. Survivors and experts recount the traumatic events.
The Spiegel TV documentary 'The Baseball Bat Years – Right-Wing Extremist Violence After German Unity' delves into a dark chapter of recent German history. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and reunification in 1990, economic uncertainties and social tensions in East Germany fueled a wave of xenophobic attacks. Young right-wing extremists, often armed with baseball bats, targeted migrants and refugees in cities like Hoyerswerda, Rostock-Lichtenhagen, and Solingen.
The film opens with the pogrom in Hoyerswerda in 1991, where neo-Nazis besieged an asylum seekers' home and pelted residents with stones. 'It was like a witch hunt', recalls a survivor. In Rostock-Lichtenhagen in 1992, the riots escalated: A mob of about 3,000 right-wing extremists set fire to refugee accommodations while police stood by. The documentary quotes eyewitnesses: 'We screamed for our lives, but no one helped', says a Vietnamese family.
Experts in the film, including historians and political scientists, provide context: The rapid unification led to mass unemployment in the East, turning frustration into hatred toward 'foreigners'. Between 1990 and 1993, there were hundreds of such attacks, resulting in dozens of deaths, including the arson in Solingen in 1993 that killed five Turkish women and girls. 'That was the peak of the violence wave', emphasizes the director.
The production interviews former perpetrators and victim activists, who point to ongoing issues. Despite convictions and public outrage, many crimes went unpunished. The film concludes with reflections on current right-wing extremist tendencies and calls for vigilance. It aired on October 15, 2023, and draws on archives, interviews, and historical analyses.