Leisure 81

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Title lettering of the fanzine Freizeit 81 , first edition, spring 1981

Freizeit 81 was a left-wing radical action group in Munich , which, according to press reports, had "committed itself to the fusion of fight, art, punk and politics". The group emerged from the squatter and punk movement at the beginning of 1981 and was crushed by the police in October 1981. It is unusual that the group by establishing a common open zines artistic and a Punkband selbstinszenierte . What is remarkable is the great response and aftereffect that the group, which only existed for a short time, left behind in public and in cultural life.

Origin and self-image

Freizeit 81 was founded in the spring of 1981 by about a dozen teenagers and young adults who met in the trendy bars Vollmond and Lipstick and in the Milbertshofen district center , known as the mite center . The majority of the members came from the originally relatively apolitical punk movement that originated in Munich at the time. The environment was the politicization and radicalization due to experiences the young people had made in connection with attempted squatting and more or less spontaneous demonstrations against speculation with apartments and for self-managed youth centers .

The broad, militant youth movement in Zurich , which reached its peak in 1980 and became known through the documentary film Züri brännt , played a certain role as role models . A co-founder of Freizeit 81 had been in Zurich for several years and after his return to Munich in 1980 thought “it's totally bland here. There was squatting and action everywhere, except in Munich: Zurich is on fire - Munich is sleeping. "

The beginnings were shown in a leaflet calling for an unregistered rally in downtown Munich and a likewise unregistered "U-Bahn Festival" at the end of January 1981. At the latter, the Black Sheriffs , a private security service, used violence against the young for the first time People at. In the process, people got to know each other who mostly came from the punk scene. In April 1981 they met in the Werkstattkino and “Freizeit 81 quickly developed from that”. The group became active in many different fields: "Film programs, events, demos, concerts, leaflets, newspapers, spray campaigns, sticking bank locks, stones and mollies and other campaigns." In the first edition of their self-made newspaper entitled "Freizeit 81" shouted encourage them to become active and find their own forms of action.

They took part in actions by other groups in the left-wing Munich scene, including mock squatting, where banners and candles in empty houses were supposed to give the impression of squatting. The aim was to achieve the effect of a squatting in public, but without exposing themselves to the violence of the police, who, on the instructions of the Munich police chief Manfred Schreiber, were supposed to ensure that no squatting in Bavaria lasted longer than 24 hours. The Bavarian police under Interior Minister Gerold Tandler ( CSU ) attacked these and similar actions with unusual severity. So were z. B. Juveniles who were already in custody injured by police officers.

The group's militancy was fed by feelings of "anger, frustration and boredom". The members saw themselves as punks because their primary motivation was to have fun in the action with which they break out of everyday life. Like the magazine and the band, militancy, destruction, property damage become part of the self-portrayal and positioning: “But if a window in a bank breaks, then I just want to show that there is someone there who is totally outraged [. ..] I want to show the others where I am at the moment. ”To justify this, a member of the group referred to the violence of the system in an interview with the alternative city magazine Blatt :“ We just hit back, the violence has been there for a long time. ”

On the other hand, Freizeit 81 also clearly demarcated itself from the political structures of the 1968 movement that still existed . In particular, a less ideological and more emotionally and culturally influenced understanding of political engagement and resistance to conditions that were perceived as unbearable was represented. In a self-presentation in the magazine Radikal the authors wrote: “Leisure time 81 has something to do with politics”. This undogmatic attitude was understood to be explicitly directed against existing ideological patterns in the autonomous scene. It was expressed in appeals and leaflets, which were spread and received well beyond the core group:

“Freizeit '81 is non-violent or militant, legal or illegal, fearful or strong, in any case: FEELING AND HARDNESS! Freizeit '81 is resistance from the stomach, an uncontrolled reflex movement. Nobody can agree to every action, but everyone should do their own thing. "

- Manifesto "Leisure 81"

Structure, actions and attacks

The group never saw itself as an action in the sense of the urban guerrilla . “Freizeit 81 was a loose association of people who did a lot, but who were also very naive and did not pay attention” and did not want to “proceed cautiously and conspiratorially as an isolated, small group. At the end of the day, 50 to 100 people counted themselves to free time and made their acquaintance. The hard core was maybe ten people. "

The core group first drew attention to itself through spray campaigns. The graffito "Freizeit 81" as well as political or apolitical slogans were left all over the city. On the night of July 9th alone, so many letters were written that the police took 109 photos. The squatting escalated over the summer. After a pseudo-occupied house was evacuated on July 11, members of the group drove through Munich all night and destroyed window panes of eleven banks and several other buildings with cobblestones. From August they carried out attacks with Molotov cocktails . In some cases, letters of confession were left that were signed with "Freizeit 81". The name became increasingly known among young people in Munich through the spraying campaigns as well as through leaflets and word of mouth . In addition to the core group, there were probably other small groups and individuals who carried out actions under the same name. It is therefore unclear whether the 25 crimes named by the police with a damage amount of DM 1 million, which the members of the core group were charged with, were all committed by them.

In detail, the following arson attacks were assigned to the group:

  • August 25: Attack on a branch of the Dresdner Bank
  • September 8th: Attack on a secondary school on Camerloher Strasse
  • September 11th: attempted attack on a branch of the Raiffeisenbank
  • September 18: Attack on a kitchen studio
  • September 25: Attack on a police union office in Laim
  • September 28th: ​​Attack on a branch of the Bayerische Vereinsbank
  • October 7th: Attack on a Lufthansa office
  • October 10: Attempted attack in Haidhausen

Nobody was harmed in any of the attacks.

Arrest and conviction

On October 7, a youth was arrested while attacking a Lufthansa office; another person was able to escape. On the basis of papers found on the arrested person, there was a raid on a pub on the same day. According to a later account of a member of the group, a youth involved made extensive statements to the police and appeared as a key witness . It was later suspected that an agent provocateur had been smuggled in . As a result, on October 16, 1981, 17 apartments were searched with the participation of 70 police officers. Five young men and two women, including several minors, were arrested on suspicion of membership in a terrorist group . The seven members of the group were later sentenced to imprisonment, those of the minors, a few other members and the key witness were suspended, and most of the adult members served sentences of just under three years.

members of the group

The further lives of the members of the core group who became known were different. A then young member of the group, Andrea Wolf , radicalized further, was later active in the RAF environment and disappeared as a member of the PKK in Anatolia in 1998 under circumstances that have not yet been clarified, with testimony indicating that she was tortured and murdered by the Turkish military . Other members known by name became artistically and subculturally active, such as the painter Florian Süssmayr , the film producer and distribution manager Anatol Nitschke and the maker of the Munich workshop cinema Wolfgang Bihlmeir. One of those convicted at the time is now a lawyer. Today's media artist Hito Steyerl and filmmaker Romuald Karmakar were connected to the wider environment of the group . Others who said they had been members of the group remained politically active, but were legally involved in the left movement.

Cultural (after) impact

A myth quickly arose around the group, which continued to have an effect even after it was broken up and, in particular, exerted a great influence on artists who had moved around the youth movement of the time. Among other things, there was a punk band called "Freizeit 81", a fanzine, two editions of which appeared in 1981 and another while the core group was in custody, and several songs that addressed the group's actions.

Best known is the lyrics of the Spider Murphy Gang :

"D 'Landsbergerstraß" lies quietly in the light of the neon lamps / Zwoa, three Schnoin stand on the roadside and freeze / The last bus goes to hoib zwoa into town / And the moon is pale over Pasing / Leisure time 81 - haunts through the city / Leisure time 81 - in the middle of the night / leisure time 81 - haunts through the city / leisure time 81 - in the middle of the night / Every night you host so many frustration / And you want to throw paving stones / Throwing stones is fun / With an overdose of hatred! / Overdose of hatred! / Overdose of hatred! ... "

- Spider Murphy Gang: Text for "Freizeit 81"

In addition, the punk bands ZSD and Tollwut , both of which came from the Munich scene like Freizeit 81, wrote songs about the group. In 1997 a sampler on early Munich punk music was published under the title Freizeit '81. EP's from Munich. The mother of all samplers!

To this day, the relatively short phase of the existence of Freizeit 81 has been addressed in numerous articles, essays and features in the context of the punk movement. The authors make different assessments of the group from “politics-culture-terror-fun-group” to “stupid variant of the left spontaneous movement”. The group also appears in the film Mia san dageng about the Munich punk movement. In 2013, an editor at the time of the alternative stand magazine Blatt curated the exhibition “Who Owns the City?” In the Munich City Museum , in which Freizeit 81 is the theme. She stated that “Freizeit 81 was something that affected the entire republic up to the magazine radikal, people in Berlin who saw the term alone as an exciting cultural revolution.” The exhibition catalog speaks of “a short summer of anarchy against the gray everyday life that Freizeit 81 triggered by calling for direct action. "

literature

  • Lorenz Schröter: A festival against the FRG - The Munich youth revolt "Freizeit 81" and its consequences . Manuscript of the radio feature, Bayerischer Rundfunk, July 13, 2013 ( information about the broadcast )

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b Thomas Dreger: Toedliche Konsequenz. In: tageszeitung, March 14, 2000, p. 11.
  2. ↑ sub-bavaria.de: mites center
  3. ↑ a b c d Günther Gerstenberg: Freizeit '81 (I) . In: Protest in Munich since 1945. on sub-bavaria.de
  4. ^ Film from the video store in Zurich
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h Olli Nauerz: 30 years of free time 81 - Interview with Wolfgang Bihlmeir. In: Gaudiblatt # 9. P. 23 (also online )
  6. ↑ Leisure time 81: do something yourself. In: Freizeit 81st issue spring 81, unpaginated (online: do something yourself in the material collection to protest in Munich since 1945 on sub-bavaria.de)
  7. ↑ First of all, it was explained that the squatters had injured themselves in accidents: Süddeutsche Zeitung: Squatters fell into building pit? September 28, 1981, pp. 13, 14 and the following debate in the Bavarian state parliament, in which the interior minister had to admit that the injuries to those arrested only took place in police custody: Süddeutsche Zeitung: Violence not made without necessity. October 1, 1981, p. 18.
  8. ↑ a b Jan Schwarzmeier: The Autonomous Between Subculture and Social Movement . Dissertation, Göttingen 1999, ISBN 3-8311-1098-0 , p. 48 f.
  9. ↑ a b c quoted from: 20 years of radical - history and perspectives of autonomous media. Verlag Libertäre Assoziation - Unrast Verlag - Verlag der Buchladen Schwarze Risse / Rote Straße - Edition ID-Archiv, 1996 (also online: 20 years of radicals - chapter: newspaper for uncontrolled movements - die radical 1980–1984 at nadir.org)
  10. ↑ Schröter 2013, p. 7.
  11. ↑ a b c Günther Gerstenberg: Freizeit '81 (II) . In: Protest in Munich since 1945. on sub-bavaria.de
  12. ^ A b Süddeutsche Zeitung: Molotow cocktails from "Freizeit 81" , October 9, 1981, p. 13.
  13. ^ A b Süddeutsche Zeitung: 70 police officers search 17 apartments. 17./18. October 1981, p. 18.
  14. ↑ a b In the jungle of the cities, in the mountains of Kurdistan ..., life and struggle by Andrea Wolf. 1999. Chapter: Rhythm and Struggle - Andrea on her arrest, October 1981 (also online: Rhythm and Struggle )
  15. ↑ Schröter 2013, p. 16.
  16. ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung: The art scene is celebrating its new star: Florian Süßmayr. January 7, 2005, p. 16.
  17. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin: Punk's Not Dead . December 15, 2006, pp. 18-25 (also online: Punk's Not Dead )
  18. ↑ Schröter 2013, p. 21.
  19. ↑ sub-bavaria.de: Freizeit '81. EP's from Munich
  20. ↑ Franz Kotteder: Cattle eyes closed - and through. Süddeutsche Zeitung, May 12, 2007, p. 43.
  21. ↑ Aggressive Noise Promotions Mia san dageng on Munich Punk
  22. ↑ Schröter 2013, p. 8.
  23. ↑ Manfred Wegner, Ingrid Scherf: Who Owns the City? Manifestations of New Social Movements in Munich in the 1970s. Ulenspiegel Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-928359-04-7 , p. 136.