Colloquia Germanica
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0010-1338
Francke Verlag Tübingen
61
2023
561
East Germans Rehearse the Uprising: GDR Football Stadiums as Testing Grounds for the 1989 Revolution in Ernst Cantzler’s … und freitags in die “Grüne Hölle”
61
2023
Oliver Knabe
Through the lens of cinema, this article focuses on the subject of football as a powerful medium of political expression. It is the first comprehensive analysis of the 1989 DEFA film … und freitags in die “Grüne Hölle” by Ernst Cantzler and it reads the documentary in close relation to the historic developments during the late years of the GDR. Viewing the football stadium as a symbolic stand-in for East Germany, this article understands Cantzler’s work as a well-crafted montage that-metaphorically-lays out two possible scenarios for the end of German division: a peaceful revolution and a violent uprising.
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East Germans Rehearse the Uprising: GDR Football Stadiums as Testing Grounds for the 1989 Revolution in Ernst Cantzler’s … und freitags in die “Grüne Hölle” Oliver Knabe University of Dayton Abstract: Through the lens of cinema, this article focuses on the subject of football as a powerful medium of political expression. It is the first comprehensive analysis of the 1989 DEFA film … und freitags in die “Grüne Hölle” by Ernst Cantzler and it reads the documentary in close relation to the historic developments during the late years of the GDR� Viewing the football stadium as a symbolic stand-in for East Germany, this article understands Cantzler’s work as a well-crafted montage that-metaphorically-lays out two possible scenarios for the end of German division: a peaceful revolution and a violent uprising� Keywords: East Germany, GDR, football, soccer, DEFA, hooliganism, reunification, Cold War, cinema, documentary, stadiums 30 Meter im Quadrat nur Minenfeld und Stacheldraht nun wisst ihr wo ich wohne Ich wohne in der Zone� … Doch einmal wird es anders sein dann reißen wir die Mauer ein Wir sperren alle Bullen ein [Union] wird Deutscher Meister sein 1 (Zonenlied) 28 Oliver Knabe More than 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, visitors of East German football grounds can still occasionally hear the chant above-the ‘Zonenlied’-sung by the fans in the stands� Today the use of these lyrics can mostly be ascribed to notions of Ostalgie� 2 They create a distinguishing identity for East German football fans within the post-reunification football discourse in which former GDR clubs and their supporters play a marginal role� 3 Prior to German reunification, however, these lyrics conveyed subversive messages that challenged the polity of the GDR by expressing feelings of entrapment and the peoples’ desire for political change� This “Zone’s” claustrophobic proportions serve as a descriptor for the citizens’ experience of constrained mobility and stifled individuality. Sung in the tune of the British rock band Uriah Heep’s 1971 chart hit “Lady in Black,” the song is indicative of the East Germans’ ever-growing affinity to Western culture which, for the GDR’s authorities, also signified the rejection of socialist ideologies. Not only do the singers of these lines long for a dismantling of the inner German border but by predicting a German instead of an East German championship win for their team, they evoke the end of the GDR altogether� Yet, how this end is to be achieved remains ambiguous� While the destruction of the Wall and the imprisonment of the police (“Bullen”) signal a violent solution, the song’s tonal kinship to “Lady in Black” allows for a peaceful interpretation� The ballad’s original lines: “But she would not think of battle that / Reduces men to animals / So easy to begin / And yet impossible to end” (Uriah Heep) are the emphatic rejection of the lyrical subject’s call to arms: “And I begged her give me horses / To trample down my enemies / So eager was my passion to devour this waste of life.” Realizing that this conflict would never bear any winners and would only result in the deaths of “brothers,” the subject ultimately abandons his desire for carnage� Through the melody, the ‘Zonenlied’ is imbued with the pacifist resolution of “Lady in Black” and thus with some hope for a peaceful path towards Germany’s reunification despite the alluded violence in the fans’ rendition� Peaceful or violent, chanting for a revolution transforms the football stadium momentarily into a political realm, the space becomes a microcosm pro tempore for the GDR� This relation between the Republic and its football sites is itself addressed in the song’s opening verse� By chanting “30 Meter im Quadrat” inside the stadium, the politically restrictive “Zone” is immediately tied to the spatially limited sectors ( Sektoren) , which often were in fact only a few dozen square meters in size. It is this particular conflation of the East German state and its football stadiums as well as the citizens’ desire to overcome the demarcations of both these spaces that will constitute the focus of this article� The medium of the motion picture, with its flexibility in terms of visual perspectives and its ability to capture movement, lends itself to the examination of East Germans Rehearse the Uprising 29 such spatial relations and the dynamics of border-crossings� However, archives offer us only a limited collection of East German football films. While the GDR’s DEFA studio produced a variety of sports-related movies ranging from gymnastics and high diving to automobile racing, boxing, wrestling, and long-distance running (among others), East Germany’s most popular game-football-only made its way into the oeuvres of a few filmmakers. What appears contradictory initially, becomes more conclusive once we consider that the GDR’s film production was a state-run enterprise and thus naturally tied to the concerns of the Socialist Unity Party (SED)� Especially during the last two decades of the regime, the Party’s relationship to football and its supporters had become increasingly contentious� The government saw in the fan scenes the potential to compromise the carefully cultivated image of a functioning and prospering socialist German state� In addition to unpredictable spectator behavior such as public political defamations 4 and organized football violence, the authorities were worried about the growing number of fan clubs� Among the SED leadership, these often autonomously governed groups were considered “a rallying point for politically indifferent or oppositional elements” (Braun 415, 424). A cinematic promotion of this sport on a larger scale could therefore not have been in the Party’s interest. Unsurprisingly, the few East German football films that did make it onto cinema screens and/ or national television ultimately revolved around popular socialist concepts such as camaraderie and community� 5 Yet, these films do not constitute a homogeneous corpus with a consistent image of East German socialism� GDR historian and football scholar Alan McDougall concluded that DEFA’s football films, in addition to reflecting “the shifting political priorities” of the state, also capture “public sentiments that constitute […] a sense of nationhood,” providing us with “revealing insights into the evolution of the socialist project” (McDougall, “Eyes on the Ball” 16—7)� While the 1960 children’s film Der Neue Fimmel ( The New Craze) , for instance, still depicted the East German state as an idealized socialist community in harmony with football, DEFA’s last production within the football genre, the 1989 documentary … und freitags in die “Grüne Hölle” (… And Fridays at the “Green Hell”) , “powerfully evoked the breakdown of the unspoken social contract between citizens and regime” and showed a clear divide between the game’s spectators and the socialist state (McDougall, “Eyes on the Ball” 17)� Since the following investigation is concerned with the intersections of East German spectator behavior in football stadiums and the growing desire among the state’s citizens to challenge their country’s borders, the historical emphasis of this article will lie on the GDR’s final years. Between 1985 and 1989, the Stasi (or Ministry for State Security) had registered a dramatic increase in successful attempts by East German citizens to escape the GDR. While officials recorded 30 Oliver Knabe 627 illegal border-crossings in 1985, this number roughly doubled in each of the next three consecutive years before a staggering 53,576 GDR citizens would escape from the East to the West in 1989 (Eisenfeld 49)� 6 During the same time, fan violence in football stadiums had become a permanent characteristic of the game on both sides of the Iron Curtain (McDougall, “Whose Game is it Anyway” 203)� The reasons for such unrests varied from country to country, yet the behavioral manifestations of spectator violence showed little deviations across borders� During these unrests, the challenging and breaking down of stadium demarcations by supporters had become earmarks of the game itself and found expressions in ritualized pitch and block invasions-violent advances that regularly resulted in physical confrontations with the attending law enforcement� The film that fits the historical parameters and captures authentic footage of East German fan behavior inside the Republic’s football stadiums is the aforementioned … und freitags in die “Grüne Hölle” by Ernst Cantzler. Officially released five months before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, this film not only provides a commentary on the eroding state borders of East Germany in its final years but also exhibits football stadiums as the GDR’s testing grounds for a coming revolution� Following a short introduction of Grüne Hölle, this article will demonstrate how Cantzler’s documentary serves as a cinematic thought experiment which uses the realm of football to play through two scenarios of political change for the GDR. While the film’s images of the match in Karl- Marx-Stadt (today Chemnitz) offer the viewer a metaphoric outlook at a peaceful uprising, the events in Leipzig sketch a conflict of uncontrollable violence at the inner German border� In forty-seven minutes, Grüne Hölle tells the story of the Union Berlin fan club BSV Prenzlauer Berg and its adolescent members during the 1987-1988 Oberliga season� 7 As we follow BSV’s leader Andreas Schwadten and his friends for their weekly football games, we are taken across the German Democratic Republic, from Berlin to cities such as Karl-Marx-Stadt, Leipzig, and Riesa� Through this travel footage in addition to interview sequences and scenes from the stadiums, filmmaker Ernst Cantzler and scriptwriter Burghard Drachsel hoped not only to capture authentic fan club culture and its members’ attitudes toward life and their country, but also provide a more balanced account of football fans in general� In an unpublished 2018 interview, Drachsel recalls the negative image that dominated public perceptions of the supporters� Ausschlaggebend war, dass damals in der öffentlichen Wahrnehmung ein ziemlich negatives Bild der Fans gezeichnet wurde� Für die Mehrheit wurden sie pauschal als Rowdys und Außenseiter der Gesellschaft diskreditiert� Dem wollten wir etwas entgegensetzen und genau hinsehen, wollten erfahren, was sind das für Leute und wo liegen die Ursachen für ihre Aggressivität� (Baumert and Drachsel) 8 Yet, this type of causal investigation was not part of the state’s approach in dealing with football supporters� “Für die Staatsmacht,” Drachsel added, “waren die Fangruppen ein Phänomen, das bekämpft werden musste�” Kämpfe -or combat- was indeed what Cantzler and his team had witnessed throughout the 1987-88 season: fights between fans and the police but also between supporters from opposing teams. Imbedded in these confrontations, the filmmaker captured the symptoms of an ailing society-symptoms which manifested themselves in images of destruction and physical harm, as well as audio tracks exposing anti-Semitic slurs which by no means aligned with the government’s self-perception as an anti-fascist state� 9 During the final stages of production, the film underwent several deletions, sound edits, and one reshoot before the Division Film Approval of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs ( Kulturministerium) officially cleared Grüne Hölle for public screenings on May 26, 1989� Despite these adjustments, however, the Ministry’s concerns remained as “Cantzler’s film cut too close to the political bone” (McDougall, “Eyes on the Ball” 17)� The director’s somber and sobering portrayal of the state and its youth had created a predicament for the reviewers, some of whom had taken a liking in the aesthetics and the pedagogical value of the documentary� The assessment by Heinz Rüsch, DEFA’s studio director at the time, illustrates the indecision that Cantzler’s film had caused among the members of the Ministry. Rüsch acknowledged the documentary’s excellent cinematography and Cantzler’s competency in creating verisimilitude when he rightfully praises the well-jointed visual language as well as the film’s dedication to social accuracy in its depiction of the football fans’ daily lives� “Gerade die Ehrlichkeit des Materials,” he wrote, “ist dabei von unschätzbarem Wert” (Rüsch 2)� Yet, we must assume that it is this very honesty which cost the documentary a wider audience� “Der Film sollte in Sonderveranstaltungen eingesetzt weden,” reads his final recommendation which was ultimately followed by the production of only two physical copies of the film (Ibid. 2). Aware of the documentary’s potential efficacy, the Division Film Approval’s focus lay on a controlled and cautious distribution-outside of the GDR’s regular cinema programs and limited to an age-restricted audience� Furthermore, the reviewers explicated the setting they had envisioned for these special events where they hoped to provide adolescent football fans with a critical distance to their own behavior ( Zum Einsatz 1)� Grüne Hölle screenings were to be followed up by guided discussions which, one assumed, would help amplify said critical distance� For this purpose, it was recommended to bring in FDJ and/ or state officials from sportsand cultural affairs (Ibid. 1). Having such re- East Germans Rehearse the Uprising 31 32 Oliver Knabe strictive terms attached, this cinematic document-with its potential to generate understanding and tolerance (“Verständnis und Toleranz,” Rüsch 2)-only made it onto the screens of three cities (Neubrandenburg, Rostock, Leipzig) before, ultimately, the reunification’s sweeping transformations shifted the focus away from East German cultural production� Overrun by the rapid westernization, this documentary about the Republic’s critical state of affairs and the youth’s desires had lost its raison d’être� Grüne Hölle would not make an appearance on television until 1994 when the East German Broadcasting Brandenburg (ORB) re-introduced the film in the context of its series Rückblick. 10 With the beginning of the twenty-first century and the club’s surprising success on the national football stage, multiple sequences of Cantzler’s film could suddenly be seen in two so-called DSF Reportagen, documentaries produced by the commercial broadcaster Deutsches Sport Fernsehen. In October 2006, Grüne Hölle resurfaced again as a whole when it was publicly screened in Berlin-Friedrichshain’s movie theater Kosmos as part of the presentation of the book Eiserne Menschen. Within one year of this event, Icestorm Entertainment issued the first DVD edition. With its supplemental title “Ein Film über Fußballfreunde des 1� FC Union Berlin” (A Film about Football Friends of 1�FC Union Berlin), this release was mostly aimed at Berlin’s football fans and connoisseurs of the East German football scene. In 2009, the film was finally introduced to a larger audience at Berlin’s annual 11mm International Football Film Festival, and in 2014 Germany’s Federal Agency for Civic Education ( Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung) provided the documentary with a public platform through its digital media library� By describing Grüne Hölle as a piece of exciting contemporary history (“ein Stück spannender Zeitgeschichte”), the agency invited the audience to view the film as more than just a football documentary but rather as a document of the country’s political change which just so happens to be about football (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung)� Until this point, the film had been largely overlooked by scholars and critics alike, with the exception of Jan Tilman Schwab who included a short entry on Grüne Hölle in his 2006 encyclopedia on football films (930—933). However, the documentary’s digital availability coincided with an increase in scholarly engagement. In line with the agency’s promotion of the film, Alan McDougall called attention to Cantzler’s work, presenting it to the academic football discourse as a critical cinematic witness of Germany’s recent past ( The People’s Game; “Whose Game is it Anyway? ”; “Eyes on the Ball”)� Building on McDougall’s work, this essay shifts the understanding of Grüne Hölle from a historical document to a cultural artifact which bears complex layers of meaning comprised of symbolism, careful montage, and cultural references� Immediately in Grüne Hölle’s first scene, the audience is presented with an aura of conflict. Cantzler’s opening medium shot shows us the lower part of a house’s exterior wall-a building that has clearly seen better days� Its grey, crumbling concrete facade displays a shoemaker’s decomposing shop sign as well as a label cut off by the film’s frame reading “Anfertigung” (manufacture). On this image of decay, which raises the question if there is in fact anything still being manufactured at the store, someone had painted in white letters the words ‘Eisern Union,’ the slogan of Berlin-Köpenick’s football team 1� FC Union Berlin� Likely intended by the anonymous ‘artist’ as a territory marking for rival fans, this graffiti can also be read-detached from its football context-as a defiant political message� While the German adjective “eisern” stands for qualities such as relentlessness, rigidity, perseverance and resilience, the noun “Union” holds a semantic breadth spanning from the alliance and confederation of states to fusion and unity� With the latter’s political connotations, the football slogan takes on the role of a publicly displayed dissident code that both rejects Germany’s status quo of separation and posits a demand for a united nation� Acoustically, the film’s opening is accompanied by forceful bugle sounds, an aggressively loud off-screen crowd shouting the Union slogan, and a long piercing whistle, which could easily appear to those unfamiliar with the world of football as the beginning of a battle. With only one shot and five seconds into Grüne Hölle, Cantzler has established the central themes for his documentary: an ailing society, the notion of unity, and the looming threat of violence� As the bugle sounds grow louder, a J-cut reveals the alleged ‘battleground’ for political change� It is Karl-Marx-Stadt’s Dr�-Kurt-Fischer-Stadium where at that exact moment the referee had ended a football ‘battle’ after 90 minutes� At the center, a celebrating goalkeeper abruptly turns toward the standing terraces to welcome an enthusiastic supporter onto the pitch� Just moments earlier, the latter had climbed the security fence and crossed the cinder track� These compromised demarcations within the stadium build the focal points of the following actions� As the camera closes in on the supporters’ section, viewers become aware of numerous others who have also started climbing the barriers� At the same time, East German police forces are frantically charging onto the cinder track which, just moments ago, had served as a no-man’s-land between players and fans� However, their initial attempt to prevent the Berliners from uniting in celebration with those eleven men wearing their red and white colors failed� Eventually, the police’s resistance ceases and their green uniforms are swallowed by the celebrating masses. The pitch fills up quickly with hundreds of Union supporters who stream onto the field from multiple entry points within the stadium. The lines of division are temporarily suspended as field and terraces have merged into one space of joy� Ecstatic Berliners embrace each other East Germans Rehearse the Uprising 33 34 Oliver Knabe while singing, screaming, and waving their flags to celebrate a last-minute victory, which saved the club from seemingly inevitable relegation� The film then moves forward and a few days later, back in Berlin, eyewitness Mathias Dächsel recalls these moments in an interview at the local pub Grüne Hölle, the fan club’s regular meeting site� Ick bin gleich runter zum Zaun, und rüber, bin zwar oben noch fast hängen jeblieben aber ick hab es irgendwie jeschafft. Und auf eenmal stand vor mir irgend so ‘n Ordnungshüter und hat jemeint, ick soll wieder zurück, oder so� Da habe ick ihm bedeutet: „Na, warum soll ick denn jetzt alleene wieder zurück, wenn hunderte schon druf sind? Wat nützt es denn da, wenn ick da och zurückgehe? Ick will bloß meiner Mannschaft mal gratulieren�“ Da hat er och nüscht weiter jesagt� Konnte er och nüscht weiter sagen� Und da war ja och nüscht weiter� Die Leute haben da jejubelt, haben den Spielern die Souvenirs ausjezogen, dass die dann nur noch in Hosen runterjejangen sind und so� […] Und dann sind sie auch alle friedlich runter vom Rasen� 11 Colored in a thick Berlin dialect, Dächsel’s recollections of this game in Karl- Marx-Stadt in May 1988 bear a number of striking similarities to the border-crossing narratives that would emerge one and half years later: the initial reluctance of those guarding the demarcations, their eventual withdrawal, the borderline’s asynchronous collapse, people bringing back a souvenir, an exuberant but peaceful celebration followed by the eventual return� Even the familiar assurances of the November-9-border-crossers, that the trip to the other side would only be temporary and would simply serve as a brief reunion with someone dear to them, was part of Dächsel’s prophetic anecdote� What is neither mentioned by Dächsel here nor addressed by Cantzler in his Karl-Marx-Stadt narrative are the critical moments during that day� Prior to the celebrations-and seconds after the home team had gained yet another one-goal advantage-the film crew witnessed the game’s first breach of the stadium’s fencing� While it did not make it into the documentary, this initial, more aggressive advance by the Berlin supporters did not go unnoticed by the state’s secret police, as evidenced by their report� Nach der Halbzeitpause des Spiels gelang es ca. 150 Anhängern des 1. FC Union Berlin sich in den Block hinter dem Tor des FC Karl-Marx-Stadt zu begeben, was zu diesem Zeitpunkt Block der Gastgeber war� Als in der 68� Spielminute das 2: 1 für Karl-Marx- Stadt fiel, trieben die Anhänger des 1. FC Union Berlin die umliegenden Gastgeberanhänger in die Flucht� (Lehnert 2) A similar omission must be noted for the hours after the game� On their way back to the capital, approximately one-thousand Berliners continued their celebration aboard an overcrowded train� Intoxicated by their team’s victory and considerable amounts of alcohol, the supporters did not only delay their own arrival through the repeated illegal use of the train’s emergency breaks but also engaged in considerable vandalism� The list of damages, recorded duteously once again by the Stasi, reads as follows: So wurden in diesem Wagen die Fenster von 2 Wagentüren beschädigt, eine WC-Tür herausgebrochen, die gesamte Beleuchtung beschädigt, die Querstreben der Gepäckfächer herausgebrochen und die Deckenverkleidung teilweise aufgebrochen� Diese Beschädigungen wurden durch das mitreisende Kamerateam einer Dokumentarfilmgruppe der DEFA aus Babelsberg nach der Fahrt aufgezeichnet� (Ibid� 1—2) Grüne Hölle’s cinematic composition relies heavily on train scenes and, during its second half, on images of violence� Yet, these particular visuals of destruction from the return ride to Berlin, though evidently recorded by Cantzler’s camera crew, were omitted in the final cut altogether. What could appear as diplomatic deletions for the sake of the film’s mission- to provide the public with a more balanced image of football fans-is in fact part of the documentary’s underlying montage strategy� 12 By leaving out the block invasion and escape shots during the match as well as the vandalism afterward, the film’s Karl-Marx-Stadt narrative remains exclusively focused on the positive idea of a joyous party and a season’s happy ending� If we comprehend the collapsing stadium demarcations in Karl-Marx-Stadt in their metaphoric (and, indeed, prophetic) sense, then Ernst Cantzler’s opening scenes are very much in line with his actual pre-Wende views as they relate to the durability of the inner German border� In 2018, Grüne Hölle producer Rainer Baumert recalls that “Ernst war zum Beispiel so einer, der schon früh meinte, die Mauer fällt irgendwie” (Baumert and Drachsel)� 13 The binary structure of the film with its clear-cut separation of peaceful and violent imagery suggests that “ irgendwie” ( somehow) could only mean one of two scenarios� Through this lens and read as an allegory, the pitch invasion and the subsequent celebrations in Karl-Marx-Stadt become more than just the climax of a thrilling final season match but instead an optimistic outlook at the resolution of a decades-long conflict. We witness the sudden decomposition of established spatial textures that used to be staples for the organization of a collective� More importantly, the act of transcending these lines of division occurs-not least due to the film’s montage strategy-without the hint of any aggression or the forceful intervention of the state authorities� The images of public disorder-and thus the film’s violence-based scenario for the end of East German confinement-are reserved for the second part of the film. Despite possible state reprisals, Cantzler even discussed the Wall’s potential vulnerability publicly, specifically what he saw as the biggest threat to the inner East Germans Rehearse the Uprising 35 36 Oliver Knabe German border. One month prior to November 9, during a panel discussion following the film’s premiere at Neubrandenburg’s Documentary and Short Film Festival (October 9-12, 1989), the filmmaker warned of the rising resentments shared among the GDR’s adolescents, emotional states that he had witnessed first-hand during filming. Football and the country’s state line, he insinuates, are closely linked� Sie durchliefen ein Schulwesen, daß sie fast zwanghaft zu einer Doppelmoral erzogen hat� Irgendwann suchen sie nach Selbstverwirklichung� Irgendwann versuchen sie, die gesellschaftlichen Fesseln abzuwerfen� Der Druck wird immer größer� Irgendwann geht dann das Ventil eben auf - natürlich an der falschen Stelle� Wo sollen sie auch ihren Frust ablassen? An der Mauer oder wo? 14 (Cantzler qtd� in Hübner 35) While Cantzler is obviously not in support of spectator violence, he does not like the alternative either: a bloodbath at the inner German border� “An der Mauer oder wo? ” he asks� Where else if not in the football stadium, he seems to suggest as the game provides these young East Germans with a space where this “Ventil” (valve) can open while its consequences can be contained� If the stadium could no longer serve as a ground for what he thought of as a “proxy war” (“Stellvertreterkrieg,” Cantzler and Drachsel 21), the frustrations and aggressions would find alternate, more politically dire outlets that could set the country up for unpredictable and uncontrollable outbursts of violence, a scenario that ultimately would jeopardize the state’s entire existence� Cantzler’s understanding of football stadiums as compensatory spaces corresponds with Timm Beichelt’s concept of “Ersatzspielfelder” (“other fields of engagement”). 15 In his 2018 study about the relationship of football and power ( Ersatzspielfelder. Zum Verhältnis von Fußball und Macht) , Beichelt outlines the game’s societal function as well as its role as a medium fraught with meanings that allows us to understand football as more than just a game and thus Grüne Hölle as more than just a film about football fans: Fußball ist […] als abgegrenztes ‚Feld‘ zu verstehen, in dem spezifische Regeln und Normen mit einer gesamtgesellschaftlichen Dimension existieren. Fußball stellt (auch) für Nichtfußballer einen Möglichkeitsraum für soziales Handeln dar. Darüber hinaus fungiert er als Projektionsfläche für gesellschaftliche Deutungen, die nicht primär etwas mit dem Sport zu tun haben müssen� (18) Within these fields, society is given the opportunity to break established rules and challenge conventions in a playful manner (ibid�)� Grüne Hölle takes these functions of the game verbatim� It projects the East German football stadium as an “Ersatzspielfeld” on which the citizens of the GDR rehearse their political revolution by breaking through its established structures, hence challenging the existing order and norms that govern this space� ‘Where else if not in the football stadium? ’ The rhetorical nature of this question becomes evident when we recall the game’s qualities as well as its specific spatial manifestations in the GDR and compare them with the zeitgeist and conditions of the late East German state� On the stands, the spectators grapple with feelings of injustice while being engrossed in the dichotomous mindset of ‘us vs� them�’ Furthermore, East German football mirrored the juncture of uncertainty and predictability in everyday life of the GDR� On the one hand, the widespread sense of inner unrest and ambivalence resulting from an omnipresent surveillance apparatus is reflected in the spectator’s experience of abrupt turns from ecstasy and joy to agony, despair, and apathy� The country’s limited opportunities for an individual’s self-fulfillment, on the other hand, find their counterpart in the predetermined outcomes of each Oberliga-season during the 1980s� For ten years, the East German Championship was-in questionable ways-awarded to a single team, rendering individual successes for the large majority of competitors and their fans often less meaningful� But more than these emotional and psychological facets of East German football, it is the structural setup of the Fußballstadion that allows for a metaphoric equation of football spectatorship and life in the GDR� In the pursuit for a stadium atmosphere that would be representative of a socialist state on the one hand and in accordance with UEFA guidelines on the other, in 1985, the German Football Association of the GDR (Deutscher Fußball-Verband der DDR) developed a comprehensive catalog of principles and proactive measures entitled Richtlinien für die Gewährleistung von Ordnung und Sicherheit bei Fußballveranstaltungen des DFV der DDR. Ironically this very catalog outlined the East German stadium as a space of confinement through division (Deutscher Fußball-Verband der DDR 1)� 16 Among other provisions, the officials called for an enforced securing of both teams’ supporters’ sections through separate locations within the stadium (7)� 17 Additionally, the rivaling fan groups were supposed to be distanced from one another through the placement of law enforcement personnel between these two sides� 18 The two supporters’ sections were to be further separated amongst themselves into Sektoren which should be traversed by barriers� Away crowds were to observe the game as far away from the pitch as possible, and the pitch, in turn, was to be surrounded by mandatory fences with a minimum height of 2�20 meters (8)� Through the repeated use of long shots, Cantzler not only captures the totality of the space Fußballstadion, but he also manages to establish the range and quantity of its demarcations� We see inward curved fencing structures pointed East Germans Rehearse the Uprising 37 38 Oliver Knabe at the spectators, a design that bears an undeniable resemblance to the barbwire which dominated the image of significant portions of the Berlin Wall. Called Schutzzaun (protection fence, Zentraler Operativstab 3), this fence’s name even echoed the state’s official language for the Wall ( Antifaschistischer Schutzwall, Anti-fascist Protection Wall)� Thus, both structures carry a similar ambiguity between those being protected and those posing the threat� Furthermore, we are shown the vast vacuum between supporters and the field, aggressive canine units, endless lines of policemen, and additional security forces, all strikingly reminiscent of the Berlin Wall� Cantzler’s medium shots from within these cagelike spaces, then, immerse us into the crowds of spectators� But instead of seeing their game- Grüne Hölle in fact shows very little football footage-we witness the rising pressure created by the confinement and the fans’ restlessness. The latter is constantly underscored by the cacophonous and discordant music by Aljoscha Rompe, the lead singer of East German punk band Feeling B� Through this unsettling point of view, we start to sense the actual fragility of this space despite its surplus of security: our feeling that a valve might soon burst open increases� Even during the interview sequences inside the protagonist’s apartment, Cantzler keeps the focus on the stadium’s demarcations� In his conversation with Andreas Schwadten, the director addresses the fan club’s potential involvement in securing Union Berlin’s games themselves in the role as voluntary stewards (“Ordner”)� While this measure had already been implemented by several football clubs for the purpose of de-escalation, Schwadten rejects this scenario emphatically, clarifying that none of his fan club’s members, including himself, would partake in these practices� When asked why, his retort is outright and unapologetic: “Ne, weil ich sowas nicht mache,” as if a matter of principle. With the stadium as a metaphoric placeholder for the entire East German state in mind, Schwadten’s disapproval of security measures which are carried out by the fans suddenly becomes less of an indifferent attitude toward football-related violence but instead a clear statement that he is not willing to assist in maintaining the demarcations and conventions that limit his freedom� It is fitting that Cantzler interrupts this dialogue a few moments later and shifts the film’s narrative briefly to a space that represents these exact hopes for increased mobility, a moving train� 19 With this change in location, the atmosphere, though festive, suddenly gains a revolutionary tone� As Schwadten chants the following lines in high spirits, his previous assertion of non-participation has been replaced by a subversive call for the annihilation of precisely those forces that perpetuate his imprisonment: Wenn der Einsatzwagen brennt und ein Schupo leise flennt leise piepst das Funkgerät alle Knüppel sind zersägt alle Akten sind verstaut alle Knarren sind geklaut über Nacht ist es gescheh’n Deutscher Meister Union Berlin Similar to the ‘Zonenlied,’ the prophecy of an all-German championship is here synonymous with reunification and thus the end of the East German state. However, the revolutionary means proposed in this song go even beyond what had been suggested in the famous fan chant� Aggressions are not only directed at the border or resolved through the locking up of policemen but also through arson, vandalism, and larceny� The plight of the “Schupo” ( Schutzpolizist) is left ambiguous but his crying suggests that physical assault is not to be entirely ruled out� After the metaphoric opening of a peaceful end to Germany’s division, this song introduces the somber alternative: the valve opening at the wrong end� To emphasize what is at stake, the film returns to the interview of Andreas Schwadten who, when asked what he disliked and liked in life, answered: “Ja, ankotzen tut mich, dass ich nicht rüber kann, wa, nach ‘n Westen. Naja, und was ich gut finde: Na Union find’ ich gut! ” In these two short responses, the film posits both the central conflict for many GDR citizens (division) as well as its resolution (unification). Grüne Hölle then continues to explore the option of violent confrontation as presented in the song. The film transitions from Schwadten’s apartment to Berlin’s Chausseestraße, a street close to the Stadion der Weltjugend and only a stone’s throw away from the Berlin Wall� 20 Through the positioning of the camera, the viewers find themselves placed in the middle of the road where a broad wall-like formation of football fans is moving quickly towards them� Determined and stretching across the entire street, this crowd makes it clear that a collision is inevitable only to overrun the camera seconds later� In 2018, scriptwriter Burghard Drachsel remembered this scene vividly, likening it to a “Demonstrationszug,” and adding: “Das ist schon Aufstand� Da ist schon eine Macht dahinter” (Baumert and Drachsel)� In the fall of 1989, this rebellious force found an outlet in the famous Montagsdemonstrationen (Monday demonstrations) as hundreds of thousands took their anger and frustrations to the East German streets� At the time of Grüne Hölle’s premiere, its audience was certainly sensitive to the contiguities between the historic developments and the images they had just seen on the screen� In the immediate aftermath of the brutal suppression of a peaceful protest by GDR citizens on Republic Day 1989, East Germans Rehearse the Uprising 39 40 Oliver Knabe one viewer attending Neubrandenburg’s post-screening discussion (apparently with access to the affairs of East German film distributor Progress) described his reaction to Grüne Hölle as follows: Inzwischen habe ich die Gelegenheit gehabt, den Film dreimal zu sehen, heute das erste Mal in einem vollen Kinosaal. Betroffenheit und Aufmerksamkeit waren woher so nicht erlebbar� Heute sehe ich den Film natürlich ganz anders� Die Zeitungen sind in Bewegung� Im Kontext der Bilder vom Wochenende und der Ereignisse der vorangegangenen Tage sieht vieles anders aus - Stiefel, Gummiknüppel und Hunde� (Hübner 35) Clashes between police forces and GDR citizens are also at the center of Union’s next game against Lokomotive Leipzig� As if to prepare the audience for the unsettling scenes from Saxony, the film quickly reminds us that football unrests are indeed only symptoms of a much larger issue� Back once again in Andreas Schwadten’s apartment, Ernst Cantzler confronts his protagonist with what appears to be the filmmaker’s personal take on the continuous hostilities in and around the GDR’s football stadiums: “Sag mal, siehst du da möglicherweise einen Zusammenhang mit den zunehmenden Randalen in den Stadien und zu dem, was hier in dem Lande im Augenblick passiert? ” (Cantzler)� Ultimately asked for nothing less than his view on the state of the Republic with a DEFA camera rolling, Schwadten appears tense and even cornered� This impression is underscored by the narrowness of the interview’s indoor location where he finds himself sitting between a wall and a shelf with the camera blocking his only way out� After quickly considering his options, he decides to carefully acknowledge what Cantzler seems to be suggesting to him: “Na, en kleener is gewiss da. Uff jeden Fall. Dit wurde zwar ‘ne Menge übernommen von drüben, weeste […] aber ‘n kleener Zusammenhang wird da schon da sein� Dass die Unzufriedenheit da irgendwie rauskommt, weeste? ” 21 In this response, Schwadten’s predicament is on clear display� As he has to weigh potential reprisals by the state with his own personal convictions, his answer shows not only attempts to deflect from the domestic spectator violence (“von drüben”/ “from the other side”) and diminish its link to the GDR’s political plight (“kleener Zusammenhang”/ “small connection”) but it is also comprised of linguistic dissonances that reflect his inner strife (“gewiss”/ “certainly,” “Uff jeden Fall”/ “Defintely! ,” “da schon”/ “likely”)� In the end, he even obscures the gravity of the situation when he, almost euphemistically, calls the cause for the football-related disorders “Unzufriedenheit” (discontent)� Yet, it is more than just discontentment that we see moments later, when, inside Leipzig’s Bruno-Plache Stadium, aggressive forces are unleashed� Shouting the club’s slogan “Eisern Union,” the crowd’s emotions grow stronger by the minute and fans soon start to challenge the demarcations of the stadium� They climb on top of the security fences that separate them from the field while pyrotechnics are thrown onto the no-man’s-land cinder track� The riotous quality of this force is once again highlighted by Aljoscha Rompe’s punk rock music (“Assilied”) which, at this point, resembles an unmelodious pile of notes� Having lost any sense for harmony, the soundtrack expresses not only the bottled-up frustrations of these East German men but also serves as an acoustic harbinger for the images of chaos that immediately follow� With supporters violently shaking the fences, the lines that separate the away crowd from the home sections, as well as the football pitch, are on the verge of collapse� While his cinematographer Michael Lösche was capturing these images, Grüne Hölle producer Rainer Baumert already sensed the symbolic nature of this scene, describing it retrospectively as the moment “wo an der Mauer gerüttelt wird” (Baumert and Drachsel)� Additional emphasis is given to the wall’s fragility by a fan banner attached to the fence, reading “Union” and “Hertha BSC�” This message is not simply a profession of sympathy between the fan scenes of these two Berlin clubs; it insinuates a natural unity between East (Union) and West (Hertha) at large� Moments later, the metaphoric wall indeed comes down and Grüne Hölle’s second revolution begins� Unlike Karl-Marx-Stadt’s breach, however, Leipzig’s is followed by consequences� With the demarcations annihilated, violence immediately unfolds and the situation on the stands escalates� Footage of merciless chases and fights between the two fan groups across the concrete stairs is interwoven with images of Leipzig’s stewards who are administering first aid to an injured fan� Through the stadium’s speakers, the uncontrolled masses are called upon to immediately quit their “rowdyhaftes Verhalten” but to no avail� Meanwhile, police forces use their truncheons as they attempt to keep the riot at bay� 22 Ultimately, these scenes are no longer just limited to the spectator stands� As aggressions reach the other side of the fence (the cinder track and the pitch), the viewer witnesses an overwhelmed police unit which, in keystone cop style, pursues an out-of-control fan mob through the stadium� Ernst Cantzler had sarcastically suggested the Wall as an ‘alternative’ venue for these extreme acts of violence to the visitors of the panel discussion in Neubrandenburg when he asked: “An der Mauer oder wo? ” Through Grüne Hölle’s Leipzig game, the filmmaker presented them metaphorically with just that scenario: a revolution that is driven by destructive forces and results in casualties� Ultimately this type of violence never reached the jurisdiction of East Germany’s border-guards and ‘only’ challenges Leipzig’s Volkspolizei that day� Grüne Hölle’s Leipzig unrests are visually linked to the widespread phenomenon of football hooliganism� This international practice characterized by (mostly East Germans Rehearse the Uprising 41 42 Oliver Knabe male) violence and disobedience had gained in popularity within East German football fan scenes since the 1970s and had become a regular occurrence by the mid-1980s (Dennis, “Soccer Hooliganism in the German Democratic Republic” 56; Dennis, “A People's Game” 213—214; McDougall, The People’s Game 201)� “Football,” McDougall writes, “served as a vehicle of Cold War cultural transfer, fostering interests and behavior that transcended the Iron Curtain� Hooliganism was part of this crossover” ( The People’s Game 203)� Adopting this culture from the other side (“von drüben”), as Schwadten had put it during the interview, established questionable routines in East German football such as the ‘ third half ’ ( Dritte Halbzeit) 23 and the invasion of the opponent’s supporters’ section ( Blocksturm) � Through the manifestation of such martial rituals in the GDR’s stadiums, the East German spectators tied their football culture visually to the game’s western, particularly English traditions� One case in point are Leipzig’s chase scenes on the terraces which bear striking resemblances to the infamous 1985 Heysel stadium disaster in Brussels. Before the kickoff of the annual European Cup final, Liverpool’s hooligans had charged at Juventus supporters, driving them across the stands before a collapsing wall buried numerous fans in their desperate attempt to escape� The confrontation resulted in the deaths of thirty-nine people (most of whom were from Italy) and injury of hundreds more� 24 The visual parallels between these two block invasions are no coincidence as Grüne Hölle would demonstrate a few moments later� During a train ride scene, a group of supporters display a large British flag for the camera, the Union Jack, while they repeatedly chant the name “Liverpool�” The shout that follows, “hooligans, hooligans,” makes it abundantly clear that the fan’s behavior in Leipzig is to be understood as an alignment with the extreme acts of violence carried out by the English� Football hooliganism had become a multi-layered act of Grenzüberschreitung, a German term that can mean both border-crossing or border violation as well as transgression of limits and boundaries� In addition to literally overrunning the demarcations of the Bruno-Plache Stadium and therefore violating the norms and rules of the community, the East German spectator, by embodying this English ‘tradition,’ was provided with a sense of having crossed into the West, though not physically but at least in spirit� In this way, East German hooliganism became an act of simultaneous cultural association (Western Bloc) and dissociation (Eastern Bloc, GDR)� The latter is further achieved linguistically since the term ‘hooligan’ as a self-designation stood in opposition to the GDR’s established language where officials consistently spoke of ‘Rowdy,’ ‘Rowdytum,’ or ‘rowdyhaftem Verhalten’ (hooligan, hooliganism, rowdy behavior)� In this light, the destructive performances seen in Grüne Hölle held a paradoxically productive value for its agents since it served as a reformative act of their rejected East German identities� While hooliganism’s practices had been manifested in numerous European countries at the time, they found especially fertile grounds in the German Democratic Republic with its geographical tightness and what many perceived as parochial living conditions� The East German hooligan, Wolfgang Engler maintains, “war […] ein in die Grenzen der DDR gebannter Gewalttourist, der, aufgrund dieses klaustrophobischen Gefühls, nur desto erbitterter die Fäuste reckte” (125)� One could even argue that the cultural, psychological, and spatial tightness of the country enabled these violent transgressions in the first place rather than merely amplifying them� In The Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon stresses physical and psychological confinement as fundamental factors for the violence witnessed during the national liberation movements of former colonies in Northern Africa. The colonial subject is a man penned in […] The first thing the colonial subject learns is to remain in his place and not overstep its limits. Hence the dreams of the colonial subject are muscular dreams, dreams of action, dreams of aggressive vitality� I dream I am jumping, swimming, running, and climbing� I dream I burst out laughing, I am leaping across a river and chased by a pack of cars that never catches up with me� During colonization the colonial subject frees himself night after night between nine in the evening and six in the morning. The colonized subject will first train this aggressiveness sedimented in his muscles against his own people� This is the period when black turns on black, and police officers and magistrates don’t know which way to turn when faced with the surprising surge of North African criminality. 25 (15—6) Despite the important differences in cultural and historical specificities, Fanon’s exposition of this interdependence between violence and psycho-somatic states of constraint echoes the desire of many East Germans for action (crossing, climbing, running) as seen in Cantzler’s documentary� Hooliganism allowed these men to satisfy their “muscular dreams” of “aggressive vitality,” training it against those who were, like them, penned into the stadium and into the confines of the German Democratic Republic, a space governed by authoritarian rule� In Grüne Hölle, the stadium and the state symbolically become one, the citizens’ entrapment is temporarily defined by the demarcations of the Fußballstadion � It is there, on that testing ground where East Germans rehearsed their uprising for ninety minutes, usually on Fridays and Saturdays, sometime between three and seven o’clock in the afternoon� Of the two scenarios for a revolution laid out in Grüne Hölle, ultimately the course of history chose the peaceful end to Germany’s decades-long divide� The violent forces that we see in Leipzig’s Bruno-Plache Stadium were never unleashed at the inner German border� History eventually caught up with the East Germans Rehearse the Uprising 43 44 Oliver Knabe film’s prophetic messages which, at the time, could not be fully understood even by those involved in the documentary’s making� This includes scriptwriter Burghard Drachsel who, indeed, believed, “dass das Rütteln an den Gittern [in Leipzig] das Signal für eine Veränderung der Gesellschaft ist�” However, he did not understand these moments as an omen for the fall of the Wall but instead as a signal of necessary and impending change that would entail profound political transformations. “Wir saßen in einem Käfig und der war umfassender als die Mauer� All diese Verkrustungen, in denen wir gelebt haben in der DDR, mussten weg” (Baumert and Drachsel)� Similarly, producer Rainer Baumert felt the emblematic quality of Grüne Hölle’s images during the shooting, yet he did not consider them to be a harbinger for one of Germany’s biggest political cesuras either� “Ich habe nicht geglaubt, dass die Russen das jemals aufgeben� Insofern war das [Rütteln an den Zäunen] schon eher ein Symbol� Aber ich hatte damals nicht den Gedanken: Es ist soweit, die Mauer fällt” (Baumert and Drachsel)� Although their interpretations eventually differ, both men experienced the football stadium as a space that carried the symbolic� They recognized the scenes from Saxony as transcending moments, as something that took the events at Bruno-Place Stadium beyond the sole game and instead spoke about East German society as a whole� It is this symbolic quality that gives Cantzler’s documentary critical value as a witness to the final GDR days. Arising out of a cultural environment that threatened its artists and artifacts with censorship and bans, this film often delivers its messages past the spoken word as one final look into Andreas Schwadten’s apartment shall demonstrate. He is not unmoved by the current political developments inside and outside of the country, Schwadten tells Cantzler. “Kalt lässt mich das natürlich nicht, uff keenen Fall. Aber groß interessieren tu ick mich dafür nicht� Man hört so was man so hört� […] Ob du dir da Gedanken drüber machst […] dit nützt ja im Endeffekt doch nüscht�” When directly confronted with political questions, Schwadten often reverts to diversionary language or, in this case, to responses channeling fatalism, indifference, and hopelessness. Yet, the football cosmos that always surrounds him conveys a different idea. Just like his singing on the train, the setting of Schwadten’s private space holds a revolutionary message� Comprised of two colors, blue and red, a collage of football pennants decorates the wall behind him� Representing West German Hertha BSC (blue) and East German Union (red), this collection of fan memorabilia is strictly organized by club: Hertha on the left, Union on the right� The arrangement thus follows a pattern of west and east division, mirroring the geopolitical realities of both Berlin as well as Germany� “Hertha und Union, dit war schon immer so jewesen,” 26 Schwadten says with an unmistakable tone of self-evidence� He insinuates a bond that holds this city together despite its political partition; they have always been two sides of one coin, and they always will be� 27 Unlike Schwadten’s entirely pessimistic response, his wall decoration is an expression of optimism and political conviction� In Grüne Hölle, football’s metaphoric language dares to speak where the protagonist leaves gaps and contradictions or where censorship obscures the narrative� 28 The tensions that emerge from such a story provide today’s viewer with a unique sense of a late East German zeitgeist, mirroring all its conflicts, worries, as well as the people’s (unspoken) aspirations� Notes 1 “30 meters in square / only minefield and barbwire / now you know where I live / I live in the GDR […] but at one point all this will change / then we will tear down the Wall / we will lock up all the pigs / [Union] will be German Champion�” As the ‘Zonenlied’ was sung by various fan scenes all over the German Democratic Republic, the club’s name in the last line was simply substituted to match the name of the supporters’ team� 2 Describing the sentimental longing for East German times and/ or culture, Ostalgie (eastalgia) is a blend word that consists of the German terms ‘Osten’ and ‘Nostalgie.’ 3 In the 2022/ 2023 season, only one former East German Oberliga team (1� FC Union Berlin) participated in the highest federal men’s competition, the Bundesliga. From 2009/ 10 to 2018/ 19, the eighteen slots have been filled entirely by former West-German clubs (and since 2016 by RB Leipzig which was founded in 2009)� A similar though not quite as strong dominance of former West German teams can be seen in Germany’s highest football competition for women, the Frauen-Bundesliga (Women’s Federal League)� Only two former GDR clubs, Jena and Potsdam, have managed to maintain a substantial presence in this twelve-club league after reunification. With the turn of the century, Turbine Potsdam has been able to consistently play at the top level, securing national championships, several cup wins, as well as international trophies� 4 A common way for football crowds to defame the GDR was to call for the destruction of the Wall� One particular fan cheer-“Die Mauer muss weg/ The Wall has to go”-enjoyed great popularity whenever a freekick close to the opponent’s goal was given� The football context provided the fans with some freedoms as it was not entirely clear to critical observers whether the supporters were referring to the nation’s borderline or to the set of players forming a ‘wall’ to protect their goal� 5 Drei Mädchen im Endspiel (1955); Der Neue Fimmel (1960); Nicht Schummeln, Liebling! (1972); Der Nackte Mann auf dem Sportplatz (1973); Verzeihung, East Germans Rehearse the Uprising 45 46 Oliver Knabe sehen Sie Fußball? (1983); Frauen am Ball (1987); …und freitags in die “Grüne Hölle” (1989)� 6 Border-crossing in this context refers to the various strategies GDR citizens used to leave the country and is not limited to the physical passing of the inner German border alone� Such strategies involved (among others) escape routes through Hungry and the ČSSR. The Research Association SED-State ( Forschungsverbund SED-Staat ) at the Freie Universität Berlin recently adjusted the numbers for 1989� Based on records of the Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the Former German Democratic Republic, Jochen Staadt counted overall 115,592 citizens who escaped the GDR between January 1 and November 6. If one adds the individuals who left after successfully applying to leave the GDR (Ausreiseantrag) during that year, the total increases to 202,895 (Staadt)� 7 Cantzler mistakenly labelled the fan club as BSV Prenzlauer Berg� The fan club was actually called “Grüne Hölle,” named after the club’s favorite bar and meeting spot (Koch 354)� 8 The interview was recorded by the author of this article� 9 Grüne Hölle reflects the presence of racist ideologies in East Germany such as antisemitism and white supremacy� However, due to the limited scope of this article, the following analysis will focus exclusively on violent spectator behavior as it is connected to the notion of border-crossings� 10 The documentary as well as the Rückblick episode aired on June 16, 1994; the latter was moderated by Peter Claus� 11 “I immediately went down to the fence, and [climbed] over, almost got stuck but somehow made it� And all of a sudden, a steward appeared in front of me and stated I should go back, or something like that� I responded: “Well, why should I go back by myself, when hundreds [of fans] are already on [the pitch]? What good does it do, if I go back? I only want to congratulate my team�” To that he did not respond anything� He could not respond anything� And nothing more happened� The people cheered, stripped the souvenirs off the players, so that they walked off [the pitch] only in their shorts and so on. […] And then they all peacefully left the field.” All quotes from Grüne Hölle used in this article are taken from the 2007 Icestorm edition (Cantzler)� 12 In earlier versions of the film’s Montageszenarium , Cantzler and Drachsel had still included these images from the train ride� It can be assumed, however, that displaying the destruction of public property would have jeopardized the release of the documentary even more. The scene was officially cut on March 16, 1989 (Kaempffer 1). 13 Italics added by the author for emphasis� 14 Here, Cantzler echoes the thought and language of his protagonist Schwadten who, in a deleted scene, gives the following response to the filmmaker after Cantzler remarked that a stadium was the wrong place to release one’s personal hatred and aggressions: “Wo sollen sie das denn ablassen, an der Mauer oder wo? Irgendwo muß ja der Zoff mal raus” (Cantzler and Drachsel 32)� 15 Beichelt’s term “Ersatzspielfeld” allows for a variety of translations: replacement playing field, surrogate playing field, as well as compensatory playing field. They all capture the roles that the game of football plays in society. 16 “Jedes Fußballspiel muß von einer der sozialistischen Gesellschaftsordnung entsprechenden Atmosphäre geprägt sein�” These directives were part of an official resolution by the Office of the Federal Executive Board of the German Gymnastics and Sports Federation ( Sekretariat des Bundesverbandes des Deutschen Turn- und Sportbundes ) from August 20, 1985, and they were written in response to the continuing violence among football crowds which had grown strong especially during the 1980s� They also followed in the aftermath of Brussels’ Heysel stadium disaster in May 1985 (Dennis, “Soccer Hooliganism in the German Democratic Republic” 63)� 17 “Verstärkte Absicherung der Zuschauerblöcke beider Mannschaften durch getrennte Platzierungen in den Stadien�” 18 “Die Anhänger der Gastmannschaft sind in begrenzte Gruppen aufzuteilen und nicht auf den vordersten, dem Spielfeld am nächsten gelegenen Rängen unterzubringen� Kontakte zwischen den Anhängern der beiden Mannschaften sind zu vermeiden, dabei sind zwischen den Gäste- und Heimzuschauern Ordnungskräfte zu platzieren�” 19 By the time of the film’s first public screening at Neubrandenburg’s Documentary and Short Film Festival, history had charged the train symbol even further as it had become an actual path to freedom� Only a few days prior, on October 1, 1989, the first chartered train with East German refugees on board had arrived in Hof, Bavaria, after they had stayed for weeks at the West German embassy in Prague� 20 The name of the street, Chausseestraße, charges the scene even further with revolutionary meanings since this address was made famous by former East German dissident and singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann� In 1968, the blacklisted artist recorded an album illegally in his apartment, which was located at Chausseestraße 131, an address that would also serve as the album’s title� 21 “Well, a small one certainly exists. Definitely! Although a lot has been adopted from the other side, you know […] but a small connection probably exists. The discontent will find a way out, you know? ” East Germans Rehearse the Uprising 47 48 Oliver Knabe 22 Later, during the train ride back to Berlin, it is revealed that police forces had used rubber bullets in addition to their truncheons in their attempt to fight off the advances of the supporters. 23 The Dritte Halbzeit was not only limited to violence within the stadium but also referred to physical fights outside the football grounds. They took place in the streets, at train stations, and in the city centers (McDougall, The People’s Game 205)� 24 The GDR’s officials were aware of the dangers that these fan disorders from Brussels could pose: “The Heysel disaster did not go unnoticed in East Germany� […] The Stasi issued a directive to all unit leaders on 30 May [1985], warning of the possible impact of Heysel on GDR hooligans” (McDougall, The People’s Game 204)� 25 Italics added by the author for emphasis� 26 “Hertha and Union, it has always been like this�” 27 In a deleted sequence of this interview, which has survived in one of the film’s earlier manuscripts, Schwadten assures Cantzler that both clubs are in fact “one and the same” (“das ist ja nun einunddasselbe, Hertha und Union,” Cantzler and Drachsel 5)� 28 For Grüne Hölle to be approved, Ernst Cantzler had to reshoot a scene in Andreas Schwadten’s apartment during which the protagonist discusses the violence in East German football� In this new footage, Schwadten partially revised statements he had made earlier in the film, thus providing slightly conflicting responses. Works Cited Baumert, Rainer, and Burghard Drachsel� Personal Interview� 02 August 2018� Beichelt, Timm� Ersatzspielfelder. Zum Verhältnis von Fußball und Macht. Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2018� Braun, Jutta� “The People's Sport? Popular Sport and Fans in the Later Years of the German Democratic Republic�” German History 27�3 (2009): 414—28� Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung� “Dokumentation: Und freitags in die Grüne Hölle | Bpb�” Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, 2014� Web� https: / / www�bpb�de/ mediathek/ video/ 178613/ und-freitags-in-die-gruene-hoelle/ � 25 Sept� 2021� Cantzler, Ernst and Burghard Drachsel� Montageszenarium. Film: Eisern Union. Juli 1988. Manuscript� BArch, DR-118� 2656� Bundesarchiv� Berlin� Cantzler, Ernst, director� … und freitags in die “Grüne Hölle.” Icestorm, 2007� Dennis, Mike� “A People's Game: Football in the German Democratic Republic�” Dislocation And Reorientation. Ed� Axel Goodbody, Pól O Dochartaigh and Dennis Tate� Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2009� 209—20� ---� “Soccer Hooliganism in the German Democratic Republic�” German Football: History, Culture, Society. Ed. Christopher Young and Alan Tomlinson. New York: Routledge, 2006� 52—72� Deutscher Fußball-Verband der DDR� Richtlinien für die Gewährleistung von Ordnung und Sicherheit bei Fußballveranstaltungen des DFV der DDR. (August 20, 1985). Document� BStU, MfS, HA XX/ 221� Berlin� Eisenfeld, Bernd� Anatomie der Staatssicherheit. Geschichte, Struktur und Methoden. Mfs-Handbuch. Berlin: BStU, 1996� Engler, Wolfgang� “Private Gewalt als Politischer Akt�” Stadionpartisanen. Fans und Hooligans der DDR. Edited by Frank Willmann. Berlin: Neues Leben, 2007. 121—5. Fanon, Frantz� The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press, 2004. Hübner, Martin� “Wenn ich Erich Honecker wäre … ” Film und Fernsehen. I ssue 10� (1990): 34—5� Kaempffer, Hubert. Einigung über Änderungen der Filmfassung vom 13.03.1989. (March 16, 1989). Document� BArch, DR-118� 2656� Bundesarchiv� Berlin� Koch, Matthias� “ Immer weiter - ganz nach vorn”. Die Geschichte des 1. FC Union Berlin. Göttingen: Verlag Die Werkstatt, 2013� Lehnert� Bericht zur Sicherung des Jugendlichen Fußballanhanges des 1.FC Union Berlin beim Spiel gegen den FC Karl-Marx-Stadt am 28.05.1988 um 15.00 Uhr in Karl-Marx- Stadt. (May 30, 1988). Document� BStU, MfS, BV Berlin, XX/ 3542� McDougall, Alan� “Eyes on the Ball: Screening Football in East German Cinema�” Studies in Eastern European Cinema 8�1 (2017): 4—18� ---� “Whose Game is it Anyway? A People's History of East German Football�” Radical History Review 2016�125 (2016): 35—54� ---� The People's Game: Football, State and Society in East Germany. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014� Rückblick. ( Episode From June 16, 1994, With Peter Claus, Ernst Cantzler, Günter Jordan, and Michael Lösche�) Brandenburg: East German Broadcast Brandenburg (ORB), 1994� Rüsch, Heinz� Einschätzung “Fan-Club. ” Document� BArch, DR 1-Z 1793� Bundesarchiv� Berlin� Schwab, Jan Tilman� Fußball Im Film. Lexikon Des Fußballfilms. München: Belleville, 2006� Staadt, Jochen� “Die DDR zuletzt� Impressionen des Machtzerfalls im SED-Staat�” Zeitschrift des Forschungsverbundes SED-Staat 44 (2019): 25—45� Uriah Heep� “Lady In Black�” Salisbury, Sydney Bron Music Co� Ltd, 1971� Zentraler Operativstab� Bericht über den Stand der Realisierung der Aufgabenstellung der Information des ZK der SED “Zur Lage auf den Fußballplätzen und Vorschläge zur Gewährleistung von Ordnung und Sicherheit im Zusammenhang mit Fußballspielen.” 30 Dezember 1985. Document� BStU, MfS, HA XX/ 221� Zum Einsatz des DEFA-Dokumentarfilms “…Und freitags in die Grüne Hölle.” Document� BArch, DR-118� 2656� Bundesarchiv� East Germans Rehearse the Uprising 49
