Racist skinheads
The skinhead scene emerged at the end of the 1960s in the working-class neighbourhoods of Great Britain. White youths were drawn to the ska and reggae music of the Jamaican immigrants they grew up with, and, at first, adopted a fashion similar to the mod or Jamaican rude boy styles. In the 1970s the movement began to emphasise its working-class roots, reflecting it in the typical short-cropped or shaved hair and bomber jackets, jeans, braces and combat boots that is still recognisable today. The skinhead movement spread in Germany in the 1980s, but included very different political currents, from anti-racist to extreme right-wing. Right-wing, or racist, skinheads listened to Oi! punk and right-wing rock and were football fans. In addition to an extreme right-wing world view, they also shared a high propensity for violence.
Racist skinhead and thug groups such as the Savage Army, the Lohbrügge Army and the HSV hooligan group Die Löwen formed in Hamburg. The deaths of Ramazan Avcı, Mehmet Kaymakçı and Adrian Maleika were at the hands of racist Hamburg skinheads. Neo-Nazis like Michael Kühnen supplied the racist skinheads with extreme right-wing propaganda and tried to recruit new members for their organisations from among them. With joint actions after football matches, such as attacks on the flats on Hafenstrasse, which were occupied by left-wing autonomists, neo-Nazis specifically tried to use the skinheads' willingness to use violence for their political goals. In the 1990s, racist skinheads and neo-Nazis founded the Bramfelder Sturm Kameradschaft, from which the Hamburger Sturm group emerged.
In the 1980s and 1990s, racist skinhead violence was rampant, particularly in Bramfeld, Bergedorf and Harburg. Certain areas were besieged by them, especially after football matches. There were attacks on the street, on public transport, in pubs, in youth centres or at city festivals. In response to the increasing racist violence, immigrant youths banded together in street gangs to protect themselves.
