Adrian Maleika, Werder Bremen fan, was 16 years young when he died. On October 16, 1982, the glazier’s apprentice made his way to the Volkspark Stadium with around 150 other Werder fans. HSV played against Bremen in the DFB Cup. Shortly before the stadium, the group is ambushed. First only fists fly, also flares – then stones. Maleika is hit in the back of the head by a cobblestone during the serious hooligan riots. He falls to the ground. Numerous kicks hit his body.
Hours later, his unconscious body is found in an adjacent grove. The next day, it is Sunday evening, October 17, 1982, Maleika dies in the Altona hospital as a result of a skull base fracture and cerebral hemorrhage. The stone thrower was never identified. Eight Hamburgers were charged, three convicted of serious breaches of the peace and dangerous bodily harm.
For Willi Lemke, then Werder manager, October 17, 1982 is the “saddest moment” of his long tenure, for his then colleague Günter Netzer it is “one of the greatest tragedies”. To this day, Maleika’s death overshadows the relationship between the two fan camps.
Fan projects against violence
Heavy riots and hunting scenes like this were part of everyday life in the Bundesliga in those days. Only Maleika’s death led to a rethink, it represented a kind of turning point in the fight against hooliganism in Germany. Clubs and associations increasingly took on the problems over the course of the 1980s, and many fan projects have emerged since then.
According to experts, such a tragedy in the Bundesliga is hard to imagine today because of the numerous security measures, but in the lower leagues or internationally, there are always violent riots, such as in the European Cup games of Eintracht Frankfurt in Marseille or 1. FC Köln in Nice.
Lemke still drives regularly through the row house settlement in Bremen where Maleika lived with his family. “We used to be almost neighbors,” Lemke told the Deichstube online portal, and in front of Maleika’s former house he always “gets a heavy heart. To this day I just can’t let go of it.”
October 17 is a day of remembrance, a day of mourning. In Bremen. Also in Hamburg. Exactly 40 years after the tragic death, HSV will inaugurate a commemorative plaque this Monday at the Volksparkstadion. “Also as a reminder for the future,” as they say.