Before Hertha BSC’s home game against Schalke 04 in the 2nd Bundesliga, there were serious riots between Berlin fans and the police. In a statement late Saturday evening on Platform X, the police spoke of “violent attacks by individual fan groups on our emergency services.” Accordingly, the use of pepper spray was necessary “to protect the emergency services and uninvolved bystanders”. According to the current status, 21 emergency services and 31 fans were injured.
The Hertha BSC fan association presented the situation differently in a statement: “Before today’s game against the team from Gelsenkirchen, there was massive police violence against waiting fans at the entrance to the east curve.” There were “provocations by hundreds” and “an arrest for no apparent reason”.
The active fan scenes of both clubs reacted during the game with collective silence to what they saw as the disproportionate police action. At times during the game there were only denigrating chants against security forces from the stands, otherwise there was an oppressive atmosphere in the arena, which was filled with more than 70,000 spectators. Large parts of the Hertha fans left the east curve after around 20 minutes. They left a blue lettering with an insult to the police. The game ended 0-0.
Hertha managing director Peter Görlich also confirmed that there was “violence on both sides at the entrance to the east curve”. “We are currently gathering all the facts. We don’t want any speculation.”
Interior Senator Iris Spranger was also there at the game. It was “agreed that we would talk, but we would also like to talk to the police because we have been in discussions with the police at one point or another since the Interior Ministers’ Conference and we believe we can have a meaningful impact at one point or another,” said Görlich.
