The First Dead ...!



On October 17, 1982, the 16-year-old Bremen glass apprentice Adrian Malaika...



... and other fans of the football club “SV Werder Bremen” are on the way to a cup game that is to be played in the stadium in Bremen's neighboring city of Hamburg against the local “Hamburger SV”...



... that Hamburg will win 3-2.

Since there have been clashes between fans at this so-called "Northern Derby" in the past, the Bremen residents who are not looking for trouble want to make sure: They do not get off at the Stellingen S-Bahn station, which is closest to the stadium, and from police officers is monitored, but deliberately drive one station further, to the Eidelstedt S-Bahn station) and from there make their way to the stadium on foot.

There they are attacked by members of the Hamburg fan group “Die Löwen” ("The Lions"), notorious for their aggressiveness...



... in an industrial area not far from the Volksparkstadion.

This group was infiltrated by right-wing extremists and has been waiting for such smaller fan groups as the one in which Adrian Maleika is.

The Hamburg “fans” are deployed with gas pistols, tracer ammunition, CS gas, clubs and bricks.

While his friends escape, some injured, Adrian Maleika is hit in the head by a stone and goes to the ground, half unconscious. Although he is already on the ground, several hooligans are still kicking the 16-year-old - targeting the head!



Maleika is seriously injured but is brought to the Altona General Hospital alive, but dies there the next day from the consequences of the injuries (fracture of the base of the skull, cerebral haemorrhage).







He was buried on October 22, 1982 in the cemetery of Bremen-Huckelriede, the funeral service was also attended by the then manager of SV Werder, Willi Lemke, and HSV, Günter Netzer, as well as Werder vice-president Klaus-Dieter Fischer and Bremen's team captain Benno Möhlmann part.





On December 19, 1983, several members of the "Löwen" were convicted of bodily harm, breach of the peace or participating in a brawl before the 4th criminal chamber of the Hamburg district court.

One defendant was sentenced to two and a half years in prison, another was sentenced to ten months probation, and a woman was given ten labor interventions. Five defendants were acquitted. However, it remained unclear who killed Maleika.

Since October 17, 2012, 30 years after Adrian Maleika's death, there has been a memorial plaque in the east curve of Bremen's Weser Stadium.



He was the first and so far only dead person in connection with "fan" excesses in Germany.

He would be 39 years old today ...

Football - tribal warfare in another form. What sort of "sport fans" kick a man to death for supporting another team? Violence, racism, graft, sport-washing - all present in what the FA refers to as "the beautiful game". Ask Sepp Blatter - he knows....
Thanks Martin - I wasn't aware of this tragic incident.

Phil