Zapfhahn88 at Konrad-Wolf-Strasse 88 was considered one of the few retreats of the extreme right in Alt-Hohenschönhausen since the closure of Wearwolf Streetware in 2008 [1] right next door (89). The BFC fan pub was the venue for the monthly meetings of the Lichtenberg NPD. Already on July 8, 2011, the bar served the NPD camouflage association “Pro Berlin-Lichtenberg e. V.” as a location for their meeting [2]. A little later, about a dozen neo-Nazis around Manuela and Dietmar Tönhardt met here every second Thursday of the month, supplied themselves with NPD material and usually went off afterwards to plaster stickers or damage civil society projects in the area [3]. Around 2015, actions against refugee accommodations and solidarity projects in the neighborhood were organized and carried out from here. Neo-Nazis photographed each other giving the Hitler salute during the NPD meeting or posed masked with pyrotechnics. All this happened with the knowledge and in the presence of the landlady [4][5].
After the racist mobilizations, the NPD quickly ran out of steam in the district. The activities of the Hohenschönhausen neo-Nazis were increasingly no longer carried out in the name of the local association, as is also shown by the sticker tours that continued to take place. Now, for example, propaganda of the Identitarian movement was increasingly being stickered. What remained of the NPD meeting place was a pub that continued to function as a retreat for Neo-Nazis from Berlin, as became apparent in 2019. The neo-Nazis of the NPD’s “Schutzzonen” campaign met here after standing guard elsewhere for the “Dienstagsgespräch” (regular event of fascist Hans-Ulrich Pieper with changing location). The bar was not open at the time, the group had a key [6].
The extreme right-wing activities that originated from the location had consequences. For this reason, we want to briefly summarize the antifascist interventions that we know about:
Continue reading The “Zapfhahn88” closes down – a chronology