[BITList] Tales from the Dark Side · Handelsblatt Global Edition

Mon May 11 12:21:23 BST 2015

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> https://global.handelsblatt.com/edition/174/ressort/european-lifestyles/article/the-nights-and-fights-of-a-hamburg-bouncer <https://global.handelsblatt.com/edition/174/ressort/european-lifestyles/article/the-nights-and-fights-of-a-hamburg-bouncer>
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>  <https://global.handelsblatt.com/>GERMANY’S LEADING BUSINESS AND FINANCE DAILY, FOUNDED IN 1946
> Lifestyles
> Show Menu <https://global.handelsblatt.com/>Home <https://global.handelsblatt.com/>NO. 174 <https://global.handelsblatt.com/>
> REEPERBAHN EXPOSED
> Tales from the Dark Side
> Called "Germany's most sinful mile," Hamburg's notorious red-light district has morphed in the age of urban redevelopment into more of a tourist attraction than a playground for off-duty sailors. One bouncer looks back on 30 years of fights, fake IDs and bankers letting loose.
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> “If your name’s not on the list, you’re not getting in.” Viktor Hacker, a bouncer tackling preconceptions. Source: Michael Wigglesworth/ NG
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> The Reeperbahn is Hamburg’s government-sanctioned red-light district and among the top nightlife areas in the port city in northern Germany. The stretch includes restaurants, sex shops, brothels, strip clubs and plenty of nightclubs and bars. Veteran bouncer Viktor Hacker left his post to sit down with Die Zeit reporter Cosima Schmitt.
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> Mr. Hacker, you’ve been working for almost 30 years in Hamburg’s red-light district – are all bouncers dumb and brutal?
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> Not at all. No club would allow that. We’re the first point of contact for visitors to a club.
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> So why is the title of the book you co-wrote with your colleagues Mark Büttner and Henning Geisler “Dumb and Brutal?”
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> We wanted to take on the cliches.
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> What kind of people are bouncers really?
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> Often quite even-tempered — guys with strong nerves. We have to deal with drunks that are hard to educate. We have to tell them that they shouldn’t drink other guests’ drinks. We’re the final educational authority: kindergarten staff, schoolteachers, bouncers — after that, there’s only the police.
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> You need to be strong to do the job.
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> Yes, we often have to carry drunks out of a club. That’s why there aren’t many women doing the job.
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> Do you have to use physical force to forbid someone from entering?
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> Forbid? I try to avoid that. I prefer to say to people, ‘You’re already pretty worn out, wouldn’t you prefer to go home?’ Or ‘That’s not your kind of music in there anyway.’ And if someone wants to punch me, I warn him: ‘Stop. I’ve been working as a bouncer for almost 30 years. Are any of my teeth missing? Does my nose look bashed-up?’ That makes many of them smile.
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> And if someone throws a punch anyway?
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> Then I floor him. But that’s the very last resort. My grandfather always said: “In a fight, you’ve got to be careful. For the police, whoever’s left standing is the culprit.” And he was right. When a guy is laid out on the sidewalk, policemen are likely to listen to all those prejudices about bouncers — that they’re primitive guys with a criminal background.
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> What is your background?
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> Many bouncers were professional soldiers like myself. Or they worked in construction. They do their job well. They can get down to it and can handle rain and snow.
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> All in all, it sounds like a tough job.
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> But it’s a blast! I participate in nightlife and get paid for it. And while I’m working, I can listen to the music I like. Like most bouncers, I’m independent and have always sought out clubs whose sound I like. Molotov, for example, or Headcrash.
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> Not least, you’re part of one of Hamburg’s best-known tourist attractions – people from all over the world come to the Reeperbahn.
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> It’s really amazing. There used to be a few thousand people out and about here. Today it’s up to 100,000 per night.
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> All the dimly-lit bars, bearded men and erotica give the area its saucy appeal.
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> But the area has changed a lot. The city wants to clean it up so that everyone feels safe here. The dingy, run-down holes in the wall are disappearing — but with them goes the naughty flair.
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> Is the area just living on its seedy past reputation?
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> The district was always a good party mile. But for me, the side streets are better than the Reeperbahn itself. Hamburger Berg, for instance, where I work — there are lots of clubs in that street and the party mood goes on till six in the morning.
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> The oldest brothel on the Reeperbahn had to close its doors after 60 years in 2008.
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> The funniest part of your book and your show is when you talk about annoying guests.
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> The worst are insurance people or bankers. The whole week, they have to grin and kowtow to people so by the weekend, they want to loosen up. Then someone comes and puts them back on the leash. They don’t take well to that. They often get unruly or sometimes even aggressive. I much prefer young people from immigrant backgrounds. Maybe they are insecure, because they’re away from their stomping grounds, and they talk macho, but it’s just posturing. So I have to make it clear to these young guys: Keep cool, and you’ll be welcome here.
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> Are there situations that arise again and again?
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> There’s a kind of guy I call the third man. Guys mostly go out in groups. And after a certain point in the evening, one of them is usually too drunk to get into any more clubs, and these kinds of group always seem to follow the same strategy: The most sober one comes first, followed by a second who’s still presentable, and the drunk guy brings up the rear. I guess they hope that the bouncer won’t notice. Or there’s another classic ploy, underage kids who use fake IDs to get in. I recently had one of these, a girl. I said: “Are you certain that this is your ID?” She: “Yes.” And I said: “So your name is Kevin.”
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>  You’re supposed to keep order inside the club. How do you do that?
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> I stand around with my back against the wall and watch how people are moving. When people are partying, things seem to flow somehow. But when someone starts to make sharp, jagged movements, then something isn’t right. It doesn’t always mean that he’s about to get rough. In any case, my job is to know what he is going to do before he knows it himself — and to intervene if necessary.
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> Is it true that in Hamburg, the bouncers are pretty tolerant?
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> Yes. Unlike Munich, here it’s unusual to reject people because of what they’re wearing. And the guests are different — at least that’s what colleagues tell me. In southern Germany, there’s more fighting. Up north, there is more talk. When I don’t let a guy in, he stays standing there next to me, whining about his problems to all the people standing in line.
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> Video: A stroll down Hamburg’s party mile.
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> This interview first appeared in Die Zeit newspaper. To contact the author:redaktion at zeit.de <mailto:redaktion at zeit.de>
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> WHY IT MATTERS
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> A longtime bouncer has published a book about 30 years working on the doors of a club in Hamburg’s red-light district.
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> FACTS
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> Hamburg’s infamous red-light district, the Reeperbahn, was once the haunt of sailors and prostitutes, but has been massively cleaned up in recent years.
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> The Beatles launced their fledgling careers in this St. Pauli district in the early 1960s – John Lennon said, “I might have been born in Liverpool, but I grew up in Hamburg”
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> Viktor Hacker has worked here as a bouncer for nearly 30 years.
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> NO. 174
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> Monday
> May 11, 2015
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