Chaos Days (German: Chaostage) was an annual punk gathering, often violent, held in Hanover, Germany starting in 1982 and revived in the mid-1990s.

History

In 1982, after several punk meetings in Wuppertal, considered forerunners of Chaos Days, the first Chaos Days occurred in Hanover.[1] The gathering was intended to protest a police plan to create a reference library of photographs of German punks.[2] Thereafter, "official" Chaos Days were held in 1983, 1984, and 1985.[1]

The most well-known Chaos Days took place in August 1994, 1995 and 1996.[3] In 1995, 2,000 punks and squatters fought with police, resulting in over 100 injured police officers and 450 arrested young people.[4] The program had listed: "Friday 3 pm: Street fights. Saturday 11 am: Games with fire. Sunday: Glass-breaking demonstration."[5] The result was riots and the destruction of cars and buildings. Two supermarket were looted.[5][4] These "chaos days" were the main topic of TV debates and newspapers for several weeks. Terrorgruppe wrote a now-classic song about the Chaostage titled "Wochenendticket" (released as a single in 1996), which is named after the train ticket that most punks used in order to get to Hanover from all across the country.[6] The popular band WIZO spontaneously played a show at the Chaostage in 1994; they later wrote a song about this experience called "Chaostage 94" which was included on their 2016 album "Der". The band Church Of Independent Assholes (CIA) rewrote the classic Rio Reiser song "König Von Deutschland" and included a reference to the Chaostage in it.

References

  1. 1 2 Tosoni, Simone; Zuccalà, Emanuela (30 March 2020). Italian Goth Subculture: Kindred Creatures and Other Dark Enactments in Milan, 1982-1991. Springer Nature. p. 81. ISBN 978-3-030-39811-8.
  2. ↑ ""The Feeling of Punk is Universal." Deutschpunks Alarmsignal Interview". Punktuation! Magazine. 25 October 2021. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  3. ↑ Karapin, Roger (November 2010). Protest Politics in Germany: Movements on the Left and Right Since the 1960s. Penn State Press. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-271-04550-4.
  4. 1 2 "German Punks turn 'Chaos Days' into an orgy of violence". The Independent. London. 7 August 1995. Retrieved 5 June 2010.
  5. 1 2 "Chaos Days". Gainesville Sun. 5 August 1995. Archived from the original on 25 January 2013.
  6. ↑ Kalff, Yannick; Warda, Katharina (2016). "Die Chaostage 1995 als politisches Spektakel. Medialität und Materialität urbaner riots". Sub\urban. Zeitschrift für kritische stadtforschung. 4: 91–110. doi:10.36900/suburban.v4i1.224.
  • Media related to Chaostage at Wikimedia Commons
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