"Riot on the street. Frankfurt-am-Main, 1986" Topic

Well done.

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Amicalement
Armand

Wouldn't it be great to have such a scene in a train set?

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

In '86, I'd take the train from where I was stationed to watch the riots for entertainment. The diorama is missing the water trucks and riot police. :)

pjm

When I was in Stuttgart in 1982, the police were armed with submarine guns even for traffic stops. The riot only goes on as long as they will allow it.

During REFORGER '88, German "students"(?) would stand/lay across the streets in some towns. And "tried" to stop our supply convoys. I guess they'd like being under the USSR/WP domination better ? Than being a member of NATO ?

I came across an interesting memory a while back froma former BAOR soldier. He remembered convoys of peace protesters mostly from university towns far from the border and the reality of the Warpac threat, actually asking the squaddies- who knew the area much better than they did- for directions- and being given quite a lot of "help". Apparently one directed dozens of protesters' vehicles down a long narrow track ending at a notoriously smelly pig farm, creating a traffic jam from which it took them most of the day to escape.
German local civilians also resented these incomers and would do much the same thing.

Thanks!.

Amicalement
Armand

Well back to 1982, we at VII Corps H Q we told not to park within 10 of the fence. It was not unusual for cars to drive down the road and Molotov cocktails to be tossed over the fence. The night club bombing took place during one of my inspection tours with the MI battalion the year before.

The Germans lost WWII but are our Allies now and part of NATO ?

I remember the "blockades" at Patch Barracks in Vaihingen.
These happened periodically but most intensely during the Pershing II upgrades and later during ODS/S. The demonstrators could line the road, wave their signs, but not actually block the road. They did it just as I was arriving one day.

I never saw the German police move so fast. They had them rounded up and tossed in the back of a van within a minute or two.

Yeah, the Germans can be pretty efficient at times …

The demonstrators were mostly a fully funded subsidiary of assorted Warsaw Pact intelligence organizations. I still recall driving to work and seeing a meadow filled with charter buses, all parked there delivering demonstrators. Very spontaneous….

I guess we should not be too surprised …

I wasn't! The few times I engaged them, it was clear they either (1) didn't really understand how the respective US/German policies were made or (2) didn't care and had their talking points. End result was the same.

Yes, I wonder what those students are doing today ? With the end of the USSR, the Wall coming down, Germany being unified and becoming one of the strongest economies in Europe and even the world ?

Guess they won't admit they were on the "wrong side of history" ….

As part of the General staff and G1, I attended one briefing at the Corps HQ shortly after one of the fire bombings at one of our local bases. I was surprised to hear that the German police knew exactly where the radicals lived. When asked why did they not raid the safe houses. The police replied that if the did for a minor attack, theterrorist would scatter. So they would have a tougher time finding them if a serious attack took place.

Glup!….

Amicalement
Armand

I wonder where those terrorists are today … ? Dead I hope and not of natural causes !

Sorry Legion, you can kill us, you can smash our dioramas, but you can never kill the idea! All this talk reminds me, Im still waiting for my big George Sorros check to come in the mail, fox news promised itd come for sure. 😉 Its been really interesting to read the comments of those who were in Germany during this time, thanks for sharing.
This artist is great, one of my early influences in terms of inspiring me to take up miniatures. A lot of his subject matter is dear to my heart. Here's his website
matthias-schmeier.de

Keep up the good work Matthias!

Yes, the dio is great ! Wouldn't smash it !

Thanks for the link !

Definitely a cool diorama!

In the late 80s, I was in 2AD (FWD) stationed at Garlstedt, FRG. We used to have an annual demonstration by the Green Party outside the front gates to the Kaserne every Easter demonstrating against the nuclear weapons we supposedly had on base. They used to get pretty rowdy, we called them the Easter Riots. I lived on the economy so we were told to stay home, and the troops were restricted to barracks. There was a rifle company on standby from one of the mech battalions just in case but the Polizie kept the riots under control but you could get a whiff of tear gas the next day.

Of course we didn't have any nukes on LDCK but that didn't matter. My German neighbors told me not to worry about it, most Germans were glad we were there and they called the Greens the watermelon party.

Green on the outside, red on the inside.

My German neighbors

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