Roter Stern Leipzig ’99 e.V.

Since 1999, an important new club has been part of the Leipzig football club scene: the Roter Stern Leipzig ’99 – a club member will tell us what’s special about this club …

Things are happening in Leipzig-Connewitz.

Roter Stern Leipzig (Red Star Leipzig, RSL) – a cultural and political sports project positioned somewhere between a standard football club and radical left politics.

The casual intro

»It was shortly before 3 o’clock and the time had arrived: ’Red Star, we like you,’ [rhymes in German!] rang out from the loudspeakers. Bengal lights were lit. The Red Star players walk out onto their new home – the new sports park, Doelitz – for the first time. It was the home game premier for the youngest Leipzig football club and the day that players and supporters had waited for for such a long time. Only a year ago, starting in the third Kreisklasse (i.e. weekend league) was nothing more than a dream.« This was how the establishment newspaper »Leipziger Volkszeitung« (LVZ) reported on the first, highly official appearance of the project, Red Star Leipzig (RSL), two years ago.(1) What has become of this dream, where it comes from, and where it’s headed is the subject of this article.

Let’s enter the world of the Red Star, located without a doubt in the south of Leipzig. Here, the district of Connewitz marches to the beat of a somewhat different drummer than has the rest of Eastern Germany since reunification. Unlike in cities such as Rostock and Hoyerswerda, where the racist nazi rabble attacked migrants and burned their homes, here the alternative left has created an oasis, in which right-wing tendencies like these are actively being fought. From socio-cultural organizations like Conne Island, Zoro and Braustrasse came the cultural and political foundation for Red Star Leipzig.

At Doelitz: here the ball mostly races into the opposing team’s net, to the frenzied cheers of 300 people who, every 2 weeks, make their way to the RSL’s home games and the lowlands of the Leipzig football world (9th and 11th leagues). Here, we see a football veteran with an orange angler’s hat playing fight songs from the thirties and hiphop from today. And over there, bratwursts are grilling away and there’s beer and popsicles. Explosives #20 and #21 are being lit while the last one is stilling scratching the sky. It’s a great game, but if you ask for concrete numbers, you’re lucky if half of the people know the score. To see and be seen is everything. The Red Star as a sports happening – that’s the one side of the club.

Philosophical foundation, raison d’etre, and political positions

Just as with the Red Star project as a whole, the philosophical foundation of the club was shaky in the beginning. Initially the whole project was created just so that people could play football. The name, Red Star Leipzig, was chosen, according to one member, because it »was original and suited our alternative principles.« (2)

In time, the question of the group’s identity became ever more important, and various self-definitions were formulated. We would like to present a discussion paper here, which documents this phase but which was never given an official blessing:

»Red Star Leipzig sees itself as a political cultural project. The club and its members see the primary purpose of the club in organizing events and parties, and having fun. Concerts and discos, etc., will be organized in addition to organizing games for various sports teams – in other words: dancing, drinking and rough-housing. At the same time, however, Red Star Leipzig sees itself as an emancipatory project. The goal of the club is to expose and attack the social situation in which sports take place, or to abolish it within its own structures. Given the racist consensus among the German population and the male domination of the sports world here, the club will try to work against exactly these problems. The club perceives itself to be an open project, free – to the greatest extent possible – of hierarchy. Red Star Leipzig rejects traditional club structures, in which an elected board determines the fate of the club. Rather, weekly plenums will be held, in which all issues concerning the club will be discussed and, in the end, decisions will be made jointly. It is especially important to the club to actively fight the concept of sport as a male domain. Even though it may be difficult to realize this ideal, the club tries to do justice to this phenomenon through a program to raise awareness of the problem and through the organization of the club structure. Thus, the club does not understand itself purely as a sports project, but as a subcultural project with concrete political demands. The club takes up issues such as rascism, sexism, capitalism, etc. – both externally and within its own structure – and tries to tackle these problems to the extent its resources allow. The club will regularly declare its positions on socially relevant issues, be it antifascist demonstrations, racist incidents in and outside stadiums, or protests against video surveillance of public space. Of course there will be, to an extent, massive differences between the ambitions formulated here and their realization. This becomes particularly clear with regard to sexist and hierarchal structures. Nevertheless, we are determined to recognize and to change these things. Red Star Leipzig, August 2000«

It is precisely discussion papers like these that show how different the club is from »normal« sports clubs. Judgement from the authorities was inevitable. On 15 December 2000, the Saxony State Office for Protection of the Constitution complained on their homepage that founding members of the Red Star were followers of the political autonomous scene [leftists without party affiliation]. »In this club, autonomists are obviously trying to mobilize youth for antifascist issues.«(3)

Recently a letter from the tax office found its way into the RSL mailbox, informing those legally responsible for the club of the pending rejection of its status as an organization serving the public good. The reason: political engagement. It’s clear that a club cannot be at all political, because it is only a theoretical construct. Thus is the dogma of the unpolitical sports club maintained. Only people, who [may] meet in clubs, organizations, or parties, can formulate political positions. Every individual is also a political subject; unpolitical people are completely unthinkable today. As it happens, the Red Star forms a conglomerate of people with very strong political interests, and so it is inevitable that political issues will be discussed. Concrete action, however, is the responsibility of individuals and is independent of the construct, »Roter Stern Leipzig ’99 e.V.«.

The club’s history

In the mid-90s, a few teenagers went around Leipzig, making trouble. Although they hardly knew each other, they were united by a leftist »parasitical« attitude [a charge commonly made by the Right] and their love of round leather. Some of them experimented with the fanzine movement, in which they worked on projects like the Chemie-Leipzig fanzine, »Melk die fette Katze« (Milk the fat cat), or the punk zine, »Helmuts Erbe« (Helmut’s Inheritance). These young men got to know each other at various concerts and antifascist demonstrations, and through their mutual support of the football club, Saxony Leipzig.

Repelled by the often racist and fascist atmosphere, and the German prole culture prevalent in almost all the Leipzig clubs, around 20 young people got together in the summer of 1998 to organize an alternative football culture. The club signed on with a conventional club called Blau-Weiss Leipzig (Blue White Leipzig), but the limits of the group’s ability to act independently within Blue White Leipzig soon became obvious. And so, in February 1999, Red Star Leipzig was founded. There were initially 2 teams playing in the third Kreisklasse (the lowest ranking league, or »weekend league«). From the very beginning, the south of Leipzig showed great interest in the club. Around 250 people came regularly to the home games of both teams. Within a very short time, the number of members also shot sky-high. There are currently 120 registered club members. More teams kept joining the club. Currently there is a women’s football team, a B-Jugend football team (for youth between 13 and 16), a volleyball team, and a chess team. For a time, a third team was active in the ranks of the Red Star. Its players were refugees who live in Leipzig refugee homes and who, through having their own football team, try to better communicate their political demands to the world outside the homes.

Language barriers and the long commute led to the end of the contact with the refugees, and the project has since been dormant. In other areas, the club has expanded more successfully. Following are brief descriptions of selected activities which indicate the wide scope of the club’s undertakings. As mentioned in the beginning, the RSL also sees itself as a cultural project. The latest success in red culture-creation is the publication of the RSL Benefit CD, »More than soccer«.

CD, the who’s who of the Leipzig music scene meets to celebrate its number one club. This creation shows how deeply rooted the RSL is in the local cultural scene. The bands, in turn, can expect a wide and enthusiastic reception, as the label »Roter Stern« enjoys an excellent reputation among the leftist football scene nationwide. This is in part the result of the Stars’ engagement in the Bündnis Aktiver Fußballfans (Association of Active Football Fans, B.A.F.F.).

In the spring of 2000, the regular winter meeting of B.A.F.F. was organized in Leipzig. Over 60 people participated over the weekend and discussed issues from the world of football.

Another special event that takes place every year is the Antiracist World Cup in Italy, in which well over 100 teams from all over the world participate.

This tournament is organized by FARE (Football Against Racism in Europe).

In the spring of 2001, this organization called for a campaign against racism. RSL activists distributed flyers about the campaign at the local third-league club, FC Saxony Leipzig, and unrolled a banner with the message, »Chemie fans against racism and discrimination«. FC Saxony Leipzig is the successor club of the legendary BSG Chemie Leipzig, whose name is still on everyone’s lips and which is very popular among the Stars.

The relevance of RSL for society

Whether or not people in and around the Red Star like it, the Star is clearly doing work that is really the responsibility of the Federal Republic. It brings youth off the streets, where they would only get up to »mischief«, and in so doing, performs social work, just like other sports clubs. Nothing out of the ordinary. Even the antifascist and antiracist attitude is welcomed in today’s civil society. The players make their way from game to game, from field to field, carrying securely in their backpacks the fundamental standards of civilzation, which haven’t yet established themselves here in the reaches of the East of the Republic. Although to be honest, it must be said that there have been next to no fascist attacks on players or fans – at least as regards RSL activities. In sport as in daily life, self-awareness and awareness of one’s (social) environment should be the Red Star’s goal. The Red Star is a symbol of leftist alternative culture, which has attained much in the past. It can accomplish just as much in the future. If the temptations of the establishment haven’t become too strong…

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