Police

In his anthology Die Märchenklappe, author Felix Rexhausen publishes the text “On Official Business,” in which he captures the thoughts of a fictional police officer assigned to observe homosexuals from the police box at Spielbudenplatz. In contrast to his disinterested colleague, he seems to have a voyeuristic curiosity about the “view of Pissburg” (p. 64): “It’s crazy boring here today. Sure, still better than running around outside in this weather or sitting in the patrol car. But otherwise, I kind of liked it better; I always enjoy coming here.” (p. 65) ...

queer.de writes about it: The “Peep Show for Cops” as a play at the Hamburg Schauspielhaus The scandal not only influenced socio-political consciousness but also stimulated creativity. As early as December 1980, the events were taken up in a play. In “The Accidental Death of Christian K.,” director Ulrich Waller critically examined the power of police officers in 20 short scenes. Here, they are “confronted with their stupidity and criminality; their perversions are exposed to ridicule” (“Du & Ich,” March 1981, p. 48). In all the scenes, Waller drew on real events, which he portrayed in a satirically exaggerated manner. ...

Chemical Mace was developed in the 1960s as a defensive spray for private use and was quickly adopted by the police as a supposedly non-lethal weapon for controlling demonstrations. During the incident in Schanzenpark as part of the first Stonewall demonstration in Hamburg on June 28, 1980, the police used CN gas against unarmed and peaceful demonstrators. In English, the brand name mace is now used as a generic term for tear gas in general, while the name chemical mace in German media refers to sprays containing the active ingredient ω-chloroacetophenone (CN) . Due to its highly hazardous effects (possible consequences include blindness, skin cancer, and death from lung damage), CN gas may only be discharged from a sufficient safety distance and has gradually been replaced by 2-chlorobenzylidene malonic acid dinitrile (CS) (tear gas) and pepper spray. The effects of CN were widely discussed in the 1970s in the German media as part of coverage of the militarization of the police and the increasingly violent crackdown on demonstrators.

Ewa Majewska – »Public against their will. The production of subjects in the archives of “Hiacynt Action”«