ABSTRACT
The hooligan subculture in Germany presents itself as a counter-elite in several ways: In the arena, it polemicises against “politically correct” football associations, against “bandwagoners, fair-weather fans” and their own clubs’ leadership. On the streets, however, it increasingly acts as an element in the formation of a militant political right-wing movement. This includes founding vigilante groups to make up for the police force’s proclaimed deficiencies in fighting “criminal migrants”.
While there are very specific elements of anti-elitism inherent to contemporary hooliganism, including their politics of bodily spectacle, there is also the widespread self-conception as a true, military-style counter-elite that reaches far beyond the sports arena, as the executors of an imagined will of the people, which is meant to be steered against the big-wigs and the forces of multiculturalism (as well as the police). Influencing and controlling the hooligan subculture is an important strategical goal of the thinkers of the neo-fascist New Right that uses populist tactics and rhetoric. So far, they have only achieved limited success in this arena, which is partly due to lasting contradictions between their own (elitist) sense of true leadership and cultural propriety and those prevalent among right-wing hooligans.
