The 36 Boys, Germany This 400 strong gang have fought the likes of the Nazis!! Pretty scary right? Active from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, the 36 Boys were a group of primarily Turkish immigrants from the Berlin-Kreuzberg borough of Germany. At the height of its power, the gang is said to have had between 300-400 members. The 36 Boys took its moniker from the former Berlin postal code Sudost 36. The gang fought turf wars with Nazis, Skinheads, and the Warriors, a rival gang from the Schlesisches Tor borough. Although they can now be called a creative collective, the 36 Boys originally formed as a street gang in Berlin, Germany. The term “gang” should not be taken lightly: throughout the 80s and 90s, the 36 Boys participated in violence and civil disobedience that occasionally took the shape of full-out riots and landed many members in prison, the hospital and even the graveyard. However, the 36 Boys were not rebels without a cause. Comprised almost entirely of Turkish immigrants of the Kruezberg area, the gang formed in response to the neo-nazi and racist violence many Turks faced. Along with harassment, many Turks were murdered and assaulted by skinheads and other Germans angered at the immigrant group’s presence. Unfortunately, this tradition of discrimination and bitterness continues today in many parts of Germany. It is estimated that there are over three million Turks in Germany. Multiculturalism and the integration of immigrants has been a vigorously contested issue in the country, with racist violence increasing dramatically during the economic crisis in the 1980s. Many of those attacks were against the Turkish community, which led teenagers of Turkish immigrants to form gangs in order to protect themselves. The 36 Boys formed to protect mothers on their early-morning and late-night commutes to and from work. They used graffiti to mark their territory and violence to send messages to neo-nazi groups that the Turkish community would no longer be victimized without a fight.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 10:28:59 +0000
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