When Bayern Munich traveled to Bremen on Saturday, two standout incidents took place involving the club and the local police. As documented by Tz, firstly the team bus was attacked on Saturday morning by a man wielding a porcelain vase. The individual also threatened to shoot police officers. He was, however, apprehended and taken to a psychiatric facility for assessment.
The bus was unoccupied at the time, and while Tz notes that there was some damage, it was likely minimal. The bus managed to later carry the team from their hotel to Werder Bremen’s stadium without incident.
Police vs the fans
The second part of this story is all too familiar to those in the fan scene of German football. Once the game was over, five buses full of Bayern Munich away fans were detained for several hours. Apparently, the names of over 380 people were recorded by the police during this procedure.
The umbrella organization of active Bayern Munich fans and the Green and White Aid, which supports Werder fans with problems with the police and the judiciary, criticized the deployment. ”It was an absolutely disproportionate action,” said Alexander Salzweger, spokesman for Club No. 12, the association of active Bayern fans, about Spox and Goal. ”Unfortunately, fans of active fan scenes know such missions, but that was absolutely excessive even for their standards.” The last buses left at around 3 a.m.
This may have had something to do with the pyro displays by the fans at the stadium during the game. Pyro is banned at Bundesliga stadiums, but such restrictions rarely affect fans’ ability to sneak flares into the grounds and take them out at kickoff or halftime.
In any case, the actions by the Bremen police seem disproportionate to the offense caused. The away fans were detained for hours without any apparent reason, which appears to be a case of harassment. Football fans are often the target of heavy-handed police measures in Germany, as documented on Twitter by journalist Felix Tamsut: