From August 22 to August 24, 1992 violent xenophobic riots took place in the Lichtenhagen district of Rostock, Germany; these were the worst mob attacks against migrants in postwar Germany. Stones and petrol bombs were thrown at an apartment block where asylum seekers lived. At the height of the riots, several hundred militant right-wing extremists were involved, and about 3,000 neighbourhood onlookers stood by, applauding them.
The initial response of authorities and politicians was heavily criticised. For some days prior to the riots, veiled warnings of impending trouble had been posted in some newspapers. Police and politicians seemed reluctant to respond, and, when they did, their responses were considered inadequate. Outside the building where the refugees were housed, several hundred asylum seekers had been camping for days with little or no access to basic facilities. This was contributing to escalating tensions in the neighbourhood.
Between 22 and 26 August 1992, there were 370 provisional arrests and 408 preliminary investigations related to the riots. Among the arrested were 110 people from the former West Germany; 217 from the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, including 147 from Rostock; and another 37 from the former East Germany. During the riot, 204 police officers were injured. No one was killed.
Background
The Zentrale Aufnahmestelle für Asylbewerber für Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (ZAst M-V), or "Central Refugee Shelter" for the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, was in an 11-storey plattenbau apartment complex known as the "Sunflower House" or "Sunflower Tower", because of the large sunflowers decorating one side. The building was notorious for the inhumane conditions under which the asylum seekers there were living and the lack of support (if any) provided for them. The authorities had ignored numerous complaints from citizens and residents over the filthy and deplorable conditions in the apartment building.
Rioting
The shelter was originally intended to house 300 refugees a month, but by summer 1992 it was averaging 11,500 refugees per month. Primarily Roma from Romania, they were left by overstretched shelter staff to camp out in front of the building for days at a time. The municipal government refused to provide portable toilets and there was no water or garbage collection. Clashes between the homeless migrants and the Lichtenhagen residents increased. Neither the city nor the state government took action.
For days before the riots, the newspapers Norddeutsche Neueste Nachrichten and Ostsee-Zeitung had been calling for a "Lichtenhagen interest group". There were anonymous warnings that if by the weekend, the refugee shelter was not "cleaned up," order would be made. This gave young gang members from every corner of Rostock, normally enemies, a date, place and purpose to congregate. One 19-year-old skinhead said, "The police know the Rostock Skins and 'Hools' [hooligans]. When something like this is announced, we're there!"
The first day's riot started with young people from the neighbourhood throwing stones. This was contained by the police, but media coverage encouraged neo-Nazis to roam the area. This led to a situation where a xenophobic mob outnumbered the police by day three. The original target, the asylum accommodation, was evacuated on the second day, whereupon the mob stormed a neighbouring building in which 115 Vietnamese immigrants, a social worker and a ZDF television crew had mistakenly been left behind. While the building burned, they barricaded their doors against rioters, who were climbing over the balconies armed with baseball bats and Molotov cocktails. Below, a mob of over 3,000 spectators eagerly watched and applauded.
Charges of police and political incompetence were levelled from the beginning. One explanation cited for the lack of effective action by the police was that they were reluctant to take any action which might have been reminiscent of the recently cast-off communist police state. There were also charges that police and politicians were privately sympathetic to the anti-migrant sentiment.
The first major conviction relating to the riots was on 4 March 1993, though 24 convictions on lesser charges had already been handed down. A 22-year-old man was convicted of throwing a firebomb at police, of seriously disturbing the peace, violating weapons laws and attempted bodily harm. An attempted murder charge was dropped for lack of evidence. Critics complained that no one was convicted of assaulting a foreigner, only of assaulting the police or of disorderliness. It took almost ten years to prosecute 408 people.