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ULTRA?! |
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The
DROOGS
are Ultras from the
football club of Eintracht
Frankfurt.
The term Ultra first
appeared in Frankfurt in connection with the Ultras
Frankfurt (UF), which was founded in 1997 and did pioneering
work in the German ultra scene. During this time, the
term Mentalità Ultrà was circulating in Frankfurt and
some people began to actively change their habitus, their
attitude and the form of their support.
Above all, the
feeling that everybody pulled together in Frankfurt and that
the fan-scene developed to an incredible strength and
superiority (already after the first year) the Ultras Frankfurt became the measure of all things.
This led to a
boom in members at the UF. The confusion, resulting from
the large number of members, was easily compensated by the
fact that there were people who worked harder than others
and who networked people better. At this point, one Person
was very important, who tirelessly won people for the active
work in the scene and influenced the UF significantly in the
first years.

Also
a big part in this development had the single fanclubs and their members who positioned
themselves in the service of Ultras Frankfurt. A member of
such a group was Martin (Binding Scene), whose great
achievement was building bridges between all fan cultures of the curve.
Everyone already knew him from the time before UF in the G-Block
(former Fanblock) and respected him as a precentor.
He
was not just any UF-member who got put in front of the curve, he
was someone, the curve had already accepted quite long.
So you didn't have to be a UF member to be happy with this
man on the megaphone. Everyone sang along, no matter what
fan culture they subscribed to, and this fact also made the
Frankfurter Gegentribüne (which was switched from the
G-Block) that dominant strong appearance in Germany at the
time.
A strong
influence on the UF had the Verrückte Köpfe (Ultras
of FC Wacker Innsbruck), founded in 1991, and later of
course Atalanta Bergamo's Nomadi. It can only be
described as a lucky coincidence that the Frankfurt people
came to Bergamo through private friendships via Innsbruck;
the contact with Bergamo came about through the Verrückte
Köpfe, who did not maintain contact with the Nomadi,
but with the Brigate Nerrazzuro, who dissolved 2005
after conflicts in the curve.

Ultra'
is a movement that spilled from Italy to Austria and
Germany. So it is not surprising that in addition to support
elements and habitus, other elements of fan culture were
also modeled. Numerous ultra groups in german speaking
countries have borrowed their names and symbols from Italian
and French groups. In the meantime, you can also see an
interaction in this regard, so that German influences can
also be found in Italian curves. A lot is happening in other
relations too, e.g. in east Germany, which are influenced
from Poland or in England, the country of classic supporters,
there are suddenly (previously unimaginable) choreographies.
There is an increasing exchange among the fan scenes...
football fans are in contact worldwide.
If you are looking for an
explanation or a clear definition of Ultra', you are
looking (especially Ultra' in the German fan scene)
for a very long history that includes many influences,
changes and interpretations. It is certainly true to say
that an Ultra' is a football fan who deals with the
support of his club in a more intensive and complex way than
others.

Related
Links:
Ultras
at Wikipedia
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SUPPORT |
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The support of Eintracht Frankfurt is our top
priority, because the active support of our own team
distinguishes the fan from the modern football customer.
If it is said in many places that a
real fan is someone who does not do this or that, then it
can only be a mistake, because the real fan is not defined
by what he does not do, but by what he does!

Support is what the team needs. The
team can do without applause as in Wimbledon, but the energy
and power of a good, noisy curve, drives the team forward
and is appreciated by the players.
Based on popular wisdom, there are
many ways to Rome. For the players this is not true (for
them there is only the way through the European Cup), but
for the fans it is absolutely true. In Frankfurt, a
traditional stronghold of fan culture, various subcultures
and generations have come together to form a colorful curve.
In the fan curve (whether G-Block, Gegentribüne
or Nordwestkurve) all those have found their home who
can say that football is more than just any sport and
visiting the stadium is more than watching others practice
it.

In the past, the Droogs was
content to combine a friendly relationship within the group
with the support of actions by Ultras Frankfurt. There were
choreographies of our group even before the turn of the
millennium, but after UF dominated the action in the curve,
which we were intensively involved in. In the last years,
however, the Droogs have increasingly been linked to
the support of the Nordwestkurve.
As far as the visual presence of
the group is concerned, it has always been a very special
style that distinguishes our group and that we cultivate.
Represented by large and small flags, double holders and
various fence flags, with traditional, but also political
and group-specific motifs, symbols and content. Based on our
namesake, we are happy to use the color orange and let it
flow into our materials.

Whether classic supporter, cowl,
ultrà or whatever you call yourself: Together for Eintracht,
no way is too far, no journey too long and no voice too
broken to sing even louder ...
Related
Links:
Fan
Scene of Eintracht Frankfurt
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DROOGSTORY |
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Welly, welly, welly, in order to start with the
history of our group, we first have to travel to 1996.
Because during the
first second league season of our eagles, a few soccer-crazy
Eintracht friends from the city Wiesbaden found each
other in the heart of the Waldstadion (G-Block)
at the time. In the following season, this community not
only celebrated the return to the first league, but also
notice the creation of a new group on the Gegentribüne,
which was dedicated to Italian influences.

From match day to
match day, the curiosity about the actions in blocks 30-32
grew and the gaze wandered more and more in this direction.
By mid-1998 the thirst for knowledge finally became too
great and the step in block 31 was dared. First contacts to
the founding fathers of UF were quickly established. The
light-heartedness of the people, the self-managed freedom,
the creative potential and the unconventional appearance of
the Ultras took our hearts and minds by storm.
So we spent more
and more time with the UF until the blissful event that
prepared the way for today's group:
... where Eintracht Frankfurt is of course still
putting pressure ... They know that a goal could push 1.FC
Nuremberg into the abyss again ... And they are now back
with Christoph Westerthaler in the central position. He only
has Sforza ahead of him. Then it's Fjørtoft, he's in the
box. And he hits. Tooorr, Tooooooor, for the Frankfurt
Eintracht! "

On 12.05.1999 our
Eintracht whipped out their knife, sliced eleven potatoes
from Rheinland-Pfalz into small pieces and celebrated
staying in the top German league. Gorgeous! Driven by this
euphoria, we founded a fan club called Bombeleescher
Wiesbaden eleven days later. Its goal should be to
bundle young people of the same age from the Wiesbaden area,
under the influence of the Ultra' movement. We
quickly got our own homepage, flags and the obligatory
sweaters. But the spark from Ultra' sparked a very
early end for our fan club. Because...
"What is the most
resistant parasite? A bacterium? A virus? A thought!
Resistant, highly contagious! Once a thought has infected a
mind, it is quick to remove it. A thought that is fully
formed, complete, sticks."
Ultimately, it was
a question of mentality on which the spirits began to
divorce and with them the Bombeleescher. Because not
all members were sensitive to these influences, the gap
widened, a split was inevitable. In the middle of the
disintegrating community, in the same year the wish arose to
bundle the existing, creative potential of the individual
again; but now completely under the sign of Ultra'!

This was followed
by a short phase of reconstitution, with self-discovery and
naming, in which two components were particularly important.
As is known, the protagonists of Anthony Burgess's novel
A Clockwork Orange, the content (unconditional freedom,
rebellion against bourgeois order, criticism of the state)
had a fascinating effect on our founding members at the
time, as well as a special visionary and founding father of
Ultras Frankfurt, that manifested and promoted the idea of
another ultra-oriented group in our minds. Like-minded
people found themselves from other long-established Fanclubs
during this time. This community first appeared optically at
a test game in Wiesbaden in 1999. A year later, we carried
out our first major action in the Waldstadion. In the
second half of Season 99/00 we organized against Hamburg a
choreography over the Gegentribüne within two days.
At a time when Ultras Frankfurt was something completely new,
there seemed to be no limits. A lot happened out of the
intoxication, it was a bit more chaotic and informal than
today. Free joint Bambule!
From then on it was
important for our group to bring in creative ideas and to
implement them independently or with the Ultras Frankfurt in
order to support Eintracht wherever it played. Since then,
the Droogs have been a fixed and active part of the
Frankfurt fan and ultra scene, which try to get involved in
all the actions of the scene and to set their own accents.
We are also
strongly influenced by our participation at the Mondiali
Antirazzisti, which we first visited in 2003 in Italy
together with over 50 people from Frankfurt. There we
broadened our horizons in many ways, spent time with our
friends from Innsbruck & Bergamo and made initial contacts
with the Chemiker, which from today's perspective can
be described as the beginning of the BSGE friendship.
Since then we have been traveling south to the Mondiali
at irregular intervals.

Over time, our
group became more and more convinced that as an Ultra'
you shouldn't stop at the edge of the stadium with your
commitment, but also have to look beyond. In our opinion, it
was not enough to criticize modern football and its ever
more extreme commercialization, since it is the social
conditions that create modern football. A critical view of
developments is still necessary and important, but modern
football is only a symptom, an expression of fundamental
problems in our society. Over the years, the subcultural
engagement of our group has become more and more important
in order to create and maintain free spaces outside of the
stadium. Through our social-political engagement in
Frankfurt, we got to know other subcultural institutions
with which we realize different types of projects.
A flagship in this
context is the monthly event series Cine Rebelde,
which was launched in 2007. For more than 13 years now, we
have been welcoming people from the Frankfurt fan scene to
the Cine who are interested in dealing with topics
outside the stadium. In this way we have created an informal
and non-commercial meeting place, which offers space to get
to know each other, to discuss and to hang out together.

In over twenty
years of Ultras Frankfurt we went through many sporting ups
and downs. Ultra' always grew and developed in
Frankfurt. We are proud to be an integral part of this fan
scene and to be actively involved. During this time, many
experiences and impressions were collected that we would not
want to miss, because they shaped a large part of our life.
Amen. And all that shit, Droogs99
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ANTIRACISM |
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In the first few months after the founding of
Droogs, some members wanted to create an alliance under
the title Resistenza Francoforte, which would set an
example against racism, neo-fascism and xenophobia. At the
time, however, the group was not ready.
A few liked the slogan issued
by the UF, according to which the Frankfurt fan scene is
apolitical and were concerned that one could be classified
as political left. With the change in the Frankfurt fan
scene, which stems from a national, rather right-wing corner,
the UF quickly found a kind of political mix.
The Droogs were able to manifest a fundamental
commitment to the values already striven for.
With us and in the extended circle of our group there is no
acceptance for misanthropic and contemptuous slogans!

After the positive
development towards political unity and maturity, we have
gained the space to act as a group, to confess and to become
active. Even if the work for the support and for the fan
scene is of course in the foreground, we managed to position
ourselves clearly in the curve (and beyond).
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A CLOCKWORK ORANGE |
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Why is there an A Clockwork Orange section on
our website? ... Very easily! Since the naming of our group
is based on the four protagonists of the novel, we would
like to close the knowledge gap for the group of people who
have so far not been able to deal with Anthony Burgees'
dystopian vision of the future.

A Clockwork Orange is
a 1962 novel by Anthony Burgess, which later served as the
template for Stanley Kubrick's eponymous film from 1971. The
title is probably inspired by a Cockney phrase for something
very strange as queer as a clockwork orange. Others claim
that it comes from the Malay word orang, which means
something like human (i.e. clockwork human). Film and book
use a language (called Nadsat), which represents a youth
slang constructed on the basis of Russian. The word
Droogs means something like friends / buddies.
A Clockwork Orange is
a shocking montage of perverse-aesthetic scenes of violence,
an evil, cynical farce about revolting against bourgeois
order, an accusation against the state and a plea for
unconditional individual freedom!
Related Links:
Wikipedia /
Stanley Kubrick /
Nadsat
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