1,000 punks are said to have fought a bloody battle with the police in front of Hyde Park in Osnabrück on July 31, 1983. At least that's how the tabloid media put it at the time - and thus made the discotheque famous and infamous. Now Hyde Park is turning 50. And the same boss is still running the store as in the year it was founded in 1976.
With a few friends, Conny Overbeck took over the dance hall called Schweizerhaus in the west of Osnabrück and renamed it Hyde Park. The then 24-year-old had previously worked there as a waitress.
“I’ll do a bit of gastronomy”
“My acquaintances all said that something could be done with the Swiss house,” says Overbeck. She then said to herself: “I’ll do a bit of catering. Then it took off hugely.” Apparently she hit a nerve. For many years, Hyde Park was the only place to go for young people from the subculture in Osnabrück, says Overbeck.
One of the early DJs was Tom Bullmann. As a 19-year-old, he moved from Essen to Osnabrück in 1975 to study art education. He found a job collecting glasses in Hyde Park. “It was something that used to be understood as a freak shop,” says the 70-year-old. Many hippies visited Hyde Park - and the music was appropriate. “Progressive rock music was popular,” says Bullmann.
One of the DJs was too drunk
When one of the established DJs was too drunk to continue playing, Bullmann took over the job. He played music by David Bowie, Mother's Finest and Led Zeppelin. Only one record didn't appeal to the bosses: “Stayin' Alive” by the Bee Gees was considered too commercial and stuffy. This reflected the different groups of visitors to Hyde Park. “Everyone who didn’t fit into the image of the bourgeois came together,” says Bullmann, meaning students, professors, hippies, rockers and punks. Only poppers didn't come.
In 1981 Christoph “Brownie” Hobein joined. He also says that at that time disco was still influenced by the hippie era and wanted to “radically break up” this. He followed what was popular in London and New York and played punk, reggae, rap and rockabilly. “Later the Neue Deutsche Welle came along. Bands like Ideal, DAF and Wirtschaftswunder played live in Hyde Park,” says Hobein.
It was mostly peaceful - until that last day in July
Despite the different youth cultures, things were peaceful in Hyde Park, says Hobein - until July 31, 1983. He DJed that evening. As the last piece he chose Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyrie" from the film "Apocalypse Now". He saw hundreds of police gathering and punks gathering stones and material on the street to cause a ruckus. “I fueled the mood with the music,” says the 64-year-old.
The argument escalated quickly, reports Hobein. The police fired tear gas through the windows into Hyde Park. He was there too. He was not injured, but like many other visitors, he suffered eye irritation from the tear gas. The police deployment was heavily criticized in the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” at the time. Even the Tagesschau reported on “punk riots”.
Hyde Park later moved into a circus tent in an industrial area in the north of the city, where there were no residents to complain. As one would say today, the club is still at home there in its 50th year, albeit in a permanent permanent building. And that is where the makers see the future.
New boss at the beginning of 2027
When other clubs opened in the 90s, Hyde Park also felt the competition. But Conny Overbeck remained head of the club even in times when there were fewer crowds. Giving up wasn't an option, she says. It probably won't stop for a few months.
Marco Nietiet is set to take over at the beginning of next year. The 38-year-old has a similar career path to Bullmann and Hobein. As a 16-year-old, he went to Hyde Park for the first time with friends from the metal scene and heard his music there, he says. “Then I quickly became a regular.”
In 2011, Nietiet started DJing, and after training as an event manager, he became a kind of operations manager in 2023. “My plan is to establish Hyde Park more and more as an event location and to focus on live concerts,” he reveals. In the past, bands as diverse as Motörhead, Mark Forster and, just recently, Dick Brave and Meute have performed in Hyde Park. Given the decline of clubs in Germany and the changing behavior of Gen Z when it comes to going out, the situation for new concepts is not easy, admits Nietiet.
The dance floor is full for the anniversary
On September 10th, Hyde Park was full at the start of the anniversary weekend. Nietiet designed the evening for its 50th anniversary as a mixture of gothic and rock night. A mixed audience from different age groups celebrated the anniversary on the dance floor. There, mothers with their daughters, teenagers and senior citizens moved to the music of the eighties or hard and dark sounds from the current millennium. In the middle of it all is 74-year-old Conny Overbeck.
