From sailor shore-leave to hen nights, Germany's port city of Hamburg is notorious for bringing out visitors' wild side. The escapades of a group of Berliners ticked all the boxes, except for one small detail: all-night parties, al fresco sexual intercourse and one reveller dancing on a table wearing nothing but a dressing gown – and his police revolver.
Three Berlin police divisions, in Hamburg to assist with security at next week's G20 summit, have been sent home in disgrace. They arrived on Sunday and were housed with police divisions from elsewhere in Germany in a container village in Bad Segeberg, north of the city. While others got an early night for shifts beginning at 3.30am, the Berliners kept going until 6.30am. On Monday, Hamburg authorities told half of the 500 Berlin officers to go home.
"We make a point of good behaviour among all people. That applies for police, demonstrators and foreign guests," said Wolfgang Schmidt, a Hamburg politician involved in G20 preparations. "There were a few problems and three divisions have been asked not to participate in the deployment. Inappropriate behaviour will be tolerated from no one."
Because their party reputation preceded them, Hamburg authorities asked container village security to keep a particularly close eye on their Berlin guests, part of 15,000 police in town. The detailed security report reads more like a police protocol of a night on Hamburg’s Reeperbahn amusement mile than a record of after-hours police entertainment.
Striptease
Security spotted officers dancing on the containers, an officer performing a striptease involving a dressing gown and a pistol, noted a group of men peeing against a fence and a couple later having sex against the same fence. Tables and chairs were dragged outside and overturned, the container village was left strewn with beer bottles and other rubbish.
In Berlin, police chiefs were incensed at the behaviour of 250 officers suspended from their duties in Hamburg.
"It's simply shameful how our colleagues behaved," said Thomas Neuendorf, a Berlin police spokesman.
Police officers sent home defended their behaviour in Berlin's BZ tabloid, saying they were bored with "no televisions and no free time activities".
It is the latest scandal to hit the Berlin police after a young trainee officer was revealed last January to have played a leading role in a porn film titled Willy Bingo.
