I continue a photoreportage about how migrants from former Yugoslavia try to occupy public space in Vienna. I encounter a Serb nationalist hornets’ nest. Shortly after this, a Serb nationalist threatens me that I was playing with my life.

I had just been hoping that this side of Ottakringer Straße in Vienna’s 16th precint would show me a somewhat different side of Ex-Yugo presence in Vienna than my walk a few days had just across the street. Perhaps the stickers and graffiti would be a bit nicer.

They are not really. Perhaps a bit more diverse. I see more Delije stickers here. They are the ultras fan group of Beograd’s largest football club, Crevna Zvezda. This sticker is quite elaborate and colorful.

The slogan „I would give everything for …“ is from one of their chants.

I had seen little from Delije on my previous walks. This makes it a bit more interesting.

It starts getting ugly a few blocks further down the road.

Delije and a formation called Brigada Beč (The Vienna Brigade) have started occupying a street corner. Interestingly it contains trace elements from the Grobari. They are the ultras of Beograd’s second most important football club, FK Partizan. Partizan and Crvena Zvezda are bitter rivals. This goes even more for their ultas. Violent clashes are quite frequent.

Brigada Beč ist a particularly annoying Serb nationalist right wing extremist group. An antifascist information network in Vienna describes them as an „association of right wing extremist teenagers and young adults“.

Their core seems to be just ten activists. They regard Berstelgasse as their territory, one of the side streets crossing Ottakringer Straße.

This is the first graffiti of Ratko Mladić I see in Vienna.

Mladić was the commander of the Army of Republika Srpska and was in charge of the troops that conquered the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in 1995. Under his command, Republikaserb soldiers arrested, hunted down and killed at least 8.372 Muslim boys and men in the following days. Several international courts have ruled the massacre to be genocide. The International Criminal Court for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) sentenced Mladić to life in prison for war crimes and genocide. Many hardcore Serb nationalists consider him a hero.

The tri prsta (three fingers) are a Serb nationalist gesture. Brigada Beč uses them as a kind of logo.

A group of local activists from Antifa Ottakring attempts to counter them. This passage shows how massive the struggle is. Antifa and Brigada Beč spray over each other’s slogans as much as they can.

Pretty and Not So Pretty Stuff from Yugo Vienna

Further down the road seems to be Grobari turf. They have quite a few stickers on lamp posts, street signs, and the like.

I also find one posted by a Meraklija.

Meraklije are the organized fans of the football club Radnički Niš in Southern Serbia. They seem to be a nice and pleasant crew by the standards of Balkan football fan culture. Just a fraction can be considered violent. Meraklije are known for their friendships with fanclubs of other teams.

Amidst them stickers from the Exil Boys. They are fans of Dinamo Zagreb, and use the Ustaša coat of arms for their logo. This is clearly neofascist.

And ethnic Serb youths make clear who this side of the street belongs to in their eyes. It isn’t one of Vienna’s prettiest sights, nor a nice side of ethnic Serb migration here, but nowhere near as nasty as Brigada Beč.

„Go See Your Jewish Friends“

I see a fassade on which two Serb nationalist graffiti have been sprayed.

Stevan* and Dragan* are sitting on a terrace of a cafe in an adjoining building. Stevan greets me warmly. We chat for a bit. We have known each other for years.

„What did you take a photo of here“, Dragan asks.

„I’m working on a photoreportage“. Dragan knows I’m a journalist.

„Why did you really shoot this photo? So we can see the house number?“

„I told you“.

„I am not stupid“, Dragan says. „I know what you’re really doing“.

I have no idea what he wants from me. Should he think I have taken a photo of him sitting on the cafe’s terrace, we could clear up this misunderstanding in no time.

Dragan is an ethnic Serb from one of the neighboring countries Rump-Yugoslavia was at war with in the 1990‘s. He had to flee as a child. He’s been living in Vienna for around 20 years.

In several conversations we had over the years, he voiced pronouncedly Serb nationalist opinions, and has a thing for conspiracy theories popular in Serb nationalist circles.

He thinks the Srebrenica genocide is made up, thinks of Bosnia as a made up country, thinks the war there was justified.

The students’ protests in Serbia are a color revolution in Dragan’s eyes, instigated by sinister outside forces. „So much excitement because of 16 people killed (when the freshly renovated canopy of Novi Sad’s freshly renovated train station collapsed and killed the people underneath). Who’s supposed to believe that“, he asked me a few months ago.

„I think it’s better that you leave“, Dragan says.

I think so, too. This isn’t the most pleasant of conversations.

„Go see your Jewish friends“, Dragan yells after me as I leave.

Dragan Is Following Me and Threatens Me

I continue walking down Ottakringer Straße, scanning lamp posts and facades for Ex-Yugo stickers and graffiti.

On the next corner, Dragan suddenly is behind me.

„I know you’re a spy. Who are you working for?“

„What do you want? You know I’m a journalist“.

Stevan has caught with Dragan. He is drunk and has no clue what’s going on here, or what he is doing there.

He probably wants to mediate.

„You are playing with your life“, Dragan obviously attempts to intimidate me. „I work for an intelligence agency myself. I know what things are like“.

His breath smells of beer. He is a head shorter than me, and rather chubby. It’s one o’clock in the afternoon.

Dragan seems to have no clue what journalists do and that there is freedom of press in this country. He also seems to have no idea what spies do.

„Is it Mossad? We could cooperate. If you don’t want to, there is nothing more I can do for you“.

Dragan is about 20 years too old for Brigada Beč. He still seems to mind I am documenting Serb nationalist graffiti in Vienna. Or perhaps that I’m document anything for photoreportages.

Dragan goes on with his threats. I should watch out for myself, he says. I have the impression he attempts to look as threatening as possible.

With a grim expression, he turns away from be without saying goodbye, and walks down the street.

„Wanna have a drink“, Stevan asks. He still has no clue what was going on.

„No, thanks“, I say. I don’t feel like it anymore.

And there is a chance Dragan might return to that cafe. I’d much prefer not to see him in the near future. And I don’t want to find out what stunts he’d pull to get me thrown out of the cafe.

*The names of these protagonists have been changed

See here for the first part of my photoreportage about Ex-Yugoslav life in public space in Vienna.

Last year I had an even more unpleasant run in with drunk Serb nationalists in Banja Luka in Bosnia. Learn more about this violent incident here.

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