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Handcart with kale and drinks: Normally there is less non-alcoholic food in the provisions

Photo: Tobias Hase / dpa

Kohlfahrten are something like the Father's Day tours of North Germans, regardless of gender: handcarts, schnapps, fun games, schnapps, walk, schnapps. Just mostly in wet, cold, cloudy weather instead of in blooming spring. And with an obligatory conclusion: stop for a kale meal, usually in a larger restaurant. With liquor.

Kale eating, which also needs to be explained to non-North Germans, consists of an enormous amount of cooked kale, potatoes and, depending on the region, Kasseler, Kochwurst or Pinkel (a Grützwurst, you don't want to know where the name comes from) - or all of the above.

These circumstances (especially the schnapps) could have facilitated an event that the Bremen police are now reporting: Participants from various cabbage drive groups had a mass brawl during the night, both in and outside a restaurant in Seehausen - a district on the south bank the Weser with only around a thousand inhabitants. According to witness statements, a guest is said to have cheered on those involved by shouting “Woltmershausen against Seehausen” – Woltmershausen is the neighboring district with around 2,500 inhabitants.

»Clearly alcoholic atmosphere«

A total of 30 people are said to have been involved in the fight, of which "a small group" tried to flee from the officers by car when the police arrived at around 1:30 a.m. As far as the choice of means is concerned, the police are ambiguous: On the one hand, “pepper spray, knives and an electric stun gun were said to have been used.” On the other hand, the officers later reported that they had found such items when checking the escapees' vehicles and - which sounds somewhat disappointed - "only the latter" (pepper spray) was used in the fight.

The situation calmed down quickly after the officers arrived, and a total of four men sustained minor injuries. “The cause of the altercation was still unclear, not least because of the alcohol-infused atmosphere,” says the police statement. She is investigating dangerous bodily harm.

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