Violence in the 80s: For us, there was a war going on outside!

I was already in my mid-40s when, years ago, the feelings of my youth caught up with me in a brutal way in Düsseldorf's old town: I was waiting for friends one evening outside a kiosk, listening to yelling and stomping, when a group of young men came running around the corner. A fist landed hard on my left cheekbone, the force of the blow threatening to knock me over. I fell to my knees and thought: Don't fall, or you'll die. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw several excited, drunken faces, a split-second decision: don't resist, get out of here, immediately.