Party mile: sexism and excesses: Which Ballermann clichés are right?

Anyone who tells of their planned summer vacation in Mallorca occasionally adds the sentence: “But we don’t fly to the Ballermann!” The party mile in El Arenal enjoys a rather dubious reputation for some Germans. Many have the picture of grilling-drunk hordes in their heads that drink Sangria on the beach and decrease their articulation from lunch hours.

But it is like so often: you should only form an opinion when you have been there. What do Ballermann professionals say about the most common clichés?

Anyone who celebrates on Ballermann is anti -social!

Not true, says party singer Tobee (“Aua in the head”, “Helikopter 117”), who has been in the beer king for almost 20 years. “People here want to enjoy freedom, detached from their job. You are quickly in conversation with everyone, regardless of the job you have.” Incidentally, the 40-year-old leads a dental practice at Ulm in second life.

If you stay at one of the standing tables in the megapark or in the smoking area of the beer king, you will inevitably come into conversation: with the 18-year-old amateur footballer from Upper Bavaria, the craftsman from the Ruhrpott or the pharmacist from the Baltic Sea. Social origin, age and place of residence are usually not irrelevant here.

This experience also had a reporter of the serious “Zeitmagazin” this year when he celebrated his Ballermann premiere for a report: “You can’t speak with anyone without being hugged. Everyone here is constantly in his arms.”

From this, the pop sociologist Dr. Sacha Szabo from the Institute for Theoretical Culture Freiburg: “This party community with its temporary and voluntary task of self -control is not in any way in the actual sense, but on the contrary, it is rather ultrasocial.” It is best to describe the celebration phenomenon as a “carnival all year round”.

The songs glorify alcohol and sexism!

Nobody will seriously deny that the Ballermann songs are rather uncritical to alcohol enjoyment. If you only order a diluted beer, i.e. a cyclist, you will be insulted by rumbomb in the greatest hit of the year as a “son of a bitch”. Other party strikers at the Playa are called “Saufbuddy”, “Suffpilot” or “Star -hail full”.

However, songs about alcohol have already been in the humanistic Renaissance, explains musicologist Gregor Herzfeld from the University of Regensburg in a ZDF documentary about the Ballermann. A text about the hangover on the day after the feast is handed down: “I spie from the noble art in the bathroom.”

Sexist content – in which women (often by ambiguities) are degraded as an object – are also part of the Ballermann. “The whole shop knows you, from head to the calves,” says the song “Olivia”. Others roar: “Geiler ass, horny look, horny piece: Anna-Lena”.

“Whether the party hit is generally sexist is a difficult question because the boundaries are individual and blur,” says musicologist Marina Forell in the ZDF documentary series. “But I believe that some texts, especially women, if they think about it longer, are already pondering why this has to be formulated now and that it is actually not in their favor what is sung.”

Singer Frenzy (“3 Series”) often considers the criticism to be exaggerated: “None who stands in the beer king and grops according to” Layla “, does not want to injure anyone.”

At the Ballermann everyone is sitting in a coma and beat up!

Of course, many German tourists come to the Ballermann for drinking, are already a free beer in the Megapark at 11:00 a.m. and land completely drunk on the beach in the early evening. When alcoholized men meet, there are always fights – as at folk festivals or on the sidelines of football games. Measured against the mass of visitors, the aggression potential is low, the authorities say on site.

“The holidaymakers in general are not violent. The clubs are a minority that is probably driven by alcohol excesses,” said the head of the national police guard at Playa de Palma, Francisco Javier Santos, the German press agency.

“Most vacationers on the Playa, who mainly come from Germany and the Netherlands, are normal people who come with their families or friends. They want to have fun and enjoy the vacation.” When asked whether he would call the Ballermann as a safe place, Santos replied: “Without a doubt.”

Women must be afraid of Ballermann!

The following also applies here: where drunk male hordes appear, there are always sexual attacks. Women report from the “slap on the buttocks” or sexist sayings in bars and discos. In the shops on the promenade, T-shirts are sold with slogans such as “I love pussy”. Occasional cases of displayed group rapes in hotels, as last in 2023, cause great a stir.

But the concern that the lyrics could make women free of charge do not share. There are “very few, or even no” missions about sexual violence at the Playa, says the local police chief. And if you then hit too much over the strands, annoys the locals and harasses women, singer Tim Toupet (53) has the right Ballermann song ready: “Go home, you have an island ban. You are flying out because you are an idiot.”