Ex-soldier battles Army over off-limits
declaration for bar in Friedberg, Germany
Story and photos by Eric
B. Pilgrim, Stars and Stripes
Back-40 Club owner Dave
Carlson, left, and bartender Ron Elkins serve a customer at the bar of his establishment. |
FRIEDBERG, Germany — Before Dave Carlson finished four honorable years of service
in the Army in March, he shared a dream with his fellow 1st Battalion, 36th Infantry
Regiment buddies: he wanted to open an American bar in Friedberg and celebrate life with
them.
That dream largely has been put on hold by Army officials, who have declared his club
off-limits. Military policemen frequent the Back-40 Club daily in search of violators. At
least some of those caught have been handcuffed and escorted away.
Command Sgt. Maj. Kevin Smith, the top adviser at 284th Base Support Battalion in
Giessen, said he has told Carlson that the ban could be lifted if he made the place safe
for soldiers and kept soldiers from entering for six months.
Carlson said he can’t afford to do that. The loss of business from American
soldiers — and those who come to the club to meet American soldiers — would be
too much to take. He’d have to close.
"As far as I’m concerned, I’m doing the right thing," Carlson said
Wednesday. "But I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t.
"I’ve given the place a new name, new employees and I’ve made good with
the neighbors," Carlson said. "I patrol the streets at night. I police up trash
and drunks. I don’t allow drinks out of the bar and I kick out anybody who causes
trouble. What more can I do?"
Keep soldiers out for six months, like the command said? He attempted that for a month.
"They said do that, so I did it," Carlson said. "It got to the point
that I was making maybe 10 marks ($5) a night. I was my best customer."
Before Carlson took over the tiny club in May, it didn’t meet guidelines the Army
and the city set down. Carlson, the military, neighbors and the city all agree on that.
The Paradise Club, as it was known then, sits on a narrow little street in the old town
between two other clubs. Although all three developed a reputation for drugs, vandalism
and cross-cultural fighting, the Paradise Club developed into the focal point.
Fights often broke out between American soldiers from nearby Ray Barracks and German
and Turkish residents. Sometimes the fights involved knives. Many times they spilled over
onto the street outside, according to patrons, neighbors and city officials. The fighting
got so bad that the street became known as Combat Alley.
Some club patrons would urinate in the streets, vomit on doorsteps, bang on residential
doors and yell over loud music pouring from under a gap in the door of the club well past
midnight.
Residents nearby, needless to say, were not pleased.
"We don’t need fights in the street; we don’t need them [urinating] in
the street or on our doorstep; we don’t need them puking on our doors," said
Petra Schmidt, who lives with her mother and a friend next to the club. "We would
complain to the owner and he would say, ‘These are strangers to me. I have nothing to
do with them. As long as they can pay me, they get what they want.’"
"We could hear the music through the whole house from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m.," said
Sabine Schafer, another club neighbor. "We went to the city, but the city did
nothing. Every night, we couldn’t sleep before 1 or 2 a.m. and [Schmidt] had to work
at 5 a.m."
A German patron of the
club talks with military police about why it is wrong to arrest soldiers at the Back-40
Club. At left is Dave Carlson, the club's owner. |
Carlson said he knew the situation while he was stationed at Ray Barracks as a
mechanized infantryman, and it concerned him when the owner asked if he would like to buy
the club. Army officials banned soldiers from entering the club in June 1998, long before
Carlson ever thought about buying it.
Carlson said he knew how difficult it would be to clean the club up, but he said a
military policeman told him the ban had been lifted. It wasn’t until after he
invested every penny he could scrape up and the city was in the midst of clearing the way
for new ownership that he discovered a new ban was in effect.
Smith said the ban was never lifted.
He said he met with Carlson in March and explained this. He also said he advised
Carlson against buying the club.
Smith said the command has tried repeatedly to cooperate with Carlson, but he refuses
to fully cooperate with them.
"You can change the name of the club or you can change the owner but not change
the practices involved," Smith said. "Mr. Carlson told us to our face that he
would not honor our request. He’s not observing the fact that his club is
off-limits."
Michael Keller, deputy lord mayor of Friedberg, isn’t convinced with
Carlson’s attempts either. The city imposed a 90-day probation period, during which
Carlson must make the place safe and quiet for its neighbors. That probation ends Aug. 4.
Keller said he received several e-mail complaints about the Back-40 Club since Carlson
took over, although he admitted the complaints stopped a few weeks ago.
Ron Elkins, a retired Army military policeman currently working as Carlson’s
bartender, said the complaints stopped because once-angry residents now trust and respect
Carlson.
"I’ve been a cop for 25 years and I’ve never seen a problem in this
place," Elkins said. "The residents don’t see it either."
Schmidt and Schafer said their neighborhood has improved since Carlson took over.
"We can sleep now," Schafer said. "The people are quieter in the street,
the music is not so loud and we can talk to Dave if there’s a problem."
"We know we can call Dave when it’s too loud and he turns it down,"
Schmidt said. "It’s so quiet the [German police] now come by to see if the bar
is still open."
Ali Gonultas said Carlson has also united a block of residents from diverse cultures
who once fought. Gonultas is a Turkish man who owns a club down the street. He said he
wouldn’t come by the club under its previous owner but now comes in every day to
visit Carlson.
"I respect him," Gonultas said. "I don’t know why the MPs come here
every day. He doesn’t make trouble. He makes peace with everyone. They make
trouble."
Carlson said he has cooperated with the military police during every search, even
admitting when he has Americans in the bar.
Smith said the checks are routine and that the police only target those who are clearly
American soldiers.
"It has nothing to do with Mr. Carlson, personally; it has to do with the safety
and security of our soldiers," Smith said. "He needs to show us he is willing to
work with us. If we have told him to stop letting Americans in the club, then he needs to
stop letting them in the club."
"I worry about the repercussions of all this, but what do I do?" Carlson
said. "I also worry about my savings dwindling down to nothing. Then what? Some other
guy buys the bar and maybe he won’t be as nice as I am; maybe he won’t care
about the soldiers like I do.
"I went on patrols in Kosovo and Bosnia with these guys. We trusted each other
with our lives. They’re my family. I won’t give up."
RELATED STORY:
Customer's say
club's treatment is heavy-handed
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