Germans Attack U.S. Lugers : Skinheads: Brawl in bar is believed to be racially motivated. No one seriously hurt.

Two members of the American luge team were beaten up by a gang of German right-wing extremists in a discotheque in an attack that police believe was motivated by hostility toward foreigners.

The assault in Oberhof, Germany, was first reported Saturday by an official of the U.S. Luge Assn. and confirmed by German police.

Robert Pipkins, 1992 junior world champion who is black, Duncan Kennedy, and several teammates were in the bar, Kurparkklause, Friday night when the attack occurred, according to Bob Hughes, marketing director of the USLA.

About 15 Germans, all in their 20s, “told the Americans when they came in to get lost,” said regional police chief Karl-Heinz Malina of Suhl, which is near Oberhof.

He said a fistfight ensued between the Germans and Americans, two of whom were black. He said a 26-year-old black, whom he would not identify by name, was hurt, although not seriously.

Malina said five Germans were arrested. He said he believed the Americans were attacked because the Germans, all from Suhl, were “hostile to foreigners.”

Hughes said he thought the attack was racially motivated.

The Americans left Oberhof on Saturday, a day earlier than planned, for Igls, Austria.

The police chief, reached by telephone, said he did not know what charges the attackers might face. That would be up to prosecutors, he said.

“This is very upsetting for us,” Malina said.

None of the athletes, who were training at a track in Oberhof, were hospitalized.

“It was just a scary situation,” Hughes said.

Pipkins, a New Yorker, apparently was the target of the attack, Hughes said. Kennedy, from Lake Placid, N.Y., stepped in to divert the attackers and took the brunt of the punishment, according to Hughes.

“A couple of our guys were in a local tavern having a beer,” Hughes said. “A couple of skinheads came in and made a beeline for Robert, who is black.”

Pipkins, a student at Drexel University in Philadelphia, pushed one of the assailants, then Kennedy stepped in, while teammates hustled Pipkins out a back door.

“Robert was roughed up. Duncan was beat up,” Hughes said. “They didn’t break any bones, he (Kennedy) didn’t suffer a concussion. He wasn’t hospitalized. He can probably resume training in a day or two.”

While it did not appear that the attack was directed at the lugers because they were athletes, Hughes said he was concerned about security for American teams training and competing in Germany leading up to the Winter Olympics at Lillehammer, Norway, in February.

“I do think it was racial,” Hughes said. “They didn’t know they were lugers. They do now, and we have to go back there (for a World Cup meet in January). We’ve talked about security, and we are trying to make other teams aware.”

Of special concern is the bobsled team, which has several black members and must compete and train in Oberhof, Hughes said.