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The beginning of Hells Angels Motorcycle Club

On March the 17th. 1948 the first Hells Angels Motorcycle Club was founded in the Fontana/San Bernardino area in the United States of America. About the same time other clubs were formed in various places in the state of California, but none of these clubs were associated neither with Hells Angels nor with each other, and most of them do not exist today. The San Bernardino charter (also called "Berdoo") still exists, although most of its original members at one time moved northwards to Oakland. This removal is probably the reason why many outsiders wrongly describe Oakland as the Mother Charter of Hells Angels MC World.

During the fifties more Hells Angels Charters came into existence.

In the beginning the charters had nothing to do with each other,

but after some years they united and regular criteria of admission

were laid down. From having been exclusively a Californian

phenomenon, the club developed internationally in 1961.

It happened when the first charter outside California was adopted

- strangely enough as far away as Auckland, New Zealand.

During the sixties Hells Angels spread out to the East Coast

of the USA and later to the Midwest.
On July the 30th. 1969 the first European Hells Angels charter

was accepted in London, England and today there are more than

125 charters in Europe alone. In the end of the seventies

Australian clubs were admitted and in 1984, Rio de Janeiro,

Brasil became the first South American charter. In 1993 Hells

Angels came to the African continent with a charter in

Johannesburg, South Africa. Eastern Europe got its own Hells Angels charter in the new millennium and since then many more countries have been granted the now famous winged death head. 

The admission of clubs all over the globe caused changes in the structure of Hells Angels. The small motorcycle club from Berdoo was now mother charter of the world´s biggest motorcycle brotherhood HELLS ANGELS MOTORCYCLE CLUB WORLD. Today Hells Angels MC World has charters in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bohemia (Czech Republic), Brazil, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Italy, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, South Africa, Sweden, United States and Wales. Clubs from new countries seeking admission are to be found in Iceland, Japan, Lithuania and Latvia and more are following.

Visit HAMC WORLD for latest charterlist and the "CHARTERS" page for the history of HAMC Belgium charters.