Out of The Closet? German Patriotism and Soccer Mania

Berghahn Books
Out of the Closet? German Patriotism and Soccer Mania

Author(s): Ingeborg Majer-O'Sickey
Source: German Politics & Society, Vol. 24, No. 3 (80) (Autumn 2006), pp. 82-97
Published by: Berghahn Books
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23742739
Accessed: 23-10-2016 12:16 UTC
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted
digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about
JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms
Berghahn Books is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to German Politics &
Society
This content downloaded from 144.82.108.120 on Sun, 23 Oct 2016 12:16:31 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
Forum
Out of the Closet?

German Patriotism and Soccer Mania1
Ingeborg Majer-O'Sickey
German, Comparative Literature, and Women's Studies,
State University of New York, Binghamton
In The Marriage of Maria Braun (1978) Rainer Werner Fassbinder

intercuts the last seven minutes of the radio broadcast of the 1954
world soccer match between Hungary and Germany played in Bern,

Switzerland to coincide with the final seven minutes of the film. The
explosion, which blows up the title character and her husband, is
underlined by the hysterical screams of the legendary soccer
announcer Herbert Zimmermann, proclaiming Germany's victory:
"Tor! Tor! Tor! Tor! Deutschland ist Weltmeister!" (Goal! Goal! Goal!
Goal! Germany is world champion!). With this montage, Fassbinder
uses Germany's victory in the 1954 World Soccer Championship to
express his dissatisfaction with West Germany's development after
World War II. He critiques West Germany's failure to create an ethi
cal nationone that actively forswears exploitation of "third world"
nations and that constructs an identity of which his generation of
Germans could be proud. In this final sequence, Maria and Her
mann Braun function as a warning against "vulture capitalism." It
reveals that their avarice and their facile trade of ethics and emo
tions for Deutsche Marks are similarly fatal for Germany.

If Fassbinder were alive today, what would he have thought about
the consumer culture seemingly run amok during the World Soccer
Championship (wm) that took place in Germany in 2006? How
would he have interpreted Germans' unabashed expressions of
national pride, signified by a sea of black-red-gold in the context of a
unified Germany as part of the European Union? And would he
German Politics and Society, Issue 80 Vol. 24, No. 3, Autumn 2006 82
Out of the Closet?
have responded with Cassandra-like predictions of a dangerous

resurgence of German nationalism? My sense is that it would have
been difficult for him to make such a facile conclusion. Indeed, the
images that capture Germany's newfound identity during the 2006
world soccer games were spectacularly upbeat and light-hearted.
For example, upon my arrival on June 15 from Italy in Freiburg,
the picturesque university town at the foot of the Black Forest, I was
astonished to find myself amid a sea of black-red-gold flags. I had
never seen so many German flags in the three decades that I had
lived in Germany. Growing up, I would have had trouble telling you
what the German flag's colors were. I believed, as so many of the
post World War II generation of Germans did, that Germany's
national flag was anathema to all that was ethical and moral. In June
2006, black-red-gold mini flags flew from car windows, balconies,
baby carriages, people, and even dog collars. Transcending genera
tions, class, and ethnicity, everyone seemed to have one. So what if
most of the mini flags were made in China? Since the Chinese flag
supply soon ran out, Freiburg flag dealer Jochen Ilg could still profit
from the black-red-gold mania. Ilg was not surprised that a debate
about patriotism permeated the media: "as soon as one of us waves a
flag, we start to give ourselves a pain in the neck when all it means is
that people are simply happy."2
As Der Spiegel quipped, "Germany wears Germany again."3 Teens
and twenty-somethings painted their torsos and faces with black-red
gold and wore wild synthetic wigs in flag design. The day Germany
beat Sweden, a frenzied crowd made my walk from the Munster
platz to the train station in Freiburg exhilarating if nearly impossible.
Several thousand euphoric fans wearing the national colors crowded
the strip that wound from the Bertoltsbrunnen to the main train sta
tion, designated Freiburg's "Fan Mile." Even those who wore Swe
den's blue-yellow seemed infected by the joyous mood. In areas
where cars were permitted, a huge concert of horns mixed in with
triumphant screams, whistles, noise makers, and songs that provided
background sound to every Freiburg neighborhood until three and
four o'clock in the morning.
But this public outburst of patriotism-let me call it this for the
moment-is not the entire story. Germany in June and July 2006 not
only impressed me with its self-confidence, even self-love, but also
83
Ingeborg Majer- 0 'Sickey
with its demonstrations of affection for other national teams. Could
this be a case of commodity culture teaching transnational thinking?

Weeks before the WM, flags and national team jerseys from all thirty
two participating countries became available in stores. For four
weeks the entire country was awash in everyone's colors. A notable
exception was the nearly monochromatic image of 43,000 fans, who
watched the Swiss vs. South Korea on June 23. About 10,000 Korean
and 25,000 Swiss fans produced a sea of red flags.
The ingenuity of manufacturers seemed boundless: my sister
had a supply of cold cuts with soccer players imprinted in darker
color meat in the refrigerator. In Karstadt's lingerie department,
bras with the pattern of a soccer ball and underclothing in Brazilian
colors and "Brasilia" stamped on it screamed for me to buy them.
An especially zealous soccer fan friend in Berlin provided toilet
paper emblazoned with international kickers on each sheet for his
guests. Not that some of the display of trans/national pride went
without criticism. When soccer star Michael Ballack, who possesses
national hero status, was spotted wearing an Italian Team t-shirt, he
was accused by the right-wing Bild Zeitung of not supporting his
German team and of being antipatriotic.
Everywhere, on the fan miles, public viewings, and in the stadiums,
I saw fans who had decorated nearly every available inch of their
body with not only national, but international colors. Especially popu
lar were the colors of Angola, Italy, Mexico and Brazil. As sports
reporter Amy Lawrence observed in a column titled, "International
Brotherliness," the overall image was that "borders of national identity
become fluid, more elastic."4 When I went to the restaurant Casolare
on Berlin's Planufer with some friends to watch Germany play against
Italy, a good half of the crowd (including me) cheered for Italy. My
initial anxieties that this show of allegiance would cause trouble were
unnecessary. Italian fans even paid for a round of grappa at the end.
No one would ever have predicted such border crossings.
I predict that there will be several films about this amazing June
and July in Germany 2006.5 The perspectives will depend on whether
the films take their cue from the war metaphors the print media used
(battles, triumph of Rome, war of nerves, esprit de corps, annihilation,
retreat, forward march, powder keg of tempers, violent shot, victim);
from criminology (perpetrator, revenge, vengeful, victim, fight to the
84
Out of the Closet?
death, enemies); from psychoanalysis (obsession, obsessive, psy

chodrama, oedipal, hysteria, neurosis, repetition compulsion, mau
vaise conscience), or from mythology and fairy tales (sleeping beauty,
heroes, giants). If I were to make a film about the 2006 WM, I would
take the central image in the final game between Italy and France as
the film's allegory of global politics. This image is the by now famous
shot where Zinedine Zidane head butts Italian player Marco Mater
azzi in the chest, an unprecedented attack engendered by "trash talk
ing" from the Italian player in overtime. At one hundred and ten
minutes, Zidane got a red card and 1.4 billion viewers worldwide
watched the television networks showing the head-butt over and over.
Zidane, whose record on the field reads like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
story, lost his cool because it seems that Materazzi had called Zidane's
mother a whore.6 The flamboyant Zidane, Dior's first male model
turned France's football hero and icon, was evidendy provoked by
Materazzi. The incident quickly became a political football. Indeed,
when President Jacques Chiraq met with Zidane shortly after, Chirac
declared "you are also a man of heart and conviction. That is why
France admires and loves you."7 The red card that was handed to
Zidane as punishment on the field also became the media's race card.
In an article tided "Zidane, butt of European race debate," Rashmee
Roshan Lall of the Times News Network points to the irony in the way
the story developed: "Though Zidane ... has always refused to talk
about the politics of race relations, integration and France's subtle
apartheid, his last outburst on the world stage is thought to be directly
linked to his origins as a pour (sic), coloured north African Arab boy
growing up on one of the toughest housing estates in Marseilles."8
Interestingly enough, Zidanewho was born in Algeria of Kabyle
Berber parents- could have played for the Algerian team because he
has dual citizenship. He was, however, rejected by the Algerian
nadonal coach, Abdelhamid Kermali for not being fast enough.9
Twelve cities were host to sixty four games: Cologne, Kaiser
slautern, Dortmund, Frankfurt, Gelsenkirchen, Hamburg, Hanover,
Leipzig, Munich, Nuremberg, Stuttgart-and Berlin. Berlin was the cen
ter piece. Six of the sixty-four games were played in Germany's capi
tal. There, 69,000 black-red-gold clad soccer fans cheered at the final
game between Italy and France to a sold out stadium. The announcer
screamed every bit as hysterically as Zimmermann did in 1954.
85
Of course, fifty-two years had passed. The electronic revolution

changed the reception. Huge video screens were installed in the
twelve chosen cities-"public viewings" as the Germans call it, took
root all over the country. Sponsored viewings were set up in parks,
stadiums, even in front of the castle in Stuttgart and at the banks of
Berlin's river Spree, a temporary neighbor to the Chancellery. No
less public were games transmitted on plasma screens in cafes, gar
den restaurants, and neighborhood bars. The most unusual site was
probably at the St. Pauli Church in Hamburg's Reeperbahn district,
Germany's most notorious sin strip. The church organizers showed
some wit, fixing a banner that spelled "Balleluja" in large letters to
the bottom of the huge screen that was installed in front of the
church's altar. Their "Ten Commandments" spoke to those soccer
maniacs, who have special viewing habits. "Don't use cell phones."
"Don't eat Big Macs." "Be loud." "Don't get physically violent."
"Support your team."10 Many Germans organized home screenings.
Any night after a game that I would take the bicycle from the public
viewings, and ride through Freiburg's or Berlin's residential neigh
borhoods, eerie bluish-green flickered onto the sidewalks.
Fifteen million fans came to the sponsored festivities. About 2
million foreign visitors "go home with good memories," boasted the
Rhein Main Presse Allgemeine Zeitung.n This translated into good news
for Germany's sluggish economy. Stefanie Heckel from the hotel and
restaurant association reported that hotels, bars, and pubs experi
enced an increase in earnings of 500 million EUROS. She predicted
that part of this increase will translate into future business. The posi
tive experiences of foreign tourists promise to help the German
tourism business: 90 percent of those visitors who were polled said
that they would recommend Germany as a vacation destination.12
Germany lost the overall championship (after being defeated by
Italy in the semi-finals, it beat Portugal to win third place overall),
but it appears to have won economically. The WM generated about
50,000 jobs-half will remain after the tournament is over. The pre
diction that 2 billion EUROS would be spent sounded like so much
hyperbole to many skeptics, but the jingle in the cash drawers of
retailers and enormous contracts negotiated by mega companies
such as Adidas told the story. Hubertus Pellengahr from the Associa
tion for Retailers said sales were up significantly from last June and
86
Out of the Closet?
July. The breweries were also big winners during the four week
games: hot weather and thirsty fans generated an increase of 10 to 15
percent in beer sales. Public transportation was ready for the
increase of train, bus, and subway riders. Minister for Transportation
Wolfgang Tiefensee reported that the German Railway added an
extra 250 long distance and 10,000 regional trains.13 Special deals
connected to the championship made riding the most rational
option. Judging from the traffic jams, personal cars were still a popu
lar way to get around, but trains were all booked, and there was a 60
percent increase in metro users in Berlin alone.
These economic effects were easy to predict. What no one could
have foreseen was that black-red-gold would dominate this WM in
such a bold manner. Visually most poignant was that Germans
seemed to be able to carry, wear, and fly the German flag again
without sending a shudder through the offices of foreign ministries
around the world. If anyone questioned Germany's zealous flag
waving, it was the German press, a few of its pundits, and some
grouchy "68er"-as the first postwar generation is called. The 2006
wm's official slogan, "The world visits friends" (Die Welt zu Gast
bei Freunden) was very quickly recast into the expectation, ex
pressed in the headline of the Badische Zeitung from July 8, "Did the
WM change us?"14 Already by the end of the first week, the world
soccer media, in frequent pulse checks of Germanic emotions, pro
claimed a sea change: the host country was suddenly full of differ
ent Germans. Even the usually critical Der Spiegel played the
patriotic card when it titled its lead article of June 19 "Deutschland,
ein Sommermarchen" (Germany, a Summer's Tale), alluding to
Heinrich Heine's Deutschland, ein Wintermarchen. Embedding its tra
ditional ambivalence about good news in martial vocabulary, Der
Spiegel proclaimed: "soccer rules in practically every corner of the
country. It occupies heads and hearts. It turns Germany into a dif
ferent country, as if in a summer fairy tale, a fascinated, joyful peo
ple, under a black-red-gold cloth."15 In every article of this ilk, the
words "relaxed," "joyful," "generous," "friendly," and "cosmo
politan" appear at least once in connection with the "different"
Germans. The subtext is that Germans had finally figured out a
way to express their love for their country without being scary or
grimly nationalistic.
87
Most French and British reports agreed with the German press.
Jean-Marc Butterlin (L'Equipe), for example, told Parisians "everyday
that passes I realize a bit more that Germany receives its interna
tional guests with joy, with laughter, as it uses soccer as a formidable
way to bond."16 Olio Kambire, a journalist from Ivory Coast
observed that "from the first day of training of our team in Troisdorf,
3,000 fans welcomed us with flags. I was surprised at the readiness
with which the Germans supported all teams, not only their own.'"7
The consensus in the print media was that it was a good thing that
Germans are finally more "Mediterranean"easy going, with a zest
for life, open minded and happy.
Diedrich Diederichsen warned that it was useless to engage in
ideological critique and consciousness-raising in relation to the WM.18
Diederichsen, World Cup soccer talking head for the Tageszeitung and
a professor at the Merz Akademie, went unheeded. A good number
of pundits did offer their theories. Haraldjahner, for example, wrote
in the Badische Zeitung.
Quite different from the formerly stern allegiance to the fatherland,

this patriotism was surprisingly feminine. As never before, many
young women publicly demonstrate that they are wild about soccer,
they wave the flag like the French Marianne her tricolors or wrapped
themselves nakedly in the flag, for the Nazis a horror ... They exhibit
their emotional highs in sisterly self irony."19
Similarly, the sports sociologist Michael Klein took recourse to gen

der as he returned to 19th century ideas about women's calming
effect on society. He wrote, "the girls, the huge number of young
female fans, were the reason for the peaceful WM. Girls are always a
buffer against violence by fan members."20 It seems a good move to
make-when clueless about what to say about social phenomena like
nationalism and patriotism, feminize it.
Yet, for all the increase of female fans, soccer remains a boys'
gameas does sports reporting. Witness the headline on the cover of
a special championship edition of the popular Bild\ "Klinsi's Black
Red-Horny Boys" (Klinsi is the Germans' endearing shortening of
Jiirgen Klinsmann, their national team's coach). That a caveman
mentality sneaks into sports reporting is not so surprising. With all
the visual evidence of homosociality on the field, heterosexuality has
to be reinstalledsometimes with a vengeance. With noticeable
Out of the Closet?
regularity, television cameras focused on sparsely dressed female

fans in the stadium and they frequently cut to the wives and girl
friends of the players. "Once in a while," Michael Wulzinger told his
readers, "when very attractive young women appear [the paparazzi]
become active. These women are the so-called "WAGS," the wives
and girlfriends of the players. England's wags, the players' female
groupies, all look like they never lose."21
Even such atavistic throwbacks to sexist reporting could not spoil
my good mood. I was even tempted to glue a pair of fake black-red
gold eyelashes on and wink dismissively at sexist reportages. The
concept of so-called "global villages"-communities that housed the
national teams near the cities where the games were heldrecon
ciled me. For example, weeks before the games, the hamlet of
Konigstein/Taunus, near Frankfurt/Main, that hosted the Brazilian
team, decorated itself in the national colors of yellow and green.
During the championship they celebrated high-spirited German
Brazilian parties in the market square. The only sour note occurred
in the English camp located in Baden-Baden. Hermetically sealed,
the English national team was airlifted to and from its hotel to the
stadium. The community was left disappointed, so much so that one
resident nailed a banner to his house with the message: "Welcome
to Absurdistan."
It may well have been the Germans' reception of international

teams that allayed fears about the display of German patriotism.
Indeed, Georg Lowisch, reporter for the Tageszeitung (TAZ), suggested
that this outburst of patriotism should be called "party-otism." "The
WM was a superlative party" Lowisch told me:
when people throw a party as a country, they need a symbol. The
flags were such a unifying symbol ... Everyone used flags to root for
the country in which they were born, whether they were blue-white
red, some with stars and stripes, and, yes, black-red-gold. After the
party, these symbols will go back into their closets. And that is the dif
ference between patriotism and party-otism. With patriotism the flag
stays in the mind, every day, every hour. That can become dangerous.
Flags behind the forehead can prevent clear vision and block actions,
and create chaos in the mind. Better to put the flags into the closet.
Till the next WM.22
Lowisch's perspective gains further relevance when we consider the

insight by Lilo Majer, a practicing psychotherapist from Ludwigsburg.
89
She observed that the irreverent use of the German flag will have an
important effect: "The fans made it impossible for extremists and
hooligans to use the German flags for hyperpatriotic purposes in the
way they did before the WM. They disabled it by using it as party
decoration. That is an accomplishment that a hundred laws against
extremism could never manage."23
Andrei Markovits, political scientist and sociologist, currently a
Visiting Professor for Sport and Football Studies also offered some
interesting ways to think about Germany's move to the transna
tional/national. Speaking during his opening lecture at the Univer
sity of Dortmund, he explained that while the players move from
team to team and cross borders, fans are local. "The emotional econ
omy (Gefu.hlshausha.lt) is totally nationalistic," he noted. "This is not
the fan's fault. He feels what he knows." And, Markovits pointed out
quite rightly, "a world championship in one's own country raises the
affect of nation further." He abhors and fears nationalism but does
not think that Germany's show of nationalism will last. A poll of one
thousand Germans between June 13 and June 15 bears Markovits
out. To the question "will the Germans express their national feelings
stronger now than before the WM?" 22 percent said yes, 72 percent
said no, and 6 percent said they did not know.24
Returning to the overall question, is this a new kind of patriotic
Germany displayed in June and July 2006? Inserting the Holocaust
into the wm debate just weeks before his own SS past came to light
Giinter Grass implied that the flag waving at the WM had little to do
with patriotism. A real patriot is one who protects the constitution
(Habermas' Verfassungspatriotismus), and one who engages in Vergan
genheitsbewaltigung that is, comes to terms with Germany's violent
twelve years of National Socialism.25 I will call the second part of
Grass' definition of patriotism "mortgage patriotism." Of course, the
problem with "mortgage patriotism"the need to carry the message
of Vergangenheitsbewaltigung into each new generationis that it offers
an interpretation of patriotism that excludes millions of migrants.
After all, the great majority of the migrants living in Germany
(between 12 and 15 percent) came during the last fifty years.
The filmmaker Neco Celik explains that the migrants, many of
whom are now hyphenated Germans, whose parents and grandpar
ents came during the 1960s as "guest workers," have an altogether
90
Out of the Closet?
different relationship to the German flag. Nicknamed Germany's

Spike Lee by Vanity Fair, Celik dreamt as a teenager about being a
soccer star. Instead, he became founding member of the Berlin
Kreuzberg group "36." Today, he is an activist whose political and
social involvement concentrates on youths who are socially ostra
cized.26 Asked by reporter Susanne Lang about the enthusiastic sup
port German Turks gave to the German team and Germany, he
answered, "the decisive thing is that the WM is taking place in Ger
many, and that the immigrant community sees itself as hosts to oth
ers." Apart from that, one must not overlook the possibility, Celic
says, that "the young Turks attach German flags to their cars because
they follow a trend: 'Ah, Ali has one, so I want one too.'" Celik does
not think that flag flying is a sign that integration is working: "That's
nonsense. And anyway, the slogan 'integration' means nothing. The
politicians haven't done anything for forty years. And imagine the
mountains that Turks could move here, they only have to be
approached. That's what the World Championship is doing." "Why,"
asks Celik, "are there no Turkish players on the German national
team when three million soccer crazy Turks live here? They want to
become soccer stars, and their parents would rather see them play for
the Turkish national team." But Celik also points to the thousands of
talented youngsters in the soccer clubs in Berlin, who play for the
regional soccer clubs, but are ignored by the national scouts. As to
what the reasons for this phenomenon might be, Celik simply
answers that "many give up because they are confronted with type
casting and structures that are reactionary and racist." He adds, "they
feel lost and excluded. I know the feeling from my own career."27
The story of the Turkish-German soccer star Yildiray Bastiirk sup
ports Celik's point. Bastiirk, who was born in Germany, lives in
Berlin and plays for the Turkish national team. It was not necessarily
by choice, he explained. "I started when I was sixteen, in the Turkish
clubs. At that time there was still a rule that you couldn't cross over.
The German national team came too late."28 Since the Turkish team
was bounced out of the championship by the Swiss team in the first
round, Yildiray Bastiirk rooted for Germany ("of course!" he said).
Thus, while some pundits interpreted the German Turks' flying both
the German and Turkish flags from their balconies and cars as a new
patriotism by German Turks, at least Celik did not think so.
91
Quite clearly, "Little Istanbul" as Berlin's Kreuzberg district is

sometimes called, offered a puzzle to many flag watchers. The Turk
ish half moon was displayed next to black-red-gold on Turkish-driven
cars, and stores flew both the Turkish and the German flags. Kenan
Kolat, President of the Turkish Community in Germany, said that the
sudden manifestation of Turks' love for Germany surprised him: "It
shows that there is a sense of belonging." Siileyman Kilic, who has a
betting bureau in the Kreuzberg Oranienstrasse, reported that busi
ness was good, very good. "Many Turks put in their bet for Ger
many," he said. "You can interpret this simply in terms of soccer, but
you can also read into it that they [the Turkish gamblers] really want
Germany to win." A Turkish soccer fan watching the match between
Italy and Germany in the Cafe Berlin announced to German viewers
"all Turks here want Germany to get into the finals. You know, after
all, we live here. It's our country too."29
Interesting in this context is that the 2006 German WM squad is
quite internationalized. It included two starters born in Poland
(Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski), and several substitutes, who
were born outside of Germany (Gerald Asamoah was born in Ghana;
David Odonkor is the son of a German mother and Ghanian father;
and Oliver Neuville was born in Switzerland, to a Swiss-Italian
mother. Other newcomers on the roster include Brazilian-Panaman
ian-German Kevin Kuranyi and Malik Fathi (with a German mother

and Turkish father). Mention should also be made of Mehmet Scholl,
son of a Turkish father and German mother, although never playing
in a World Cup championship (injuries kept him off the field in 2002)
did make thirty-six appearances for the national team and played in
the 1996 and 2000 European championships. Obviously, the German
team does not display the diversity of the Dutch or especially the
French national squads, but certainly is more diverse than the Italian,
Polish, Portuguese or Spanish teams.30
Be that as it may, the question arises, will this newfound sense of
belonging continue after the WM? This, I believe, will depend entirely
on whether the potential for structural changes in political and eco
nomic opportunities for migrants gains palpable support from gov
ernmental agencies and whether Germans accept the migrants'
choice of participation rather than assimilation. That mountains can
be moved, to use Celik's phrase, depends on political will. In
92
Out of the Closet?
an aside, one small mountain was indeed moved in Akram

Maruftschonow's case. Maruftshonow rode six thousand five hun
dred kilometers on his bicycle from his home in Uzbekistan to Berlin

to get an autograph from his hero Oliver Kahn. He was granted a
visa and received a ticket for the game Germany vs. Ecuador.31
As my brief discussion of the Istanbul/Berlin symbolism of half
moon/black-red-gold shows, Grass' flag of "mortgage patriotism"
flies from a strangely disconnected pole. Of course, other defini
tions of patriotism made the rounds during the WM. The German
soccer star Christoph Metzelder was credited with the invention of
"positive patriotism." He echoed many commentators with his view
that the new patriotism is a question of generation; yet he, too,
ignored Germany's multi-ethnic composition. As he explained "my
generation grew up in one of the most stable democracies in the
world. We don't forget the warnings of the twelve-year rule by the
National Socialists, we carry these with us. But we can live without
[this] anxiety and in that way we can play soccer. The champion
ship connects people."32
The coach of the German national team, Jiirgen Klinsmann, can
also be credited with "positive patriotism." I rather oxymoronically
call his brand "unifying patriotism." He told journalists before Ger
many played against Poland that the "differences between East and
West Germany are suddenly gone. ... It is wonderful to see that one
has a common dream. I know this from the U.S. On Independence
Day, the 4th ofjuly, everyone flies their flags. Yes, that is good. I fly
the German flag."33 Klinsmann was right when he observed that the
championship fostered a sense of international unity. But, his claim
that the wm fostered internal East-West unity is his fantasy. The city
of Potsdam did host the Ukrainian team's training camp, but other
wise, East Germany was excluded as a host to national teams. Fur
thermore, Leipzig was the only East German city that hosted a
game. The story of Neuruppin, in the district of Brandenburg, illumi
nated the reasons for East Germany's exclusion. Neuruppin was
ready to compete for hosting a team's training camp in its new four
star hotel. Located only eighty kilometers from Berlin on a lovely
lake, the location seemed perfect.34 But the WM organizers decided
that xenophobia in Neuruppin, East Berlin, and other parts of the
former German Democratic Republic made it too risky for teams
93
and soccer tourists. To warn visitors, a new "German" phrase was

invented, "No-Go-Area." For all that, claimed Der Spiegel, the Neu
ruppiners cheered for Germany. "The national team is the glue, a
connector that fosters a sense of unity in a divided country."35
How was it possible to channel the high voltage enthusiasm of
millions of fans into peaceful ways? Several factors played a role
first and foremost the excellent preparations and strategies of the
police. The data base "violent sports fans" started in Diisseldorf
twelve years ago was decisive, helping to catch more than 7,000 per
petrators.36 Moreover, the Berlin police force implemented a "WM
concept against hooligans" that involved interviews with 400 of the
1,000 known hooligans before the championship began. Forty hooli
gans were given restriction of movement prohibiting their entry to
the fan mile. For all that, there were some glitches. To be sure, secu
rity must have been a logistical nightmare. Making sure that the 15
million fans that came to the official games would be safe from
themselves would have been daunting even before the age of terror
ism. The municipalities that put on public soccer games were
responsible for hiring security staff. But, as Mauritius Much reports
in the TAZ, "no one checks who was hired." 15,000 security guards
were hired by fifa and local organizations. At the fan fest in Alt
Karow in the eastern part of Berlin, two hooligans, well-known for
their brutality in the district, were part of the crew hired by the orga
nizers. The police recognized the two-their faces in the police files
are subtitled: "dangerously brutal at sports events."37 Alt-Karow was
not the only site where known hooligans were spotted as security
guards. On June 9, the start of WM matches, six security guards
incited violence right in the middle of the Berlin Fan Mile at the
Brandenburger Tor. Their beef was local with members of an upper
division Berlin soccer team (BFC Dynamo).38 Berlin's mayor Klaus
Wowereit explained that these men were not hired by the organizers
of the Berlin Fan Mile. The police identified them as members of a
security firm from Leipzig.39
In conclusion, allow me to recall the hyphenated patriotisms I
mentioned above: Jahner and Klein's "feminized patriotism;" Lowisch's
"Party-otism;" Majer's "anti-right-wing patriotism" or "counter- patri
otism;" Markovits' "fan-patriotism;" Metzelder's "positive patrio
tism;" Grass' "mortgage patriotism;" Celik's "trend patriotism;"
94
Out of the Closet?
Turkish and other migrants' "transnational patriotism;" and Klins

mann's "unity patriotism." Of course, we might skeptically ask with
Diederichsen whether "neopatriotic" talking heads might simply be
missing the point. After all, he pointed out, how do these pundits
know whether the national ecstasy is "pure fun"? "How do these writ
ers know that the common fan's ecstasy isn't simply an expression of
the sheep mentality that motivates people to join the masses?"
Indeed, "fun" at such highly political sports events is never innocent.
And a "sheep mentality" is, as we know well, highly ideological.
At the end of the day, it was proclaimed quite unanimously that
Germany was a wonderful hostopen-minded and friendlier than
ever before. Once I arrived in Berlin, I found that even the leg
endary Berliner snippiness (Berliner Schnauze) was somehow sweeter.
People I did not know smiled at me in the subway and most every
one I would meet revealed her or himself as a soccer expert. Riding
in the elevator in the SONY building on my way to the Kinemathek
at the Potsdamer Platz, the man sharing it answered my noncom
mittal "quite a game last night" with "I love those African soccer
players ... they have great potential. And the elegance! Ah, but no
leadership and lousy trainers." On the way down, a woman, who
joined me on the sixth floor, told me how fortunate it was that Jiir
gen Klinsmann sent David Odonkor onto the field the night before.
"Odonkor knows how to network, and networking on the field is
important" she explained.
The tournament is history now. Germany lost and won. At the
huge closing party at the Brandenburg Gate, 500,000 black-red-gold
party guests came. The national team appeared on stage and turned
its back-the number eighty emblazoned on their team jersey. As
Klinsmann explained, the number eighty corresponds to the eighty
million German fans to whom the national team was grateful. Fast
forward to August 15, in the Munich airport at gate 8b where I
waited for my flight to Atlanta. On the tarmac I spotted several
planes that had "Welcome to the wm" emblazoned on each side.
They now looked like birds from another era. Except for a few stub
born flag flyers that I spotted on my journey from Stuttgart to
Munich, Germany has put its flags back into the closet.
95
Ingeborg Majer-O'Sickey is Faculty Director of Women's Studies

and Associate Professor of German at the State University of New
York (Binghamton). She has written extensively on German film and
is co-editor of Triangulated Visions: Women in Recent German Cinema.
She is currently preparing a study of the representation of women in
Nazi film (forthcoming from Berghahn), and co-editing a volume of
critical essays on Leni Riefenstahl (Continuum).
Notes
1. I am grateful to Barbara Mennel and Mary Webster for their thoughtful com
ments, and thanks to the editorial staff at GPS for their expertise with soccer and
style.
2. Badische Zeitung, 20 June 2006, 17. Claus Peymann, the director of the famous
Berlin Ensemble, echoed these sentiments when he asked: "But what happens
when Germany really wins? I hope very much that it will not be, like the
Olympics of 1936, a prelude to something worse ..." Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung, June 27, 2006.
3. Dirk Kurbjuweit, Krishna Allgower, et al., "Deutschland: Ein Sommermarchen,"
Der Spiegel, Nr. 25, 19 June 2006, 69.
4. Ibid., 71.
5. Indeed, Sonke Wortmann, director of The Miracle of Bern (2003) filmed the WM
and brought out the film under the tide, Deutschland: Ein Sommermarchen in Octo
ber 2006. See http://www.presseportal.de/stopry-rss.htx.
6. According to reports, the London Times hired a lip reader to study the match
video. The verdict was that Materazzi called Zidane "the son of a terrorist
whore" and added "so just fuck off." http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/

028783-2263995,00.htmI.
7. http://www.answers.com/topic/zinedine-zidane.
8. http://sport.indiatimes.com/soccerarhcleshow/1725359.cms.
9. http://www.answers.com/topic/zinedine-zidane.
10. Klaus Irler, "Public Viewing vor dem Altar. Die Zehn Gebote an der Wand.
Eines: 'Hauerei geht gar nicht!'" TAZ, 27 June 2006, 2.
11. Rhein Main Presse Allgemeine Zeitung, 10 July 2006.
12. Interestingly, only the mid to lower priced hotels profited. As Willy Weiland,
spokesman for the hotel and restaurant association in Berlin explained, the so
called sneaker tourists avoided the pricier hotels. The five star hotels that are
booked to eighty per cent during any other June and July experienced a drop in
bookings (up to seventy per cent). Hannes Heine and Peter Kirnich, "Alles
geschrubbt und eingesetzt," Badische Zeitung, 10 July 2006, 2.
96
Out of the Closet?
Irler (see note 10), 2.

"Sind wir durch die wm andere geworden?," Badische Zeitung, 8 July 2006.
Kurbjuweit et al.(see note 3), 69.
Ibid., 80.
Ibid.,76.
Diedrich Diederichsen, "Existenzialismus ist over," TAZ, 24-25 June 2006, 5.
Badische Zeitung, 10 June 2006, 2.
Rhein Main Presse Allgemeine Zeitung, 10 July 2006.
Interview with Georg Lowisch,July 25, 2006.
Interview with Lilo Majer, August 10, 2006.
Grass' statement is especially poignant in light of his recent revelations of his
membership in the youth SS. Ibid., 81.
Susanne Lang, "Plotzlich sind wir Gastgeber," TAZ 24/25 June 2006, 3.
Kurbjuweit et al. (see note 3), 158.
Bastian Henrichs, "Patriotismus? Quatsch, das ist normal," TAZ June 24/25, 3.
Jochen Roderer, "Schwarz-Rot Gold als Verkaufshit," Badische Zeitung, 17 June
2006, 3.
I thankjeff Anderson and Eric Langenbacher for this information.
Katja Bauer, "Tiirkischer Halbmond neben Schwarz-Rot Golb," Badische Zeitung,
27 June 2006, 4.
Ibid., 71. Before the World Soccer Championship, Klinsmann had been criti
cized for having chosen California for his primary residence. Ibid., 72.
Ibid.
Ibid., 73.
Holger Pauler, "Stopp, Hooligan, Stopp!" TAZ, 14July 2006, 19.
As Senator Erhart Korting explained, "it is true that people, who have been
identified as violent at previous fan festivals in Berlin, were at the festivities. But
that does not mean that they were barred from the profession for life." Frank
furter Allgemeine, 27 June 2006, 40. Mauritius Much, "Sicherheit auf Berlinerisch,"
TAZ 20 June 2006, 2.
Much (see note 37), 2.
Ibid.
97

Out of The Closet? German Patriotism and Soccer Mania

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Out of The Closet? German Patriotism and Soccer Mania

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Berghahn Books

Out of the Closet? German Patriotism and Soccer Mania

Out of the Closet?

In The Marriage of Maria Braun (1978) Rainer Werner Fassbinder

world soccer match between Hungary and Germany played in Bern,

tions for Deutsche Marks are similarly fatal for Germany.

have responded with Cassandra-like predictions of a dangerous

with its demonstrations of affection for other national teams. Could

this be a case of commodity culture teaching transnational thinking?

death, enemies); from psychoanalysis (obsession, obsessive, psy

Of course, fifty-two years had passed. The electronic revolution

Quite different from the formerly stern allegiance to the fatherland,

Similarly, the sports sociologist Michael Klein took recourse to gen

regularity, television cameras focused on sparsely dressed female

It may well have been the Germans' reception of international

Lowisch's perspective gains further relevance when we consider the

different relationship to the German flag. Nicknamed Germany's

Quite clearly, "Little Istanbul" as Berlin's Kreuzberg district is

ian-German Kevin Kuranyi and Malik Fathi (with a German mother

an aside, one small mountain was indeed moved in Akram

dred kilometers on his bicycle from his home in Uzbekistan to Berlin

and soccer tourists. To warn visitors, a new "German" phrase was

Turkish and other migrants' "transnational patriotism;" and Klins

Ingeborg Majer-O'Sickey is Faculty Director of Women's Studies

whore" and added "so just fuck off." http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/

Irler (see note 10), 2.

You might also like