Einigkeit und Recht und Fußball

Einigkeit und Recht und Fußball - How it feels to be German in the 21st Century

July 2006, I am walking over the ground where every autumn the biggest beer festival in the world takes place. Now the site is populated by thousands of fans, dressed in black-red-gold and various other team outfits, and spectators - like me. It feels a bit like the first time I went to the Oktoberfest. I couldn’t believe what I saw. Thousands of strangely-dressed people (wearing their outfits with an incomprehensible but obvious pride), drinking beer, participating in the mass-euphoria.

But now the crowd is wearing football jerseys instead of lederhosen. The World Cup has arrived in Germany.

Yet unlike when I went to the Oktoberfest for the first time, when the odd feeling disappeared after the first beer, this July the odd feeling remained with me. The paradox of such open, ecstatic self-congratulation coming from a country whose nationally identity has been so defined over the last 60 years by a complete lack of pride. The abundance of flags and the numerous German songs (in a country where the majority of the popular songs are in English) strike me as remarkable each new day during those weeks. So does the pride about the achievements of the German national team.

Is it pride? How can you be proud (or ashamed) of anything that you have nothing to do with? Why do these people feel such a joy when those guys in shorts and shiny jerseys kick a ball better than other guys in shorts and shiny jerseys? What is unifying ordinary people with those playing on the field? The layout of their passports? Culture, patterns of behaviour or traditions? I guess it is rather the belief in the idea of a team/nation and the belief in success. Football reflects the process of creating a national identity and at the same time it does play an important role in creating it.

Last summer Germany was caught in a fever. Until then I would never have thought of painting German flags on my cheeks, I did not even know the lyrics of the German national anthem. And suddenly it was okay to be German. We cheered and were sorry for these 11 people whom we never met in our whole life. But we shared a spirit that Herbert Groenemeyer articulated in his song for the world cup: ‘The time for a turn has come.’So, what is it that has brought about this change? Why is being German no longer a reason to be ashamed? The economic well-being plays an important role, Schroeder’s “Nein” to the Iraq-war, hosting the World Cup and certainly the growing distance to the most traumatic period in German history: the Second World War. Eye-witnesses of this ‘Stunde Null’ (’Hour Zero’) of German history are becoming an endangered species.

As little as we have to do with the success or failure on the football field, so also do we bear responsibility for what happened during WWII. And yet this shameful war and the atrocious events on its battle fields and concentration camps are somehow linked to each of us. There is a story in each of our families. My grandfather fought in Russia and France, he rode a tank, as far as I know. And if he killed any people, and how many, I have no idea. And unfortunately I was too young to ask him before he died if he believed in what was fought for. What remains is the vague shame of unknowing, the awareness of my ancestors (at least in failing to actively resist) going wrong and the repeated questioning of ‘What would I have done in their situation?’ - and thus the constant consciousness of the fallibility of humankind.

I disagree when my friends from other countries try to offer relief: ‘All that was long ago, you have nothing to do with it, it is time to overcome this terrible history, …’ I do think that we should go on to remember what happened, and I do hope that also the following generations will stick to that warning, even if the direct involvement of the family grows more distant. Let us recall the horrors of war, the above mentioned fallibility and the war- and post-war generation’s whole-hearted: ‘Never again’.

Even though we did little to nothing to cause the shift in the German national identity, we did embrace it. Many people volunteered to take care of the hosting of the football teams from all over the world, organized events, helped our international guests who asked for directions or congratulated people in the U-Bahn to the latest victory of their team.

I do hope that the German people will be similarly willing to do their share to continue the long path of recovery of our national identity. Not proud, but self-confident. Not towards power or a dominant role in world politics, but with the aim of being an equal partner in the European Union and a country whose opinion is valued in international diplomacy.

Bearing this new self-confidence in mind, it was okay to lose against Italy last summer. “The time for a turn has come” - the people who came to Germany to celebrate the World Cup could feel that. We could feel that. We did not win in terms of football. But certainly in terms of our national identity. Obviously, no game can wipe away history. And it shouldn’t.

The World Cup wasn’t so much about Germany ’s performance on the field. It was about Germany ’s performance in the world: It was a performance of Germany today, as opposed to Germany in the past, the way Germany perceives itself and the way it is perceived by the rest of the world.

Photograph: © Lee Bacon, 2006