Anniversary after anniversary! Not only is the ZZF turning 25 this year, the ZZF Library Newsletter is also being published for the 10th time today. And this time, it's all about the round leather ball. After the UEFA Women's Championship it's already time for the Bundesliga season, or something like that. One thing is certain, the round leather ball never stands still. The sport became a mass social phenomenon in the second half of the 20th century, which is also reflected in the media's "over-reporting". Since then, research has focussed on the most diverse facets of football: the sport as a professional field, as an economic factor, as a cause and trigger of collective outbursts of violence, and so on. Last but not least, historians have become increasingly interested in the subject in recent years, and sports historians have become sought-after contacts and interview partners for contextualising the phenomenon. Therefore, we would like to draw your attention to a few recent publications on the subject and briefly present them. We hope you enjoy reading this anniversary newsletter!
Before that, however, we would like to draw your attention to an event on the topic:
On Tuesday, September 12, 2017, the Association of Friends and Supporters of the ZZF e.V., in cooperation with the ZZF, invites you to the book presentation "Ein Trainerleben für den Frauenfußball" ["A trainer's life for women's football"]. Bernd Schröder, who was 45 years head coach of Turbine Potsdam, one of the most successful women's football teams in Europe, has published his autobiography [1] with Berlin-based Steffen-Verlag just one year after ending his active coaching career and shortly before his 75th birthday (another jubilee!). In a discussion with Carola Westermeier (sports historian, University of Giessen), he will talk about the importance of women's football in the GDR and how it was established as a popular sport after the reunification. "Perfect passes" are also expected from the evening's moderator, our colleague Annette Vowinckel. Kick-off is at 6.00 pm in the "Großer Seminarraum" stadium. Admission is free, but registration is requested due to the expected great interest, so that we hopefully won't need the standing stand on this evening.
Thomas Grimm (Hrsg.): Der Kracher von Moskau : Fußball zwischen Politik und Sport - das Länderspiel Sowjetunion gegen die Bundesrepublik Deutschland am 21. August 1955, 2015 (ZZF 27587)
An icy atmosphere between Bonn and Moscow, between Bonn and East Berlin. And then: the West German national football team, reigning world champions, is invited to a friendly match in Moscow. It is to take place a few weeks before a major political event: Chancellor Konrad Adenauer's first visit to Moscow. The Soviets want a highly symbolic German-Russian mass event before the meeting, and the interest of football fans in the Federal Republic and the GDR is huge. Thus, the football match of the "Heroes of Bern" in Moscow's sold-out Dynamo Stadium becomes a major event that was enthusiastically followed in both parts of Germany. Shortly afterwards, Adenauer travels to Moscow: He secured the repatriation of the last German prisoners of war. In return, the Federal Republic establishes diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. The book and the accompanying documentary film on DVD bring the drama of this politically charged football match to life 60 years later.
Wolfram Pyta, Nils Havemann (Hrsg.): European football and collective memory, 2015 (ZZF 27132)
This publication explores the question of whether it is possible for individual football matches or football players to contribute to the creation of a collective European identity. Pyta and Haverman attempt to answer this question by analysing in detail how football is remembered across the continent. "European Football and Collective Memory" is the first book to look at the collective memory of football on a continental level. The individual essays cover, among other things: Phrases, idioms and dialects in football, the early manifestations of European club competitions (Cups of identity?), a British case study of the 1960 European Champions Cup final (today UEFA Champions League), media coverage and discussions of the Wembley goal in France, George Best as European symbol and hero, the 1985 Heysel disaster, and rituals and memory practices in football.
Manfred Zeller: Das sowjetische Fieber : Fußballfans im poststalinistischen Vielvölkerreich, 2015 (ZZF 27373)
What did citizens of the Soviet Union identify with? How did they differentiate themselves from one another? Did mass gatherings destabilise the Soviet order? How did informal groupings emerge in a society of uniform conformity? What influence did new media and media networking have on the development of the multinational Soviet society? What remained after the Soviet framework collapsed?
Manfred Zeller uses the example of fans of Soviet football teams from Moscow (Spartak, Dynamo, ZSKA) and Kyiv (Dynamo) to write a history of community and antagonism in the post-Stalinist multi-ethnic empire. He analyses which groups Soviet citizens formed and who they turned against. His monograph deals with complex loyalties in the multinational Soviet Union - and the love-hate relationship between Kyiv and Moscow.
Zeller makes an important contribution to the study of Soviet popular culture after Stalin's death and to the current debate about antagonisms in the post-Soviet space. During Soviet times, "Moscow versus Kyiv" was not yet a question of war and peace, but in football it was already a question of victory and defeat and a feeling of "us versus them" in the complex multinational setting of the region.
Jutta Braun (Ed.): Football history. Selected contributions to sport in society. In: Historical Social Research = Historische Sozialforschung, 40.2015,4, Forum II, S. [153]-349 (Z 4)
IIn the last three decades, various occasions have provided reasons and motivation for new research and interpretation of German football history: First, the caesura of 1989/1990 lifted the curtain on East German football history. This was followed ten years later by the decision to host the 2006 World Cup in Germany, which was immediately accompanied by an upsurge in academic and social interest in football history. This HSR Forum includes some of the consistent intellectual debates, focussing primarily on the political and cultural impacts of the 1954 and 1974 World Cups, as well as the history of the Bundesliga. At the same time, the perspective of football history at European level has been considered. The impact of the booming commercialisation of European football are examined, as well as the cultural substance, particularly through the creation of European collective "memory territories".
Furthermore, football history is increasingly analysed as an impulse of public discourse: be it as a background for propaganda and myths of victims and villains during the Second World War or even as a continuing source of national stereotypes in the present.
Harald Hauswald, Frank Willmann: Ultras Kutten Hooligans : Fußballfans in Ost-Berlin, 2008 (4° ZZF 23894)
For twenty years, photographer Harald Hauswald accompanied football fans from East Berlin with his camera – at home and away games, on the train and in the pub, as peaceful "Kutten" and as violent "Hools" deliberately seeking confrontation with opposing fans and authorities. The result is relentlessly honest, often spectacular, sometimes funny pictures – most of them previously unpublished –n- that capture fan life in all its facets.
Together with Frank Willmann, who himself was a centre-forward for Motor Weimar for eleven years and is an renowned football expert, Hauswald has created a unique football fan book that is primarily dedicated to the big rival clubs in East Berlin, 1. FC Union Berlin and BFC Dynamo. A unique homage to East Berlin's football culture!
Rebecca Ladewig, Annette Vowinckel (Hrsg.): Am Ball der Zeit : Fußball als Ereignis und Faszinosum, 2009 (ZZF 24171)*
Football fascinates: it draws crowds to the stadium and entire nations to the screens. But what makes it so special? The articles collected in this volume approach the question of why this sport in particular exerts such an attraction from a cultural studies perspective. They ask which concepts of body and space it conveys, which emotions and imaginations it releases, which media it uses and serves and whether football also has a religious dimension. In addition to scholars from various disciplines, a former professional football player (Yves Eigenrauch) and a filmmaker (Nina Erfle) also have their say.
Bernd Rohr, Günter Simon: Lexikon Fussball, 1987 (ZZF 30432)
This treasure has only recently been unearthed. During the processing of an acquired collection from the Ost-Akademie Lüneburg this football encyclopaedia came to light. It is the only title in this selected bibliography that not only deals with the subject historically in some way, but also appears to be historical itself. Published in 1987, the volume comprises around 3,300 keywords on international football "with a special focus on the German-speaking world – past and present." On a publication note pasted opposite to the main title page, on which the printed price ob "about DM 37.00" was changed by hand to DM 49.80, one can read: "Over 250 mostly coloured emblems of clubs, associations and communities increase the vividness. From the contents: players, coaches, referees, clubs, associations, federations, organisations, championships, tournaments, cup competitions, technique, tactics, rules, specialist press, reporters, stadiums, football-specific injuries, etc. For football fans." Any more questions? Everything a fan's heart desires. The publication begins with a "History of football in data", starting in the 3rd millennium before our time! The collection of emblems is indeed remarkable, and the prints are of good quality. They are historical as well, as, firstly, the majority of clubs – or here "clubs" – federations and organisations no longer exist or no longer exist in this form, and, secondly, even the clubs that still exist have adapted the design of their logos and emblems over time to suit nour modern aesthetic sensibilities. Which brings us to comparative studies: As already indicated, football-specific terminology has also changed considerably over time. Some of the terms used here seem very anachronistic. Hence, a genuine recommendation for reading!
Frank Willmann [Hrsg.][u.a.]: Zonenfußball : von Wismut Aue bis Rotes Banner Trinwillershagen, 2011 (ZZF 25551)
The book combines literary, anecdotal and fan culture stories about Oberliga clubs, important second-division clubs and the even more important oddities like Kernkraftwerk Greifswald or Kofferwerk Waldau. For football fans, literature lovers and those interested in history, it offers facts and entertainment, amusing stories, interesting statistics and information about clubs, players and officials from 40 years of East German football, as well as excursions into today's football landscape.
Carina Sophia Linne: Frei gespielt : Frauenfußball im geteilten Deutschland, 2011 (ZZF 25604)
"Frei gespielt" tells the story of almost forty years of female football in divided Germany. It focuses on the fates of German female footballers in the former GDR and the history of this sport in its social context. In her sports history dissertation, Carina Sophia Linne discusses for the first time the chequered history of GDR women's football from its beginnings in the 1960s to the reunification of the two football nations in 1990, thus creating a German-German sports history through a constant look at the parallel development, including reunification, using the example of women's football in divided Berlin. Previously unknown stories of protagonists from that time, such as the game of an East Berlin selection team in front of a record crowd of 60,000 spectators in Warsaw in 1976, or the attempts of a committed Neubrandenburg coach to organise a friendly match with a West Berlin club, are given special attention. With numerous illustrations.
Alan McDougall: The people's game : football, state and society in East Germany, 2014 (ZZF 25981)
Sport in East Germany is often associated with systematic doping, which helped turn the country into an Olympic superpower. Football played only a minor role in this controversial story. However, as a very popular sport, it exerted an influence that few institutions were able to escape. "The people's game" examines the history of football from the interrelated perspectives of star players, fans and ordinary citizens who just played for fun. Utilising archival sources and interviews, this book reveals the fluid role of football in maintaining communist hegemony. By repeatedly emphasising that GDR football was part of an international history, for example by analysing the 1974 World Cup finals, Alan McDougall shows how sport transcends the Iron Curtain. By studying the mass protests against the Stasi team BFC in the 1980s, he highlights the role of football as a harbinger of the fall of communism.
Weiterführende Literatur:
Further reading:
Finally, a note on the football culture magazine 11 Freunde, founded in 2000 by Philipp Köster and Reinaldo Coddou H., and is published by the same-named publishing house. The cult magazine deals with aspects of German and international football culture beyond the match results. It tells stories about football and its fans, often in a humorous style. Posters with historical stadium photographs and other inserts are included in almost every issue. The magazine sees itself in the tradition of English football magazines such as When Saturday Comes. The magazine 11 Freundinnen, which focuses on women's football, has been published as a supplement to 11 Freunde since September 2009. As a historical research institute, we do not subscribe to the monthly print edition, but it is also worth taking a look at the homepage [4], where daily columns, essays and features report on curious, marginal or historical (often with videos) from the world of football. An example from 15 August 2017: Monkey Calls in the Arctic: Why an Eritrean Was Fired as Greenland's National Coach [5] (by Louis Richter).
Additionally, for major football events the magazine organises public viewings and discussion panels with illustrious guests, such as the annual 11-Freunde season review before the DFB Cup final, a humorous talk show hosted by Phillipp Köster. At irregular intervals, the RBB also broadcasts the show 11 Freunde TV, which is again hosted by Köster with Jessy Wellmer. From the start of the 2017/18 Bundesliga football season, Wellmer will present the Saturday sports show on ARD as Reinhold Beckmann's successor, joining the ranks of the few women who have been permitted to present ARD's flagship football programme to date.
Oh yes, there's also an app, of course:
https://www.11freunde.de/11freunde-fuer-unterwegs [6]
[1] http://steffen-verlag.de/blogartikel/bernd-schroeder-ein-leben-fuer-den…
[2] mailto:veranstaltungen [at] zzf-potsdam [dot] de
[3] https://zzf-potsdam.de/de/veranstaltungen/ein-leben-fur-turbine
[4] https://www.11freunde.de/
[5] https://www.11freunde.de/artikel/warum-ein-eritreer-als-nationaltrainer…
[6] https://www.11freunde.de/11freunde-fuer-unterwegs
(17.08.2017)