I was in Berlin when the football World Cup ('Weltmeisterschaft', Germany beat Sweden etc) was in progress, more screens in open spaces and flying not just German teams flags than anything like I experienced in the UK, in Germany or ever; a good atmosphere; including the being OK to be proud of being German.
On BBC 4 the night before final of the 2006 World Cup final (2006 Weltmeisterschaft), I saw a film many in Germany would have seen some years ago and liked, ‘Der Wunder von Bern’ (The Miracle of Bern) about a family and football and the 1954 Weltmeisterschaft. The father, back from being a prisoner of war in the Soviet Union was having difficulty fitting in back home etc, had a terrible relationship with his family who had coped pretty well. Father insisted a German boy (his youngest of three children) should not cry. Mother caught father beating boy. Mother was very angry with father. Father had to learn to adapt and get to know his family. He tried to tell his family what it was like as a prisoner of war; difficult for them to understand but they wanted him back. Scene of father on his own kicking a football about in an empty courtyard reflecting imagining himself a footballer getting an incredible goal. During the night before the final, father wakes boy up to drive him quite a long way, to Bern (Switzerland where the 1954 tournament was held) to see the final because son can enable Germany to win! They get there. Germany wins! I was never very interested in football but this was just a great film. What it must have been like in Germany to win in 1954! Germans who remember can now in 2006, recite the names of all the 1954 team. Germans having seen the film is not a surprise, nor that the 1954 Welmeisterschaft touched then & does still. I recognised cars of the period in the film from visits to Germany with my parents. The film seemed pretty authentic. I wondered when the film was made. Having landed into watching part way through the film, I puzzled and the saw a DKW estate, a sound quite distinctive and familiar to boys who knew them at that time, & a Gogomobile. I worked out what period the film was depicting, so the film unfolding late one night in our living room. Not so much particularly interested in football, nor cars, films like these I very much like (we played Rugby not football at school...I hated it...we were allowed to do running instead). I feel similarly about such films as "Kes" or "Billy Elliot".
A friend in Germany commented “What impressed me this time is that German people dared to show some kind of patriotism and that most foreigners appreciated it. I heard a very good definition of patriotism and nationalism. Patriotism means that you love your country and your people. Nationalism means that you hate other countries and their people. Lets keep sticking to the first!”
Wednesday, 12 July 2006
2006: World Cup (‘Weltmeisterschaft’), Patriotism, Nationalism etc
