DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0006 Introduction: German Football, History, and Identity Oliver Knabe University of Dayton In 2024, Germany is once again the site of a major international football tournament-the UEFA EURO Cup� Men’s and women’s competitions combined, it is the seventh event of its kind hosted by the Federal Republic (FIFA World Cups 1974, 2006, 2011; European Championship/ UEFA EURO Cup 1988, 1989, 2001)� While Germany’s men used their home game advantage only in 1974 when they secured their second World Cup title, the women’s team managed to win two tournaments on their own turf, adding two European Championships to the nation’s portfolio� Yet, what becomes part of a people’s cultural memory and how we interpret these football moments is not necessarily determined by the competition’s outcome alone since hosting such a monumental event generates manifold collective experiences and makes possible a wide range of national discussions� These milestones in a country’s sporting history have shown that they possess the ability to transcend mere results and shift the focus beyond the physical playing fields. The 2006 FIFA World Cup, which ended for the German men with a third-place finish, is certainly the most striking example of that. In fact, the tournament’s unofficial name suggests a significance that is not restricted to the realm of athletics� The competition and the events surrounding it were dubbed a “Summer’s Tale”-a direct reference to Sönke Wortmann’s documentary film Deutschland. Ein Sommermärchen -hinting at the magical and transformative forces that football supposedly brought to Germany� Already during the tournament but also years later, the 2006 FIFA World Cup generated a wide range of public discussions about nationhood and patriotism as well as the country’s self-image and its reputation abroad� Six weeks of consistent football enthusiasm became almost indistinguishable from nationalistic fervor� For some, the singing of the national anthem and exuberant flag-waving resonated uneasily with Germany’s history and the nation’s post-war identity� Questions about German identity and the nation’s past are also at the center of this special issue. The five essays gathered in this volume originated at the 2023 German Studies Association Convention in Montreal, Canada� These versatile works are in dialogue with recent publications on German football 120 Oliver Knabe DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0006 culture, such as Football Nation: The Playing Fields of German Culture, History and Society and the Colloquia Germanica special issue on The Virulent Violence of Football in 20th and 21st Century German Cultural Production (both 2023)� Through their contributions, the authors seek to join and expand the interdisciplinary conversations on football that have become more accessible for non-German speaking audiences in the past few years� Stretching historically from 1920s Weimar Republic to the 21st century, this special issue reveals how football has been a contentious space rife with debates but also a place for imaginative possibilities that reflect a nation’s shifting perspectives on memory culture, politics, social values, and what it means to be ‘German�’ The Themenheft is kicked off by Rebeccah Dawson and her essay “The First German Football Film� Zoltan Korda’s Die elf Teufel and the Cultural Transgressions of the late Weimar Republic�” This close reading of the 1927 silent movie takes us to Berlin in the Golden Twenties and looks at football as a metaphorical battlefield for Germany’s sociopolitical conflicts at the time. Dawson demonstrates how Korda utilizes the realm of football to address the rising tension between conservative German values and cosmopolitan modernity. Specifically, through her analysis of the film’s two female characters-Linda and Vivian- Dawson explores the antagonistic gender identities in Weimar society embodied by the different variations of the “new woman.” As the essay shifts its focus to protagonist Tommy-the star player in the film-we transition to the timely debate about the commercialization of football. Dawson highlights how the film portrays the fame, money, and luxury of professional football as devilish temptations and the protagonist’s seduction as “a Faustian deal of sorts�” In this way, Dawson’s reflections echo ongoing discussions about the current state of football in Germany where fans try to defend ‘their’ game and oppose, what they believe to be, the destructive forces of consumerism and corporate interests� Moving away from the Weimar period, Oliver Knabe’s contribution “Revisiting a Children’s Classic: The Silent Third Reich in Sammy Drechsel’s Elf Freunde müßt ihr sein (1955)” takes the reader to the immediate post-war years-a time when Germans preferred looking to the future rather than being reminded of their past. And Drechsel’s football novel reflects this very zeitgeist. Despite its 1930s setting, the Reich is nowhere to be found-or so it seems� By focusing specifically on the book’s depiction of mass media, the essay reveals Sammy Drechsel’s “language of silence” and uncovers the Nazi state within the novel� Football, Knabe argues, serves Drechsel as a narrative device that hides Germany’s Nazification; yet football also holds the key to its detection: “where there is football, there are silences�” Ultimately, Knabe raises the question about the role of children’s literature in Germany’s collective memory (specifically regarding the Third Reich and the Shoah), while highlighting the book’s potential to gen- Introduction: German Football, History, and Identity 121 DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0006 erate meaningful conversations about the destructive effects of silence today, during a time when antisemitism is, once again, on the rise� This linkage of Germany’s past with the contemporary moment is also at the heart of Alex Holznienkemper’s essay “Glocal yet National-German Soccer Culture, Identity, and Vereinsgeschichte �” The point of departure for Holznienkemper are today’s heated debates and arguments about the commercialization of and ever-growing corporate influence on football. These market-driven forces usurping the game have been combated passionately by many German football fans, who view them as threats to their clubs ( Vereine ) and thus to their own opportunities for social engagement within these clubs� This has led, in recent years, to manifold forms of protest and fan activism� Holznienkemper suggests that the fans’ struggle for democratic participation at the club level ( Teilhabe , Mitbestimmung ) are not merely to be viewed as fights about football and the game’s soul but instead as a defense of the institution Verein itself-a form of association and collective organizing that has existed in German society since the late 18 th century, and thus before football even made an appearance in Germany� Vereine and their social practices, he maintains, help navigate the modern social world with all its inherent tensions� Through the case study of FC St� Pauli, this essay highlights the history and significance of the institution Verein and the role it plays in German identity formation� Sabine Waas’ essay titled “Celebrity and Athlete? Depictions of German Soccer Star Jérôme Boateng in Mass Media” moves our discussion fully to the contemporary moment and to the game’s central actors-the players� Through her case study on Jérôme Boateng-the first Afro-German World Cup champion-and his various representations in football-related media, Waas investigates the construction of star athletes’ identities� As she documents and analyzes the interplay between Boateng’s depictions by the media (biography, television broadcast, print journalism) and his self-stylization (e�g�, through websites and social media), Waas reveals how discourses on race and ethnicity, class, sexuality, as well as nationality can intersect in the formation of a celebrity identity� Furthermore, by covering a decade of media representations, she manages to capture the fluid quality of the celebrity construct; in Boateng’s case it is the transformation “from ‘ghetto kid’ to the working-class trendsetter and nowadays ‘bad boy�’” This volume culminates with an essay by Kate Zambon who addresses the role of football within the fraught political debate about the integration of migrant populations� Through discourse theoretical analysis, “Unruly Boys and Unemancipated Girls: Football Integration and Gendered Imaginaries of Difference” sheds a critical light on the nation’s (mis)conceptions about its immigrant communities� In her reading of the public relations materials for the 122 Oliver Knabe DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0006 annual Integration Prize awarded by the German Football Association (DFB) and Mercedes-Benz, Zambon reveals the underlying racialized and gendered assumptions about migrant populations and cultures, particularly Muslim families. Girls, she finds, are often believed to be in need of emancipation from their patriarchal families and traditional norms in order to participate in German society; boys and men, on the other hand, are coded as aggressive and potentially criminal� Against this background of presumptions, Zambon argues, football is viewed as a liberating and transformative tool that promises integration and transformation� Football is, in other words, charged with nothing less than solving Germany’s “problem migrants�” The collection of essays presented in this special issue are meant as catalysts for the reader-as starting points that help us to reflect on the role football has played and is playing in shaping German society� Ultimately, these scholarly provocations hope to encourage more interdisciplinary and collaborative inquiries into the realm of sports and German studies, and perhaps the UEFA EURO Cup will prove generative for the next set of scholarship in this field.