DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0008 The First German Football Film 143 Revisiting a Children’s Classic: The Silent Third Reich in Sammy Drechsel’s Elf Freunde müßt ihr sein (1955) 1 Oliver Knabe University of Dayton Abstract: This literary analysis of Sammy Drechsel’s 1955 children’s novel Elf Freunde müßt ihr sein focuses on the author’s construction of 1930s Germany as a Nazi-free realm� With a particular emphasis on Drechsel’s depiction of mass media, this article reveals the Third Reich hidden in this popular autobiographical story about football and friendship� It demonstrates how the novel utilizes football to depoliticize and disguise Hitler’s Germany and ultimately raises the question about the pedagogical opportunities that emerge from a work that is based on silence as a narrative strategy� Keywords: West Germany, memory culture, football, soccer, children’s literature, Nazi Germany, Third Reich, Post-WWII literature, Sports literature When he wrote his 1955 football novel Elf Freunde müßt ihr sein (You Ought to be Eleven Friends), popular West German sports journalist and cabaret artist ( Münchner Lach- und Schießgesellschaft ) Sammy Drechsel likely did not envision how successful this book would be over the next decades. Labelled “Ein Fußballroman für die Jugend,” this inspiring, gripping, and endearing story about adolescent protagonist Heinz Kamke and his football-playing friends became a literary staple for generations of children, particularly those devoted to the game of football� Almost seven decades after its debut, Drechsel’s novel continues to be a favorite among young readers� As of 2024, Drechsel’s main publisher (and license holder) Thienemann-Esslinger has released the book’s thirtieth (almost) unaltered edition� 2 Furthermore, it has been adapted as an audio play and turned into an audiobook� 3 Set in mid-1930s Berlin, the story focuses on the football team of a boy’s public school located on Koblenzer Straße in the capital’s Wilmersdorf district� For the “Team,” as the adolescents call themselves, football is everything-and not just on the pitch. Off the field, too, the game is all that matters. Gym- DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0008 nastics lessons, math problems, job aspirations, and even the game of tennis somehow all connect to the boys’ favorite sport� Heinz Kamke-or Heini, as the protagonist is affectionately called by his friends-is the child of working-class parents who, despite financial constraints, support the ambitions of their son whenever they can� And the boy aims high� In the quest for the Berlin school championship, he and his peers face multiple trials as they encounter their (seemingly) imperious principal, angry mothers, demanding teachers, and unsportsmanlike opponents� Yet, through team spirit, smarts, and with the help of friends and family, the “Team” achieves what is initially believed to be impossible� At a sold-out Poststadion , the ‘eleven friends’ win their final match against the favorites from Charlottenburg and are crowned Berlin Champions� 4 Despite its age and a plethora of football literature for children on the market today (e�g� Wir Wochenendrebellen , Die Wilden Kerle , Die Teufelskicker , Meine erste Meisterschaft , Fußball Academy , Traumtreffer ), this autobiographical novel-Drechsel’s real name was Karl-Heinz Kamke-has never lost its unique status� The book has been praised as “nearly unmatched” and “a classic” within the genre of children’s literature by popular football magazine and name twin 11 Freunde (Köster ). Furthermore , in their 2005 audiobook review, the same periodical called Drechsel’s work “zeitlos” (timeless, Köster)-a puzzling characterization considering that the narrative was set during Germany’s darkest moment in modern history, the Third Reich� And indeed, this perennial quality that kept the novel accessible for the children of the following decades was, as a closer look reveals, based in the author’s narrative strategy that can easily be labeled as historical silencing (or, to use a German term, Schweigen )� While Berlin’s local sites (streets, tennis courts, train stations) and historical figures (specifically players, coaches, and journalists) are described in some detail, the larger cultural environment that surrounds the protagonist and his peers is kept ‘clean.’ The consequences of the coordinated Nazification of German society (and Nazis themselves) are linguistically disguised and concealed� “Die damaligen politischen Rahmenbedingungen des Sports spart das Buch gänzlich aus,” Andreas Bode notes, “so, als ob es sie nicht gegeben hätte” (246)� This persistent strategy of historical silencing is in line with narrative practices that were prevailing in West Germany’s 1950s children’s literature� During the first two decades after World War II, the child’s autonomy moved to the forefront of the genre, resulting in a specific literary perspective on the world that neglects the experiential (political) realm of adults� Andrea Weinmann describes these new literary spaces for children “als weitgehend außerhalb der Gesellschaft angesiedelter kindlicher Freibzw� Spielraum” (5)� Established out- 144 Oliver Knabe DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0008 side of society, these realms do not contain the discriminatory politics of the Third Reich� In this way, Freiraum becomes a double-edged sword� These literary spaces provided children with a carefree refuge that returned ‘Kindheit’ to them after it had been distorted as a concept by Hitler’s Germany, particularly during the final years of the regime. However, on the adults’ side, a realm free of responsibility (‘ Raum frei von Verantworung’) emerged� Children’s book presses simply did not publish any works addressing the Shoah before 1958 (Weinmann 5—6)� And even if these publishers had shown interest in topics connected to Germany’s genocidal history, they did not have manuscripts to choose from, as Horst Künnemann, scholar for children’s literature and media noted as early as 1960: “Nicht erst in letzter Zeit, sondern seit Jahren ist darüber berechtigte Klage geführt worden, daß die Verfasser von Jugendbüchern der jüngsten Vergangenheit und unserer Zeit gegenüber eine auffällige Scheu zeigen” (437). The writers’ reservations were, furthermore, shared by the educators at the time (Gerber and Künnemann 32), thus calling into question what the facilitation of children’s and youth literature critical of more contemporary questions and issues would have even looked like� Weinmann’s notion of the children’s literary space as a “Spielraum” is also at the center of Hans-Heino Ewers’s assessment of West Germany’s post war literature� Es gewinnt eine Kinderliteratur die Oberhand, die die kindliche Erlebnisperspektive und Weltsicht in den Mittelpunkt rückt, die kindlichen Wünschen und Phantasien die Möglichkeit gewährt, sich auszuleben, die antiautoritär nicht in erster Linie dadurch ist, dass sie die Autorität der Erwachsenen in Frage stellt, sondern darin, dass sie bevormundungsfreie kindliche Spielräume entwirft�” (Ewers) Ewers’ “Spielräume” are quite literal spaces of play and games in Elf Freunde müßt ihr sein � They are the realm of football carefully crafted (“entwirft”) by the author Sammy Drechsel� Yet, the novel’s literary setting is not based on keen historical observations but founded on historical and cultural ellipses� Ernestine Schlant called these omissions in the context of German post-war literature “the language of silence.” Literature, she maintained, functions “as the seismograph of a people’s moral positions” and the words not printed can help us understand a society’s zeitgeist just as much as the ones that made it into the book. Literature “lays bare a people’s dreams and nightmares, its hopes and apprehensions, its moral positions and its failures� It reveals even where it is silent; its blind spots and absences speak a language stripped of conscious agendas” (3)� In this way, “Silence is not a semantic void, like any language, it is infused with narrative strategies that carry ideologies and reveal unstated assumptions� Silence is constituted by the absence of words but Revisiting a Children’s Classic 145 DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0008 146 Oliver Knabe is therefore and simultaneously the presence of their absence” (6)� Revealing these silences in our literary narratives is crucial for constructive and necessary conversations about Germany’s past and our responsibilities as we are, once again, facing the rise of antisemitism in our midst� This holds especially true for those canonic works that have been consumed by Germany’s youngest readers for decades-like Elf Freunde müßt ihr sein , a work that has shaped how we conceive and imagine historical figures and historical spaces. To make these silences in Drechsel’s novel recognizable is the goal of this essay� With a special focus on the realm of NS mass media, this article will reveal the silenced Third Reich in this children’s book and address its significance to the contemporary moment� The language of silence that Schlant identified as a consistent element of German post-WWII literature often divulged the unconscious and spoke where the conscious minds of the writers had left gaps� Elf Freunde müßt ihr sein , however, is driven by a voice that seems to be quite aware of its own past� Immediately in the opening paragraphs, it becomes clear that the novel is preoccupied with the notion of time� The story begins in the middle of a math lesson where everyone is waiting for the main protagonist, Heini, to complete an assignment that his peers had already finished several minutes prior. Unbeknownst to everyone, he has been ignoring the teacher’s instructions altogether and, instead, calculating diligently and deep in thought the potential football standings for the upcoming match day in the local football championship� As Heini’s classmates become more and more restless and begin to worry for the short, black-haired boy in the last row, the narrator suddenly shifts the focus away from Heini to the person in charge of the class, Lehrer Peters. However, we do not witness the teacher scolding the boy-something the students seem to be expecting from him; instead, the storyline suddenly pauses� The tense atmosphere is momentarily suspended and through the narrator’s omniscient lens, we are moved back in time� Lehrer Peters erhob sich von seinem Pult. Zum Erstaunen der Schüler ging er aber nicht zu dem Nachzügler, sondern stellte sich an das Fenster, um, seinen Rücken den Schülern zugewandt, den Frühlingssonnenschein zu betrachten. Lehrer Peters hatte eine besondere Gewohnheit. Seit seinem letzten Urlaub in der Schweiz, dem Lande der Uhren, begann jede Unterrichtsstunde mit der gleichen Handlung� Sobald er an seinem Pult Platz genommen hatte, holte er seine Uhr aus der Westentasche, behielt sie einen Augenblick in der Hand, betrachtete sie liebevoll und legte sie vorsichtig, als sei sie aus zerbrechlichem Glas, auf den Tisch. Dann erst forderte er seine Schüler auf: “Setzen! ” (Drechsel 3—4) DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0008 Revisiting a Children’s Classic 147 Before the plot can unfold and before the reader even gets a chance to learn more about Heini, the narrator draws attention to the authority figure in the room, the teacher’s ritualized behavior, and his tender treatment of his beloved pocket watch� The Swiss item appears curious, not least because an entire page is dedicated to it� The text continues: Während des folgenden Unterrichts wanderten Lehrer Peters’ Blicke immer wieder von seinen Schülern auf die Uhr. Der Grad der Ungeduld, mit der er die Zeitspanne zwischen seinen Fragen und den Antworten seiner Schüler bemaß, hing von den Zeigern seiner Uhr ab� Manchmal setzte Peters neben den beiden großen Zeigern noch einen kleinen dritten in Bewegung� Das war dann, wenn es um Sekunden ging� In die moderne Konstruktion war nämlich eine Stoppuhr eingebaut� Wenn Peters wissen wollte, wieviel Zeit seine Schüler für eine Antwort benötigten, drückte er bei seiner Frage auf einen winzigen Knopf und der Zeiger der Stoppuhr setzte sich in Bewegung� Sobald das erste Wort aus dem Munde des Schülers kam, genügte ein abermaliger Druck, um den Zeiger der Stoppuhr zum Stillstand zu bringen� Mit einem Blick konnte Lehrer Peters die abgelaufene Zeit auf die Sekunde genau feststellen. (Drechsel 4) Peters’ relationship to his watch is described as affectionate (“liebevoll”) and the item itself as potentially fragile (“als sei sie aus zerbrechlichem Glas”)� Furthermore, his personal state, here particularly his level of (im)patience, is closely linked to the movement of the watch’s hands-the hands that the teacher eagerly commands� Peters’ symbolic linkage to time and his need to control the actions around him through his watch “auf die Sekunde genau” are less to be understood as authoritative behaviors of a 1930s educator but instead as a symbolic prelude to the ways in which Drechsel treats bygone times (“abgelaufene Zeit”) in his book. Like the watch, Drechsel’s depiction of the 1930s, his childhood past, is a “moderne Konstruktion,” a construct from his contemporary 1950s perspective that is strongly romanticized by the German post-war zeitgeist and rife with omissions, which grow out of the collective desire to forget Hitler’s Germany� 5 Not Heini, the protagonist, but his teacher is the main focal point in the opening pages as Peters becomes Drechsel’s stand-in� Both men govern their respective realms: Peters a classroom full of adolescents, Drechsel a literary world filled with and created for adolescents; and they both fixate on the same things. “Während des folgenden Unterrichts wanderten Lehrer Peters’ Blicke immer wieder von seinen Schülern auf die Uhr” (4). Locked in both men’s view are youth and time. Hence, read symbolically, the first paragraphs offer the reader two alter egos of Drechsel-an adult version in Peters, and his pubescent self in Heini� In this way, Peters’ confrontation with Heini moments later about his sluggish performance (“9 Minuten und 44 Sekunden� Und Herr Kamke ist 148 Oliver Knabe DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0008 immer noch nicht fertig,” 4) mirrors the author’s personal ‘confrontation’ with his young self� And just like Peters, who is forgiving (“Meine Aufgabe lautete zwar ganz anders� Aber lassen wir das”, 6) and who eventually sympathizes with the boy despite his disobedience, Drechsel shows nothing but fondness for his young self in Elf Freunde müßt ihr sein � In Drechsel’s novel, a look at the past does not necessarily require the full picture, as a second interaction between Peters and his watch suggests. “[Lehrer Peters] nahm seine Uhr in die linke Hand und hielt sie in einem Abstand von ungefähr 30 Zentimetern vor seine Augen� Dann legte er die gekrümmten Finger seiner rechten Hand so vor sein rechtes Auge, daß er, das linke Auge gleichzeitig zukneifend, wie durch ein Fernrohr die Uhr betrachten konnte” (138)� The novel’s ambivalent relationship to the past becomes evident here, if we, once again, read this passage through the lens of the bygone-times-watch analogy and Peters as Drechsel’s stand-in� The moment the teacher focuses on the time, he closes his left eye tightly, only looking through his right� The line “das linke Auge gleichzeitig zukneifend” evokes the common German idiom ‘ein Auge zukneifen/ zudrücken’-generously ‘turning a blind eye’ to something-thus subtly acknowledging the forgiving and selective way in which time/ past is (re)viewed in this autobiographical work� Yet, quite antithetically, this passage recognizes the immediacy of recent historical events, too, hence countering the desire to omit and suppress� Events that might appear far away (“wie durch ein Fernrohr”) are still within reach (“ungefähr 30 Zentimeter”)� In the case of Drechsel’s childhood, it is less than two decades away, the Third Reich less than ten years� In this way, the novel subtly demonstrates an awareness for its own relationship to Germany’s most recent history despite its consistent refusal to depict it� This paradox expresses, one might argue, an inner struggle in Drechsel’s attempt to navigate his personal responsibility to remember with the desire to shield childhood memories� After all, through his work in political cabaret, Drechsel was known for his historical consciousness� As a prominent figure of political criticism in West Germany starting in in the mid-1950s, Drechsel’s work on stage rejected any form of historical glorification or deception� In the tradition of the public intellectual, his satire agitated “gegen alles Nationale, gegen alles, was Restaurationsbestrebungen hat, gegen alles, was mit dem Dritten Reich zusammenhängt,” ultimately displaying a persistent skepticism for any form of authority (Drechsel and Scheller)� Yet, the readers should be warned about the novel’s depiction of the 1930s� Despite the assurance that Drechsel’s adult stand-in possesses a good memory (“Lehrer Peters hatte ein so gutes Gedächtnis,” Drechsel 4), we are left with doubts about its authenticity, especially since Heini, Drechsel’s second alter ego, is known to exaggerate and omit. Later in the story, when the protagonist describes to his friends how he had almost single-handedly painted his family’s DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0008 Revisiting a Children’s Classic 149 apartment over the holidays, the reader is reminded that a good memory does not always go hand-in-hand with the truth� “Heini tat, als hätte er allein die Wohnung geweißt und angestrichen� Seinen Vater erwähnte er nur am Rande� Aber Plötz und Matze kannten ihren Heini viel zu gut, um nicht zu wissen, daß dies nicht stimmte. […] Sie waren jedoch großzügig und sahen sich nur augenzwinkernd an, statt zu widersprechen” (77)� Matze and Werner Plötz, Heini’s audience, do not challenge his version of the past� Instead, they accept their friend’s flawed account with a generous wink that signals to the reader to follow suit and treat the book with leniency� After all, Drechsel’s version of time is a construct that-if the reader applies too much critical pressure-will break like glass� Applying this pressure, is the next step in this essay� Drechsel’s language of silence is closely tied to the game of football� In Elf Freunde müßt ihr sein , it is not simply a sport played by eleven friends, as the title of the novel will have us believe� Instead, Drechsel’s book draws on the common-place notion of sport as a politics-free realm� The novel utilizes football as a force that is capable of muting the polity (and thus the historical background), leaving barely any traces for the young readers to orient themselves in time� Paradoxically, it is this silence of football that helps us to locate the voids left in the text: where there is football, there are silences. Specifically, the names that constitute the game in the text (leagues, players, clubs, stadiums, sport journalists) can serve as entry points for critical readers to reveal the missing histories and uncover the Third Reich that hides within the narrative� 6 As we follow these hints, we will come across players such as Schalke 04-star Fritz Szepan , a Gelsenkirchen player who won six German championships and one cup title for his club� To Heini’s best friend Matze, this player was an idol (“sein großes Ideal,” 41) whom he looked up to and whose name the boy playfully adopted for his own football persona� In Elf Freunde müßt ihr sein , Szepan is described as a leader (“Kapitän der deutschen Fußball-National-Mannschaft”) and genuine model athlete who engages with his fans in friendly ways (“lächelte freundschaftlich,” 102)� Behind the athlete, however, hides the political opportunist and NSDAP member Szepan whose relationship to the regime can be described as symbiotic� He willingly played along when the Nazis used his name during several elections and during their promotion of the Anschluss referendum in 1938. That same year, he benefited significantly from the Third Reich’s politics (Bajohr 110)� 7 Through the ‘Aryanization’ process-the seizure of all Jewish properties and businesses-Szepan came into possession of a textile store while its previous Jewish owners Julie Lichtmann and Sally Meyer were deported and ultimately killed in January 1942 (Bajohr 115)� As was the case for many Germans like Szepan, his involvement with the regime did not bear any conse- 150 Oliver Knabe DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0008 quences. In the context of the post-war denazification proceedings, Szepan was ultimately exonerated in 1947 (Goch)� However, players did not have to seek personal enrichment through the regime to come into contact with the NS system within the realm of football� The coordinated Nazification ( Gleichschaltung ) of German society permeated all aspects of life� This included the nation’s sporting landscape, which had almost immediately been linked to the Nazis’ political organizations following Hitler’s rise to power. Through the Nazification process, organized football was ultimately changed in manifold ways, including the youth teams at the local club level� The most notable point of contact for young players with the regime was the Hitler Jugend , HJ (and its affiliate for ten-to-thirteen-year-olds, the Deutsche Jungvolk , DJ), which had considerable appeal for the majority of young footballers� By 1934-and thus two to three years before the book’s setting-more than 76% of all boys playing organized football in Germany were already part of this youth organization. This led to significant concerns among officials of the German Football Association (DFB) since they saw their young players’ growing involvement in non-football events take away from their time on the pitch (Havemann 187)� During the same year, policies were introduced that required a Hitler Youth membership for the admittance of children and adolescents to any sports club� This integration of the NS system into the nation’s football apparatus was completed by 1936 (187—88), thus around the time of Heini’s big final match. Together with Matze, he has been playing football for BSV 92 from the earliest age, while their friend and striker Gerd Hoffmann was scoring goals for Olympia 07 on the weekends. In Drechsel’s novel, the boy’s experience with club football is only tangentially addressed� We learn about Heini’s first goals and that Hoffmann’s proudest possession, a football, was a Christmas gift from Olympia� The pre-military social components (field and camping trips, tests of courage, evening marches) that were linked to German club life ( Vereinsleben ) through the HJ are omitted in Elf Freunde müßt ihr sein � Without a doubt, Drechsel’s systematic silencing of the Third Reich in his novel is a laborious narrative strategy, as it required the author to mute the cultural impact and signifiers of Germany’s Nazification on many levels in the text� Yet, the Reich is not only hidden linguistically, for instance, behind cleansed football terminology (“Berliner Fußball-Liga”; instead of Gauliga 8 Berlin-Brandenburg; 6) but also spatially when it comes to the most significant footballing site-the stadium� Berlin’s centrally located Poststadion , venue of multiple matches in the novel, is depicted as a space of virtuous and masterful athleticism and joyous celebrations� The infrastructural manifestations of German fascism that surrounded this space, however, are nowhere to be found DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0008 Revisiting a Children’s Classic 151 in the novel� While the capital’s outskirts-particularly Dahlem-are described in such great detail that we can follow the boy’s adventures effortlessly from street to street, this geographical precision conspicuously disappears as soon as we move into the city center and approach the stadium� A quick glance at the 1936 Olympia map of Berlin helps to explain the sudden lack of meticulous descriptions in areas close to the Poststadion � In order to enter the stadium grounds, the protagonist, his friends, and family had to pass repeatedly by parts of the Reich’s war apparatus-a vast military complex that was located next to the local penitentiary, the Strafanstalt Moabit � Starting in 1933, the latter was utilized predominantly to detain political opponents of the regime, including communists Ernst Thälmann or Georgi Dimitroff (“Justizvollzugsanstalt Moabit”)� Figure 1: Berlin’s Poststadion was framed by the barracks of the Nazis’ artillery and other military units� In the southeast of the stadium, spectators also had to pass by the Moabit penitentiary� Image courtesy of the Walter Havighurst Special Collections & University Archives, Miami University Libraries, Oxford OH. 152 Oliver Knabe DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0008 Figure 2: “Die große Jugendkundgebung im Poststadion Berlin am 1� Mai” reads the caption to this picture in the June 1936 issue of youth magazine Hilf Mit! This Nazi rally for Berlin’s youngest citizens highlights how closely football, NS culture, and adolescence were connected at the time that Heini and his “Team” were playing for the Berlin school championship� Image courtesy of the Walter Havighurst Special Collections & University Archives, Miami University Libraries, Oxford OH. Meanwhile, for Heini and his father, football is not spatially limited to the pitch or the stadium� Instead, their devotion to the game extends into the realm of mass media through which they passionately consume game reports and other related news within the private space of their family’s apartment� After Heini returns home from Berlin’s Poststadion where he had watched two local matches earlier that day, he and his father eagerly anticipate the radio broadcast that presents its listeners with a highlight show� Once “Mutti Kamke” has left the room, father and son relive the actions from that afternoon through the personable and pleasant voice (“sympatischen Stimme,” Drechsel 18) of reporter Rolf Wernicke, forgetting the world around them� It is up to the mother to bring them from their “Fußballschwärmerei” (20) back into the present� “Erst als die Mutter mit dem Tablett kam und den Tisch zum Abendbrot deckte, merkten die beiden, daß es auch noch etwas anderes auf der Welt gab als Fußball” (20)� Through the game, both father and son are hermetically sealed from the outside world, which is further emphasized by the mother’s request to close the windows while they are listening to their “komische Sportsendung” (18)� The game’s isolating impact on its consumers from the outside world, as described here by Drechsel, echoes Ödön von Horváth’s escapist description of football DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0008 Revisiting a Children’s Classic 153 in his 1937 novel Jugend ohne Gott ( Youth Without God )� The Austro-Hungarian writer, who was exiled by the Nazis and whose works were ultimately banned in the Third Reich, described the sport during 1930s Germany as a refuge for the masses� […] wenn der Verteidiger auf der Torlinie rettet, wenn einer unfair rempelt oder eine ritterliche Geste verübt, wenn der Schiedsrichter gut ist oder schwach, parteiisch oder parteilos, dann exisitert für den Zuschauer nichts auf der Welt, außer dem Fußball, ob die Sonne scheint, obs regnet oder schneit� Dann hat er alles vergessen� (Horváth 14) Unfair or honorable, partial or impartial, good or bad, sunshine or snow: in the realm of football, the extremes become irrelevant, and, in the case of the Kamke family, even imperceptible since the politics of National Socialism cannot seem to penetrate the private space� The mass medium that was intended to bring the Third Reich and its propaganda into the family home, the Volksempfänger (people’s receiver), is, in the context of Drechsel’s football broadcast, disguised behind a neutral name, “Radio�” The apparatus, that, according to NS Minister of Armaments and War Production Albert Speer, was meant to deprive 80 million people of their independent thought and “to subject them to the will of one” (Speer), has been stripped of its propagandistic purpose altogether� Furthermore, reporter Rolf Wernicke is reduced entirely to a sports persona, since he is only introduced to the reader through his football broadcast� However, Wernicke reported on a wide range of subjects� In addition to lending his voice to countless athletic events stretching from track and field and boxing competitions to ice hockey matches and bobsledding races, his professional portfolio started expanding from 1934 onward and included Nazi party conventions, official state visits, propaganda films (e.g. Im Kampf gegen den Weltfeind , 1939), and, in the later years of the Third Reich, war reports (Herzog 19—20)� 9 The border between sports reporting and NS propaganda was fluid as Wernicke’s biography exemplifies (Eggers 176). Yet, the novel separates the two realms carefully by omitting the latter� Through the wide range in broadcasting deployments, Wernicke ultimately became the voice of Hitler, the “Stimme des Führers” (Eggers 177), and likely the most recognizable radio personality of the national socialist regime� In light of the reporter’s role within the Nazi movement, the following lines describing “Papa Kamke’s” admiration for Wernicke gain in complexity as they broaden our image of the father beyond that of a passionate 1930s football consumer. “Das war überhaupt eine Besonderheit von Rolf Wernicke, daß die Art, wie er erzählte, im Zuhörer das Gefühl aufkommen ließ, er sei im Augenblick selbst dabei. Papa Kamke konnte sich dieser Wirkung nie entziehen, so oft er den bekannten Reporter auch hörte” (Drechsel 18—19)� By describing Wernicke’s voice as irresistible, 154 Oliver Knabe DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0008 the novel quietly echoes the understanding of the NS movement as an overpowering temptation that had drawn millions and deprived them of their own autonomy� As the Kamke family enjoyed only Wernicke’s football coverage that afternoon (ending for the reader the moment the radio was turned off; “Er drehte das Radio ab,” 19), the reporter’s famous propaganda voice remained silent� Still, the line “so oft er den bekannten Reporter auch hörte” leaves the door open for a political “Papa Kamke,” who listens to Wernicke’s various other programs� The radio is not the only mass medium that informs Heini and his father about the world of football� The two are also passionate readers of sports weeklies, particularly the Berlin-based Fußball-Woche. When the Kamke household decides that their home is due for a make-over, Heini volunteers his help� But as he lacks the skills that are needed to paint a wall (“Du hast eben zwei linke Hände,” 75), never mind an entire apartment, the protagonist will ultimately just focus on securing the shaky ladder for “Papa Kamke,” all the while he is reading a football magazine� Football allows Heini to forget the world around him-much to the chagrin of his father (“Träum nicht,” 75) who has to remind his son about the initial promise to assist in the home renovation� However, once Heini begins to read the game reports out loud to his plodding yet attentive father, the atmosphere in the room changes� Time that seemed to drag on forever (“Wie lange müssen wir denn noch kleistern? ” 75) suddenly loses all significance as both ‘men’ are absorbed into the world of football once again� “Zwei Stunden später hatte er die Zeitung von vorn bis hinten gelesen” (76)� Heini is especially fond of E�W�-the chief editor of Fußball-Woche magazine� Introduced to the reader as a kind (“freundlich” 252; “wohlwollend,” 255) and joyful character (“schmunzelnd, “’Junge, Junge’, lachte E�W�,” 255), and as one of the greats in football journalism (“der bekannteste Fußballjournalist Berlins,” 76; “einer der größten deutschen Fußballfachleute,” 106), the sports writer-whose full name is Ernst Werner-is revered among Heini and his classmates� As the teller of many football tales, he captivates his audiences and makes time fly by (“Sie merkten gar nicht wie die Zeit verflog […] da wollten sie nicht glauben, daß inzwischen eine ganze Stunde vergangen war,” 252)� An article that Werner wrote about one of Heini’s matches takes pride of place on the boy’s bedroom wall, next to the autographs of players from Germany’s national team as well as reigning champions Schalke 04� And Werner is not only popular and in high demand among adolescent football fans� Fellow journalists and Berlin’s educators seek his advice and friendship� Moreover, Papa Kamke’s enthusiasm for E�W� almost borders on infatuation when he speaks of their personal encounter after the Berlin championship match: “Papa Kamke [erzählte] von seiner Begegnung mit Ernst Werner […] und [bestätigte] nun schon zum fünften Male […], was für ein reizender Mensch dieser berühmte Journalist sei und gar nicht eingebildet” (257)� Recognition from the football ex- DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0008 Revisiting a Children’s Classic 155 pert E�W� is considered high praise (“Anerkennung aus berufenem Munde,” 106)� Werner’s words carry weight, and they represent a view on football that Heini shares (“Der hat übrigens dieselben Ansichten wie ich,” 77). How impactful the initials E�W� are in the Kamke household can be seen when Heini confronts his parents with his wish to forego the opportunity to work for an insurance company after graduating from school. After the final match, the team captain had approached the famous journalist about an apprenticeship at Fußball-Woche, ultimately convincing Werner to give him a chance� While the mother’s response is outright rejection and despair, the father laughs Heini’s idea off as a joke at first (“Das sind mal wieder die bekannten dummen Redensarten deines Sohnes,” 257)� However, the new career choice is suddenly given serious consideration and ultimately approved by “Papa Kamke,” once he learns that his son would work under the guidance of Ernst Werner himself� “[…] schließlich ist ja der E�W� immerhin ein Mann, den man achten muß� Und wenn der es mit unserem Heini wirklich versuchen will” (259)� The realm of football becomes a force that is capable of shifting career trajectories from one moment to the next� “Mutter Kamke’s” desperate plea, “Fußball ist nur ein Sport” (259), echoes as an ironic falsehood through the family’s living room� After all, the game has already altered her son’s future irrevocably� Just as in radio broadcasting, for sports journalists working in print media there remained no dividing lines between the athletic and the political realm during the Third Reich� In their attempt to control public opinion and prepare Germans for war and ultimately the annihilation of the Jewish people, the NS regime, in addition to utilizing radio (and film), heavily relied on the printing press for its propagandistic goals� Despite the rise of modern media, it remained one of the Nazis’ most important means for mass communication� Newspapers and magazines easily addressed the public need for (local) information and entertainment and were, from a pragmatic point of view, economically a feasible choice (Venema)� Yet, the regime’s exploitation of the journalistic trade was not only limited to regular news dailies and weeklies� Popular mass publications dedicated entirely to sports, such as Der Kicker , Reichssportblatt , and Boxsport , were part of the Nazis’ ideological campaign� In this context, Heini’s favorite writer and future mentor was not only one of many football journalists who had fallen in line after the Gleichschaltung of the sports media� Ernst Werner was, in fact, the vanguard within his profession when it came to promoting fascist ideologies. As early as 1928-five years prior to Hitler’s rise-he publicly agitated against decorated Austrian football coach Hugo Meisl� In the context of the heated debates about the professionalization of football, the head of the Austrian national team became the target of Werner’s scorn� At the center of his attack-Meisl’s Jewish background: 156 Oliver Knabe DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0008 Im Plenum ist Hugo Meisl, der Wiener Jude, mit der Geschmeidigkeit seiner Rasse und ihrem zersetzenden Sinn einer der größten Kartenmischer� Er und der deutsche Fußballführer Linnemann […] sind die stärksten Gegensätze, die man sich denken kann� Der eine ein Vertreter des krassen Geschäftsmachens mit Fußball, der andere ein Apostel des Amateurismus� (Cited from Havemann 161) Clichés and resentments against Jews that would soon inform official state policy under Hitler’s rule are already being promoted in this passage� Accordingly, it was the magazine Fußball-Woche under Werner’s stewardship that, out of all the football news outlets, embraced the new political environment the quickest (Eggers 168). Through ‘his’ magazine, Werner promoted NSDAP official Josef Klein who had joined the Schutzstaffel ( SS ) in 1932 and, in 1933, became the head of the West German Football Association ( Westdeutscher Spielverband, WSV )� In a May 1933 Fußball-Woche issue, Werner enthusiastically celebrated Klein’s promotion along with the National Socialist movement: Dr. Klein war immer ein glühender Idealist, er hat stets für seine Ideale gekämpft und darum ist ihm diese Genugtuung, die ihn auf den höchsten Posten im 330000 Mitglieder zählenden WSV stellte, zu gönnen� Der WSV aber ist um diesen ideal denkenden Menschen zu beneiden! Nicht jeder Landesverband kann einen solchen Mann präsentieren, der im Nationalsozialismus so tief wurzelt und gleichzeitig dem Sport so eng verbunden ist, in ihm so von der Pieke auf gedient hat� (Cited from Eggers 168—9) Once again-just as in the case of Rolf Wernicke-the novel detaches politics from 1930s sports when it mutes the anti-Semite Ernst Werner (“den Antisemiten Ernst Werner,” Eggers 179) in favor of the football authority E�W� Yet, by introducing the journalist as “einer der größten deutschen Fußballfachleute” (Drechsel 106)-one of the greatest German football experts-the text leaves a subtle but significant void from which a very quiet whisper poses the question about those unnamed other experts (“Fachleute”)� Werner’s public embrace of fascist ideologies helped to shape a movement (Eggers 178) that amplified his own voice, while he villainized and oppressed others at the same time� His elevated status in the realm of football during the 1930s and 1940s needs to be remembered therefore in conjunction with those writers who lost their livelihood due to anti-Jewish discrimination, such as Walther Bensemann, the founder of Der Kicker , and “father of sports journalism” Willy Meisl (brother of the aforementioned Hugo Meisl; Schiller 88)� Bensemann had to leave his editorial office and Germany behind for the safety of Switzerland in the spring of 1933, where he passed away the next year� Meisl, who had served as a sports writer for numerous newspapers and magazines, such as the Viennese Sport-Tagblatt and Bensemann’s Der Kicker , and who was later hired by Ullstein publishing DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0008 Revisiting a Children’s Classic 157 as their main sports editor, followed suit in early 1934 and went into English exile together with his wife (86)� 10 The football journalists that remained in their positions or filled the vacancies that were left by their exiled colleagues then made sure that Germany’s football records were cleansed of its Jewish athletes and their accomplishments (Eggers 166)� Despite their deep involvement with National Socialism, Rolf Wernicke’s and Ernst Werner’s legacies beyond the Third Reich remained intact, as Elf Freunde müsst ihr sein exemplifies through its favorable depiction of the two journalists. Wernicke continued to be a prominent voice in sports broadcasting until his death in 1953� Celebrated as a “Star-Reporter” by West-German news magazine Der Spiegel (“Keine Phrasen über Stimmung,” 30), he was deployed as a commentator to major athletic events such as the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo and the Summer Olympics in Helsinki that same year� His voice became his legacy: “ein rhetorisches Erbe, das auch nach 1945 in Sprache und Sprechweise der Rundfunkreporter deutlich zu vernehmen war” (Herzog 20)� Wernicke’s role in the Nazi regime neither posed an issue for his career during the post-war era nor tarnished his name posthumously� In the public memory of post-WWII Germany, he was remembered first and foremost through the cultural realm of sports. In the obituary for Wernicke, daily newspaper Die Zeit lamented his death as “ein großer Verlust für den Funk, der ihm stets die Berichterstattung über die wichtigsten Sportveranstaltungen übertrug” (“Wernicke spricht nicht mehr”). In a culture of collective silence and avoidance during the early years of the Federal Republic, ‘the Führer’s voice’ had quickly been forgotten (though the tone and diction very much persisted)� Only Wernicke’s sports persona (“Spezialist der Sportschilderung”) had survived and would be remembered in the decades to come (“Wernicke spricht nicht mehr”)� Ernst Werner, too, continued to practice his trade after the Nazi regime had collapsed, and he did so until 1978� Working as a chief editor ( Sport-Megaphon ) and freelance journalist, he reported from all FIFA World Cups between 1934 and 1974, and he covered more than 300 international football fixtures. When the Hamburger Abendblatt remembered Werner in a short death announcement in April 1984, it was, similar to Wernicke, the life of the football authority E�W� that was highlighted (in addition to the Order of Merit he received from the Federal Republic of Germany, Bundesverdienstkreuz; “ Trauer um Ernst Werner” 16)� As Jon Hughes reminds us, this type of selective amnesia in connection with the athletic world was a common feature of the early post-war years: “in the collective memory of Germans from this era, sport was one of the few aspects of life under National Socialism that tended to have mainly positive associations, with its political instrumentalization being overlooked or ignored” (260)� 11 158 Oliver Knabe DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0008 With Elf Freunde müsst ihr sein , Drechsel built Wernicke and Werner a literary monument, and for most readers, the story about Heini Kamke would remain the only exposure to their names� Yet, to explain Drechsel’s one-sided depiction of these two journalists solely through the German disposition to romanticize Third Reich sports, would ignore the personal significance both men held for the author during his early years� Werner and Wernicke were valuable connections for Drechsel (who, ironically, was partly Jewish through his father’s side) and catalysts for his career in journalism during the 1940s. Like his literary alter-ego Heini, whose apprenticeship with Fußball-Woche can roughly be estimated to have begun in 1936, Drechsel would work as an assistant for Werner’s magazine, starting in 1942� In this context, he eventually met Wernicke, who, at the time, was the head of all NS sports radio programs ( Abteilung Sport des Großdeutschen Rundfunks ) and who helped to pave Drechsel’s way into football broadcasting� At the political level, the novel mutes these two men, whose voices were among the most audible in their respective fields. In his book, Drechsel reconceptualizes 1930s mass media by shifting its function away from its propagandistic purpose to a source of seemingly NS-free sports entertainment� Once this entertainment has concluded, the journalistic voices quickly fade out� The radio is switched off and the newspapers are-by “Mutter Kamke’s” request-repurposed: “Vergiß nicht, Heini, nachher noch Zeitungspapier in deine Schuhe zu stopfen� Sonst werden sie bis morgen früh nicht trocken” (Drechsel 20). Drechsel’s language of silence in Elf Freunde müßt ihr sein was in line with the post-war zeitgeist and its memory culture. The novel’s success reflects that. By the end of the 1950s, Thienemann had already released their fifth edition, only four years after the book’s debut� Parallel to the novel’s success, the author had managed to establish himself in the world of broadcasting, sports journalism, and political satire; and as Drechsel’s access to prominent members of the sports and entertainment industry grew, he received support from its stars� In 1963, for instance, Germany’s national team captain and FIFA World Champion Fritz Walter provided a short preface for the new Ravensburg edition of Elf Freunde müßt ihr sein ; a brief text that seems to hint at Drechsel’s very selective depiction of the past (“Eine Geschichte, die sich fast so zugetragen hat”) 12 , but that, overall, echoed the ahistorical quality of the novel: “Sammy Drechsel erzählt Euch auch von großen Mannschaften und bekannten Spielern aus einer Zeit, die Ihr noch nicht erlebt habt” (Walter)� From the world of political cabaret, the strongest ally was Drechsel’s longtime friend and colleague Dieter Hildebrandt with whom he founded the satirical revue Münchner Lach- und Schießgesellschaft. Not only would Hildebrandt eventually lend his voice to the novel’s audiobook, but he was also among DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0008 Revisiting a Children’s Classic 159 Drechsel’s first readers, even before the manuscript had gone to print. 13 During a 2012 interview, the late Hildebrandt praised the book repeatedly (“ein wunderbares Buch! ”) and acknowledged feelings of melancholy (“Wehmut”) whenever he thinks about Heini and his peers� It reminded him of “meine eigene Kindheit, eine Zeit, da Fußball für uns alles war. Wir beugten uns noch nicht über Telefone und kommunizierten mit unsichtbaren Freunden-wir waren ganz im Hier und Jetzt� Es war herrlich, einfach herrlich” (Hildebrandt)� Asked about the missing Third Reich in the novel, Hildebrandt responded that he found Drechsel’s choice to omit Hitler’s Germany to be conceivable� The lack of political context in the book, “[ist] ihm […] nicht vorzuwerfen […], finde ich. Es ist nur ein Beweis dafür, wie sehr ihn und uns alle der Fußball ausgefüllt hat” (Hildebrandt)� In an attempt to preserve his childhood memories, Hildebrandt embraces the notion that sport and particularly football can exist outside of the contemporary moment� Football was everything (“alles”) and it did not leave room in the “Hier und Jetzt” for any sense of critical consciousness� He retroactively shifts the lack of awareness of a generation onto the sport, or, in other words, the game becomes an exculpating narrative tool that shields anyone from engaging with the contemporary moment and its social issues and injustices� Yet, football has shown time and again that it can serve as a forum for critical political discussions� With its enormous reach, it brings together large parts of the population every week, thus generating a diverse realm of opinions and political expressions� Despite countless, never-fading voices calling for football to be a politics-free zone, the game has become an echo chamber for political discourses stretching from football’s environmental sustainability to gender inequality, from class and socio-economic issues to discussions on race, antisemitism, immigration, and inclusion� Political expression and activism can be found all over Germany’s football landscape, and they are carried by all parties involved� 14 What, then, can a classic children’s novel on football from the 1950s offer to future generations of readers that goes beyond its lessons on camaraderie, friendship, integrity, and fair play? What can it offer in this contemporary moment as we continue to navigate debates about discrimination? Revealing Drechsel’s language of silence in this article is a first step to highlight the opportunities that emerge from this book� What can initially be perceived as a fraught issue has the potential to be a catalyst for reflection and education. During a time when antisemitism is once again on the rise, Elf Freunde müßt ihr sein offers the chance to engage young readers in critical discussions on the harm that can come from silence and on the role remembrance plays and has played in Germany following the genocides committed by the Third Reich� Since the conflict between terror organization Hamas and the State of Israel escalated in 160 Oliver Knabe DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0008 the fall of 2023, Germany has repeatedly been confronted with its antisemitic past� Not only did several cities and towns suddenly see a rise in the infamous swastika graffiti on public landmarks and house facades but the Third Reich practice of using the Star of David as a means to mark Jewish households has also resurfaced (Böhmer, Krappitz)� Jewish communities (including schools and synagogues) have had to reevaluate their security as threats against their members drastically increased (Landesregierung Nordrhein-Westfalen). In Berlin, the former political epicenter of the Shoah, Moses Mendelssohn high school students refused to attend their classes in fear of escalating antisemitic violence (Ederer)� Within this alarming backdrop, it is necessary that we critically reevaluate our understanding of the ethical responsibilities of football in all its forms, from the pitch in front of thousands of spectators to the hands of a child reading about their favorite childhood sports heroes before bedtime� Rather than convey that a person can be historically purged of their past through football, a fuller understanding of the novel and its contexts would, instead, send the message that there is no fantasy realm with the power to absolve an individual of their participation in a regime guilty of human rights violations� The things that are not said, the things that are left out are just as harmful as the things that remain� As society’s values and ethics shift, we reassess our perspectives on the childhood classics, demonstrated by the ongoing debates about cultural appropriation in Karl May’s Winnetou series or about racist and sexist depictions in the oeuvres of Enid Blyton (e�g� The Famous Five , German: Fünf Freunde ) and Astrid Lindgren ( Pippi Longstocking )� Questions about language in children’s books are at the fore, and this is a moment for publishers to reflect critically on the differences between the cultural milieu in which these children’s classics were initially written and our contemporary moment� Thienemann-Esslinger, the home publisher of Elf Freunde müßt ihr sein , has proven in recent years that they understand this charge� German classics like Otfried Preußler’s Die Kleine Hexe and Michael Ende’s Jim Knopf have been revised due to their racist and harmful language� Revisiting Drechsel’s Elf Freunde müßt ihr sein and its relationship to the Third Reich and making the historical contexts accessible for young readers in future publications (e�g�, a youth-friendly critical edition or a scholarly introduction geared toward students) can be the next step� Notes 1 This essay is dedicated to my son Leo who inspired me to write about his favorite book� I owe a particular debt of gratitude to my wife Kirsten for her support during the research and writing process� Finally, I thank Helga Flath and Dieter Trölsch for their assistance during my on-site research� DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0008 Revisiting a Children’s Classic 161 2 The novel has also been published by Omnibus, Ravensburg, Arena, and Carlsen� 3 Record label Decca had adapted Elf Freunde müßt ihr sein for a 42-minute audio play in 1978� Hildebrandt recorded Drechsel’s text again in the early 2000s for an audiobook release; the total play time was over four hours� 4 Drechsel’s football novel follows Elf Jungens und ein Fußball (1947) by Hanns Vogts� Drechsel’s book echoes Vogts’ narrative in multiple ways� The main protagonist in Vogts’ novel was called Heini, it plays in a school setting during the 1930s, and, again, it is an educator who initially rejects the game of football (see also Bode 246)� 5 Time is here also linked to Switzerland-the watch’s place of manufacture� This is significant in two ways. Firstly, Switzerland is historically connected to political neutrality, which is in line with Drechsel’s avoidance of any political subject matter and could be understood as the author’s desire for a realm of guilt-free neutrality� Secondly, through the lens of 1955-the novel’s year of publication-Switzerland had, in a metaphoric sense, become the birthplace of a new Germany that has left the Third Reich behind� With West Germany’s miraculous 1954 World Cup victory in Bern over Hungary, a new source of pride for the nation had been uncovered� 6 Drechsel describes in some detail the season finale of Berliner Sport-Verein 1892 (BSV 92), which ultimately resulted in the club’s first regional championship title� This, together with BSV’s subsequent match against Schalke 04 at the group stage of the German championship, allows us to situate the story approximately in 1936� 7 On April 10, 1938, Szepan was quoted in the Völkischen Beobachter as follows: “Die Begeisterung der Fußballfreunde in den Stadien des Dritten Reiches zeugt von der Gesundheit und Kraft unseres Volkes� Ewig Dank dem Führer aller Deutschen, der uns die Zukunft sichert in Sport und Spiel. Ein begeistertes ‚Ja’ unserem Führer Adolf Hitler! ” Frank Bajohr points out that Szepan likely never wrote these lines himself and that they should not necessarily serve as proof for the Schalke star’s political convictions� However, they do underline the relationship between football stars and regime, one of mutual benefits (Bajohr 110). 8 The German term Gau has traditionally been used in connection with districts or regions� During the Third Reich, it described Germany’s administrative units ( Reichsgaue ) and was also used within organized sports, labelling the regional competitions: Gauliga Berlin-Brandenburg , Gauliga Bayern etc� 162 Oliver Knabe DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0008 9 Wernicke was also involved in Leni Riefenstahl’s two-part Olympia film from 1938, thus demonstrating once more how Nazi ideology and propaganda were connected to the world of sports� 10 Erik Eggers estimated that approximately ten percent of journalists lost their jobs due to the anti-Jewish and anti-Communist discrimination by the Nazis (165). Specific data for sports writers has not yet been collected. 11 This distorted retroactive perception of NS sports can further be explained by the fact that glorified remembrance was reinforced by some West German sport officials who had previously held high positions in the Third Reich’s sport apparatus� In this context, Hans Joachim Teichler notes that former Nazis like Karl Ritter von Halt, Carl Diem, and Guido von Mengden had not only regained influential roles within West Germany’s sport organizations, but that they were also responsible for the earliest postwar publications about athletics in the Third Reich, all of which, Teichler argued, were whitewashed: “Erst Geschichte machen, dann beschönigen oder verfälschen-mehr kann man zu diesen apologetischen Arbeiten aus historischer Sicht nicht sagen” (18)� 12 Emphasis added by the author of this article� 13 In 2012, Hildebrandt stated that the original manuscript of Elf Freunde müßt ihr sein had featured a different tone. However, according to the cabaret artist, its initial brasher and meaner language (“schnoddriger und gemeiner”) was not just simply rejected by the editor but entirely disposed of� She allegedly threw the novel’s first version away, “damit Sammy endlich Ruhe gab” (Hildebrandt)� 14 While professional players use their celebrity status and social media platforms to address systemic racism within German society (e�g� Mesut Özil, Jérôme Boateng) or even take position publicly on the Israel-Gaza war (e�g� Bayern Munich’s Noussair Mazraoui), a coach like Christian Streich uses his pre-match press conference to warn about the Alternative für Deutschland ( AfD )� Political expression or even activism in the realm of football is not only limited to individuals� Bundesliga clubs and their fan scenes have supported or initiated projects related to refugees, LGBTQ rights, and environmental issues� Works Cited Bajohr, Frank� “Fritz Szepan� Fußball-Idol und Nutznießer des NS-Regimes�” Sportler im Jahrhundert der Lager. 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