Colloquia Germanica
cg
0010-1338
Francke Verlag Tübingen
61
2023
561
Football and Violence in 20th and 21th Century German Literature and Culture
61
2023
Rebeccah Dawson
cg5610001
Introduction: Football and Violence in 20th and 21st Century German Literature and Culture 1 Introduction: Football and Violence in 20 th and 21 st Century German Literature and Culture Rebeccah Dawson University of Kentucky Since the arrival of football in Germany in the late 19 th century, it has continually morphed into malleable battlefields, both physically and metaphorically. While the cultural and political canvas of Germany changed dramatically over the next century, so too did the impact of football on the Germanic world� And yet, with all the turmoil and upheaval the German nation has endured over the past hundred+ years, the appeal and popularity of football has not only survived, it has thrived, growing the nation to become one of the most recognized and lauded in the world� Throughout the 20 th and 21 st centuries, sport, and more specifically football, became a microcosmic forum through which cultural norms could be voiced, critiqued, and interpreted� This special issue focuses on precisely these aspects of athletic cultural production, revealing the manifold forms in which football has given life to the continually changing landscape posited in the tumultuous peaks and valleys of German life since 1945� The issue draws from (but is not exclusively sourced from) papers presented on the panel “The (Socio)-Political Role of Football in 20 th -Century German Film and Literature” at the 2018 German Studies Association Conference in Pittsburgh, PA� While the panel was the birthplace of this special issue, it has morphed over the subsequent years to include new authors and expanded papers from the original panel members� The GSA panel brought together history, film, and literature dealing with football in 20 th century Germany, focusing primarily on the pedagogical influence of sport on cultural production� This special issue follows the trajectory set into motion by the 2018 GSA foundations and explores the societal and cultural impact of football in literary, cinematic, and mass media production in Germany after 1945-bringing together perspectives from both German and sociological scholars� The cultural impact of sport, and more specifically football, in German history has dominated the pages of academia over the past century� Even non academics know and acknowledge the cultural significance of events such as the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Berlin, the World Cup victories in Bern (1954, otherwise known as “The Miracle of Bern”) and West Germany (1974), and the infamous 2 Rebeccah Dawson 1972 Olympic Games in Munich� Furthermore, football enthusiasts surely connect the 1990 World Cup victory in Italy with the reunification of East and West Germany and the 2014 World Cup as the first European team to lift the golden trophy on South American soil� To be sure, the cultural impact German football has had on a global scale is not to be discounted and has been far from problematic at times; however, what is perhaps too often overlooked is the involvement and production of football within the cultural sphere and how it has influenced the developing landscape of German society� The significance of such cultural production allows one to see deeper into the time, events, and people to reveal the inner workings of social thought and action in dramatically different eras of German history. Literary and cinematic works offer a portal through which athletics could praise or critique societal norms and posit an understanding of each era not accessible through historical accounts alone. Indeed, examining cultural production-both fictional and non-fictional-elucidates football’s role in reshaping a country in shambles, challenging the status quo, and developing the violent and racially charged state of the Germanic footballing world� The articles chosen for this issue examine instances of football embedded in cultural production as a means to cope with and understand the past trauma of German life as well as illuminate the issues at hand in contemporary football society� Each article acts as a case study of sorts for the era in which the examined artifact was produced� Utilizing a historical trajectory, the issue begins with the early stages of the newly born Bundesrepublik Deutschland (BRD or Federal Republic of Germany) in the immediate Post-World War II era and subsequently follows the development of football through the split of East and West Germany and back into contemporary culture� Finally, the sociological state of football today and the prominent position it has assumed in racially charged debates of the men’s national team� Thus, this issue draws a metaphorical timeline of the progress (or lack thereof) within the German footballing world, elucidating the manner in which the country’s core cultural values are displayed, allowing a deeper understanding of the past, present, and future of German society as a whole� Rebeccah Dawson begins our journey in the literary rubble of World War II in West Germany’s Stunde Null and the new battlefield the sports arena provided blossoming writers of the time in her article “ kanonen kicken köpfen. Fascism’s Violent Victory in Ludwig Harig’s ‘Das Fußballspiel’”� Rising from the ashes of the National Socialist all-encompassing vice grip on cultural production, authors sought to ground a novel form critical literature, which allowed liberties the previous generation was denied. Influenced by Dieter Wellershoff’s Neuer Realismus, Ludwig Harig’s 1962 short story and subsequent Hörspiel (radio Introduction: Football and Violence in 20th and 21st Century German Literature and Culture 3 play) “Das Fußballspiel” reflect the chaotic and confusing incomprehensibility of postwar West Germany by turning to the realism of everyday experiences of the individual� Harig implements football in combination with radical literary form and language to reveal an everyday where the violent fascist past of West German society can be accessed and confronted� “Das Fußballspiel” questions the indifference of society after 1945 and its inability to come to terms with the horrific past, revealing it is through sport that the possibility of this interaction can come to fruition� Utilizing Adorno’s theories on sport and fascism in Prisms (1955) and “Education after Auschwitz” (1966), Dawson explores how football can unveil the resistance of society in recognizing the ghosts of fascism still present in society and subsequently how this reflects the refusal of West German society to reconcile with the horrific, violent past and the poignant dangers it poses to the present� Oliver Knabe’s contribution, “East Germans Rehearse the Uprising: GDR Football as a Democratic Testing Ground in Ernst Cantzler’s Und freitags in die ‘Grüne Hölle’,” brings the athletic battlefield into the period of separated Germanies, focusing on cinema of the late German Democratic Republic� Knabe explores the contentious relationship between the GDR government and football in the last days of the regime’s power by examining the complex layers of meaning in the film’s symbolism, careful montage, and cultural references. By treating Grüne Hölle as a cultural artifact, Knabe presents a striking understanding of the film’s spectators as a metaphorical embodiment of the challenging, and eventual dismantling, of the country’s borders� Charting the inner turmoil of the GDR in the late 1980s, the article posits that football’s metaphorical language presents the key in understanding the unspoken, if not violent, aspirations of the moribund nation’s citizens� The theme of violence likewise weaves itself into the 2016 novel by Phillip Winkler entitled Hool. Bastian Heinsohn offers a fresh take on football violence and fandom as seen through the eyes of a teenage hooligan’s support of his Bundesliga team: Hannover 96 in the article: “Mapping Spaces Beyond the Football Pitch: Football Fandom and Coming-of-Age in Philipp Winkler’s novel Hool. ” Much like Knabe’s article, Heinsohn investigates the parallels between football and the spectators surrounding it� By examining the novel’s use of various spaces of combat and struggle both inside and beyond the football field, the article examines not only the search for identity and belonging but also the rise of hooliganism in German youth� Furthermore, Heinsohn illuminates the violent resistance associated with such fandom as it relates to the continual commodification of football. Much like the other articles in this volume, Kate Zambon’s examination of football highlights the violent nature of football society� Zambon takes an al- 4 Rebeccah Dawson ternative approach, however, in comparison to the other articles in this issue, in that she investigates the reality of racism in the cultural landscape of today’s German national team� Unlike the articles by Dawson, Knabe, and Heinsohn, “The Refusal to Sing: Affective Demands on Athletes of Color in German National Football” offers a no-holds-bar take on the reality of life as a player of color in the German footballing world and the subsequent performative non-performance which arises as a direct result� Considering the turbulent history Germany instigated in the early 20 th century, the article utilizes the ever present yet contentious topic of symbolic nationalism that has produced considerable public debate in recent years� In the end, Zambon argues that discourses on football echo and reformulate national politics of culture, race, and citizenship, revealing the problematic associations between footballers and societal integration in creating a new, “colorful” German nation� This special issue aims to further discourse on the role of football in the past, present, and future of German cultural landscapes� By examining each of these artifacts in detail in light of their respective eras of production, a clear trajectory of cultural understanding can be traced throughout football’s dynamic role in the production of German identity� While the sport remains the same at its core, the far-reaching effects of its literary, cinematic, and social renderings provide an opportunity to better understand the multifarious critiques, developments, and diversification of German culture.
