Football history meets political history – England vs. (West) Germany

Hans Bolling
PhD in History, Independent scholar

In his memoirs, Einer wie ich from 1975, Franz Beckenbauer writes about making his first appearance for the West German national team in 1965. Reading about it in isolation one might think that the game was played in hostile territory during a conflict as he describes how the game of his childhood turned into a black Sabbath:

I went out into the corridor and continued silently towards the pitch. I just had to follow the murmur of the crowd. The stadium was packed. I immediately spotted the cheerleaders with their megaphones, and fans standing next to them waving flags. Anyone who visited a football stadium for the first time might have thought that a convention of magicians or illusionists was taking place. Never had I experienced the sport so unreal.[1]

The game was played against Sweden at Råsunda Fotbollstadion in Solna and was of great importance for which country would qualify for the 1966 World Cup in England. A 2–1-victory for the Germans assured them of a place in the finals, an indispensable ingredient in Christoph Wagner’s book Crossing the Line? The press and Anglo-German football rivalry.

In Crossing the Line? Christoph Wagner writes about England’s rivalry with West Germany/Germany played out on the football pitch in the second half of the twentieth century. On the book’s cover, Franz Beckenbauer is quoted to have said about playing against England: “war correspondents get their say whenever their team plays us.” In his above-mentioned memoirs Beckenbauer also tells us that Helmut Schön, the West German manager, had “joked” at the team lunch before the game in 1965: “If they don’t win today or at least get a draw, then they are off to the Thirty Years’ War again.”[2] War seems to have been ever present when it comes to the German national team.

The title of chapter four, “’Let’s Blitz Fritz’: England versus Germany in the 1980s and 1990s”, tells it all. It deals with a period of time when German football was extremely successful and the English press became increasingly chauvinistic.

Wagner relies on English newspapers as his central source, but he also gives some attention to German papers. The papers most heavily relied on have been chosen to represent different segments of the newspaper market, i.e., the quality section, the middle market, and the tabloid section. The English market is represented by The Times/Sunday Times, Daily Express/Sunday Express and Daily Mirror/Sunday Mirror and the German market by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Welt and Bild-Zeitung. Since Wagner refers to the 1970s television classic Fawlty Towers and “The Germans” episode when he writes about why he has chosen to write about Anglo-German rivalry, I must admit that I was a little bit disappointed that the author did not make use of an another English television classic, Yes, Prime Minister from the 1980s where Jim Hacket explains to Sir Humphrey and Bernard who reads which English newspaper when he writes about why he chose those particular English newspapers.[3]

Crossing the Line?– the title is an allusion to England’s third goal in the 1966 World Cup final, a goal given even though the ball might not, did not according to research the author refers to, have crossed the goal line – consists of an introduction and five empirical chapters where the first four concentrates on how international matches played between England and West Germany were described and commented on in the English press, and the concluding fifth pays attention to German press reactions, mostly reactions to English press reactions.

In the introduction, in addition to discussions about method and sources, an overview of British-German relations since the end of the Second World War is given from economic, political and football perspectives. This means that a reader gets well equipped to tackle the rest of the book. The first chapter focuses on the first post-war internationals between the countries played in 1954 and 1956. The press-response to the matches was restrained, despite the fact that the World War only was a few year away and the Germans came to Wembley in 1954 as newly crowned world champions. With regard to what we have seen written in English newspapers since then, the response can be seen as low-key.

The main focus of the second chapter is the World Cup Final in 1966. According to Wagner the match was a turning point, played at a time when the playing strength of the two teams was evenly balanced; before 1966 the English had dominated and after 1966 the Germans had the upper hand. The German team was seen as valiant losers after the final at Wembley, not making a big fuss about England’s third goal but instead celebrating with the winners after the game. The press coverage during this period however became more “gossipy and personality-centred”, especially in the middle- and downmarket newspapers, and references to the War were more frequent in connection with football matches.

In Chapter Three “’For the losers now will be later to win …’ 1968–1978”, German superiority on the football field becomes apparent. Press coverage of the German teams were however mostly positive, they were seen as stylish and able to discard outdated methods. The English national team on the other hand missed out on the World Cup finals in both 1974 and 1978, and was seen as another indication of a general decline of the once mighty nation. The title of chapter four, “’Let’s Blitz Fritz’: England versus Germany in the 1980s and 1990s”, tells it all. It deals with a period of time when German football was extremely successful and the English press became increasingly chauvinistic. But not only the press; even Bobby Robson, a true gentleman, got carried away and opened his team-talk as England manager before the World Cup semi-final in 1990 with: “Don’t forget the war, lads.”

The final chapter “The German Response” is a survey of press coverage in Germany between 1966 and 1996 treating the five most important of the fifteen matches played between the nations during that period. It is meant to create a baseline for future comparison. According to Wagner “the German press has followed a rather different path, especially in relation to the prevalence of stereotyping”. But one has to remember ,with the words of Christoph Wagner, “cross-cultural communication is a difficult matter” and it might be that he, as a native, had difficulties in detecting the more unsavoury sides of the German press coverage.

In the end however we get a happy ending as Wagner in the conclusion states that his experience of living in England in early part of the 21th century was that people liked Germany and the German national team had many English admirers. References to war and other invectives towards Germans in relation to football matches also became few and far between. It made me think: When you write about rivalries what parts of a rivalry are specific to the relationship between the countries involved and what parts are dependant of a specific country’s view of rivalries and of themselves?

So, is Crossing the Line? a good book? The short, but honest, answer is yes. Reading the book you learn a lot not only about Anglo-German rivalry, mostly on the football field but not only, and also about English society, and some about West German, in the second half of the twentieth century. I think most people from my generation recognize themselves. One aim with the book is to explain why the way English sports journalists’ use of the past, and in particular how they make connections to the War, has varied over time. Wagner’s conclusion that the contrasting fortunes of the English and German national teams, the countries’ economies and English anxieties regarding German unification seem to have impacted the coverage in the sports papers, seems undisputable.

However, I would have preferred this book written in German. The dominant position of English-language research makes sports history, football history in particular, a bit one-sided. Partly because of the language advantage means that English conditions receive disproportionate attention, and partly because the existing nomenclature is created to fit an English “reality”. What you can see is affected by what you can say and the concepts you have at your disposal.

Reading Crossing the Line? in the wake not only of Franz Beckenbauer’s demise but also of the recent passing of Kurt Hamrin, I was glad to see the latter mentioned as “scorer of a famous goal for Sweden against West Germany in the 1958 finals”. Kurt Hamrin played his last international match for Sweden in the above-mentioned international when Franz Beckenbauer made his debut for Germany. In Einer wie ich, Beckenbauer also writes about the fallout of Hamrin’s goal in the 1958 World Cup semi-final, that Swedes travelling thorough West Germany had to expect having their car tires slashed and restaurant owners refusing to serve them. George Orwell’s observation from 1945, that serious sport is war minus the shooting seems to be correct when it comes to international football.

Copyright @ Hans Bolling 2024

[1] Translated from the Swedish edition of Einer wie ich, Franz Beckenbauer, Fotboll på heltid, Bergh, Stockholm, 1975, translator Sune Karlsson, s. 48.

[2] Ibid., s. 44.

[3] Yes, Prime Minister: ”A Conflict of Interest” Season two, Episode four, 31 December 1987 BBC2.