Description
Book Synopsis Over the past century, the impact of football on Germany has been manifold, influencing the arts, political debates, and even contributing to the construction of cultural memories and national narratives. Football Nation analyses the game’s fluid role in shaping and reflecting German society, and spans its focus on modern German history, from the Wilhelmine era to the early 21st century. Expounding on topics of gender, class, fandom, spectatorship, antisemitism, nationalism, and internationalism, a diverse group of interdisciplinary scholars offer a novel approach to understanding the many influences of football throughout its extensive history which until recently has only been available to a German-speaking readership.
Trade Review “A fascinating and enjoyable read, Football Nation offers a significant contribution to existing work which examines the place of football in German society using a series of case studies which expertly investigate sociocultural factors influencing German football.” • Rory Magrath, Solent University
“Football Nation is an interesting volume that examines football in Germany from numerous angles and through multiple disciplinary lenses. Many of the opinions expressed in it will elicit intense debate, but it is of a high scholarly standard and will undoubtedly prove a valuable addition to what is already a fairly dense canon” • Darren O’Byrne, University of Cambridge
Table of Contents Introduction: Historical Perspectives on the German Football Nation
Rebeccah Dawson, Bastian Heinsohn, Oliver Knabe, And Alan McDougall
Part I: A Border-Crossing Game: German Football and International Cultural Exchange
Chapter 1. The Introduction and Integration of Football into a Divided Society: Conservative and Socialist Football in Germany from 1871 to 1933
Thomas Adam
Chapter 2. Fußball Internationale: Toward a Global History of GDR Football
Alan McDougall
Chapter 3. Local Fans—Global Players: Contradictions in Post-Industrial Football
Stephan Schindler
Part II: Race, Exclusion, and Otherness in German Football
Chapter 4. Willy Meisl’s “German Football Nation:” Internationalism, Austrian Patriotism, and Jewish Pride in Interwar Sports Writing
Kay Schiller
Chapter 5. Commodified, Corrupted and Capitalist: Combatting the Modern Athletic Machine in Melchior Vischer’s Football Players and Indians
Rebeccah Dawson
Chapter 6. Controlling Definitions: Racism and German Identity after Mesut Özil’s National Team Resignation
Kate Zambon
Part III: Forming Identities through Football: Class and Gender in German Culture
Chapter 7. The Making of a Football Myth: Memory, Masculinity, and the Media
Friederike Emonds
Chapter 8. A Gendered Network of Double Binds in Joachim Hasler’s Football Musical “Don’t Cheat, Darling!”
Kaleigh Bangor
Chapter 9. From GDR-Emigrant to Third-Class Citizen: Football Stadiums, Social Divides, and East German Identities in Andreas Gläser’s BFC is to Blame for the Wall
Oliver Knabe
Part IV: The Politics Beyond the Pitch: German Fandom and Spectatorship
Chapter 10. Educating the Spectator: Athlete-Fan Interplay in the Early German Football Film The Eleven Devils by Zoltan Korda
Bastian Heinsohn
Chapter 11. Antisemitic Metaphors in German Football Fan Culture Directed at RB Leipzig
Pavel Brunssen
Chapter 12. One Foot on the Ball and the Other Nearly in Jail? Analyzing the Role of Social Work in the Interaction of Supporters, Police, and the Media in Hamburg Football
Fabian Fritz
Chapter 13. Countering Contingency: Aesthetics and Fan Codetermination in German Football
Alex Holznienkemper
Conclusion: “Fußball ist alles!” Football’s Importance in German Society
Timm Beichelt
