England and Germany: We Like Each Other
Say it quietly, but there’s a problem with the England-Germany rivalry. We like each other.
The British press have done their best to roll out the tired old rhetoric, but in reality the match described as a “Klassiker” in Germany is not based on hatred. The truth is, both England and Germany know their histories are so intertwined that we’re part of the same narrative. It’s too much to hate each other, when as much of what makes us who we are today is as a result of what we’ve done in the past together.
Put simply: Holland are Germany’s nuisance neighbours. England, however, are Germany’s distant cousin that they actually really rather like, but family history means they have to put on a show of disliking each other. Both cousins are considered successful: Germany has the better car, England earns more money. England works in a more prestigious company, Germany has more qualifications. Every few years the cousins meet up again and start comparing lives to work out who is doing better. Inevitably the discussions become heated, insults exchanged, and afterwards they both make up over a stunningly better beer Germany brought with him. They end up forgetting what they were even fighting about in the first place.
Abstract metaphors aside, English and German football cultures are so similar that they have come full circle. German fan culture fell in love with all the trimmings of the English game during the 80s: the songs, the violence, the unfaltering support. Fanzines and magazines such as When Saturday Comes inspired similar German upstarts to the point where today 11Freunde is better than anything offered in England. Then Premiership (as was) and Sky TV came along in the 90s and everything got a bit more serious.
Fast forward to today, and you’ll see English football fans wondering why it is they can’t replicate the Bundesliga. Beer on the terraces, safe standing and cheap ticket prices. English fans take trips to Dortmund or St Pauli’s Millerntor for a taste of terrace culture. A game at Munich’s Allianz Arena is more procession that sport. English fans marvel watching FC Bayern prance to victory whilst drinking Weissbier and an oversized pretzel, standing all the while. Dipping back into the family metaphor, it’s as if Germany has turned up to the party with England’s ex-girlfriend in tow, only she’s gone and got prettier.
And so to Sunday. If the Germany-Holland rivalry is based on hatred, and England-Argentina is all about revenge, then England-Germany is mutual, begrudging admiration. The fact that so many column inches on both sides of the Channel have been dedicated to penalties shows that the so-called rivalry is a close-run thing. When I first read Marina Hyde’s article on the Guardian website suggesting the rivalry was one-sided, I wasn’t willing to believe it. Living in Munich, there is absolutely an excitement at playing the English. Like any other occasion the two play each other, it’s a barometer of how well we’re all doing. That 60,000 people are expected in Munich’s Olympiastadion and the Berlin Fan Mile will empty the streets of the capital, shows that this isn’t just any second round game. It could never be.
This was supposed to be an article about how in fact Germany does indeed bear a grudge towards England, but there wasn’t a compelling argument to be made. Instead, it’s excitement for a spectacle, for the next chapter in this swaying history. England and Germany get excited about playing each other in a way that no other fixture can match,
It’s all the bad blood, bleak times and good humour bundled into 90 minutes. Probably followed by penalties.
Joe Westhead is an occasional Pitch Invasion contributor. Read his World Cup blog at joewesthead.com/worldcup
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Good observations.
Off topic..why do Europeans call The Netherlands “Holland”? I’ve heard that some of the Dutch population living outside of Holland are actually somewhat offeded by this.
England and Germany are cousins who rather like each other? Didn’t one bomb the other 60 odd years ago? Seems like an odd thing to do to someone you like…
I think you’ll find both bombed each other, Alex….almost 70 years ago.
There’s a lot of truth there, as an Englishman I do ‘hate’ Germany, but not the cold hatred you experience at an Old Firm game but the jealous hatred you feel for that spoilt cousin that always had the better toys, did better at school, go the hotter girlfriend. The gutter press here in the UK try to stir the old wounds, war jokes and pictures of spitfires and Churchill, but to anyone under 30 these references mean nothing. When I was a kid most families had people alive that had fought in WWII, my great uncle (RIP Frank) fought at El Alamein against Rommell. There were people who had a genuine grievance. There are very few veterans left now, Europe is a united continent – the old wounds forgotten by all but a few misguided souls.
As I grew up in the 80′s Germany was a bizarre place, split down the middle by the cold war where the locals seemed 10 years behind in their music and lost in some sort of fashion wilderness. I first went to Germany when I was 10 in 1981 and used to pass through Munich a lot in the 80′s so I saw Deutschland first hand.
They were my best years in English football, terracing, casual culture and an unquenchable love of soul music – quite why soul fuelled casual culture down south I’ll never know but it all worked so well and we knew we were leading the way – Europe looked to us. In reality the football was dire and attendances in England at an all time low, but the atmosphere was electric.
Fast forward 25 years, and English football is now a brand, the EPL, and a product for the middle classes. Terrace culture is dying, high prices, CCTV, banning orders. Most stadia are like libraries only waking up when the PA system blares out some generic Tom Hark goal ‘celebration’. All of a sudden a lot of English want to be German, cheap tickets, terracing, decent atmospheres, drinking in the stands and fan culture thriving. Many look at the organised chaos at St Pauli week-in week-out and dream that one day we’ll have that here again.
But here’s an interesting take on it. In the 80′s British industry was still based on manufacturing and mining. For years people had worked hard Monday – Friday in the mines or the steelworks or building cars and Saturday meant day off with money – football. Today we have no mining, the steelworks have been closed, the few remaining car plants are foreign owned and employ a fraction of the people. The unity we had has gone. If these people work at all now it’s in supermarkets, call centres, burger restaurants – all the evils of 21st century Britain’s service economy. Many jobs now pay minimum wage, people can’t afford football, even if they aren’t working on a Saturday. The Germans are different, they still build things. BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Audi, Volkswagen – class leading brands, and a start of a supply chain that keeps a myriad of support services and suppliers in business. German industry evolved, and the working class and their traditions survived. Football is still a game for the people.
So now you see the jealousy that eats people like me, we were pioneers, leaders, the envy of Europe. Now we’re nothing, a joke of a country with a football league full of foreign players and owners whilst the national side slides down the global rankings. Football fans are considered either ‘customers’ or criminals depending on what side of the social divide you fall on and despite a last grasp effort from some very organised youngsters trying to develop an ultras culture here in the UK terrace culture is on its knees. We want cheap tickets, terracing, decent atmospheres and to have a beer in the stands. We don’t hate the Germans, we’re simply jealous of them and now they’ve ditched their trademark mullets and dungarees of the 80′s we want to be them.
What an incisive post by Adrian Ludbrooke. Everything he says is bang on. I’m 52 yrs old so I remember the great days of English football. My team is Wycombe Wanderers in Div 4 but I simply can’t afford to go any more and casual supporters are treated like an unwanted nuisance. Trying to find a cash turnstile is a like trying to find a needle in a haystack. I stay home now and watch Soccer Saturday.
Tony