Hooligans

Soccer is becoming increasingly popular in the U.S., but in Europe, soccer, known more commonly at football, or futbol in German, is more like a cult than a sport in terms of the passion and loyalty that teams inspire. There are over 26,000 football clubs in Germany alone. On Saturday, Greg and I decided to take in a game. Heading to the stadium, the Olympiastadion, I realized that it was the same place where Hitler had presided over the 1936 Olympics where Jesse Owens, an African American athlete from the United States, won four gold medals. The scene on a Saturday afternoon in May of 2017 was vastly different.

When we arrived at the stadium, there were police herding fans from the home team into parking lots and stadium entrance ways that were separate from fans from the opposing team. European soccer, unlike any other sporting event in the US, is notorious for attracting violence between fans during the game.

Greg and I wandered around the parking lot looking for a group from the home team who looked like fun. Sooner than later, we met a gang of hollering and jumping fans fans. We asked them “Who wants to party with Americans?” Turns out they all did! We shared laughs and drinks. The guy who spoke the best English, Andy, told us they’d sneak us into the front section, or otherwise known as “the hooligan section”, where you needed to be season ticket holders. When we got into the section I was taken aback by how many different chants they knew. Despite the fact that most of them were on (or had passed) the verge of blacking out, everybody managed to chant in synch. It was like second nature. In the States, we do not have such a vast collection of chants and songs like they do in these futbol matches.

Though Hertha lost 6-2, the fans stayed until the end and were just as rowdy as before the game. Everybody went back to the parking lot and the party kept going.

After the we left, I walked around the city and was reflecting about what Andy, one of my new friends, had told me at the game. He was telling me despite how ashamed current residents are of Germany’s dark history with the Nazi Party, the city of Berlin doesn’t hide it. Rather they embrace the history so we can remember to never allow such atrocities to happen again.

There are cobblestones scattered across the city with names of Holocaust victims next to apartments where the person used to reside. They say the date the person was born, the date they were deported and the date they died. Most victims died within less than a week of being deported. There are also signs across the city of “Places of horror that we’re never allowed to forget.” that lists various concentration camps. 

Philosopher George Santayana said it best, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This message echoes all over the city. Even in the middle of a crowd of ranting football fans cheering on their team. I didn’t expect that. Not at all.