German Football: History, Culture, Society provides unprecedented analysis and commentary on the place of football in post-war and post-reunification Germany, revealing the motives and drives underlying Germany's successful bid to host the 2006 World Cup finals.
The contributors explore the significance of football in German sporting and cultural life, showing how football has emerged as a major focus for the expression of a coherent national identity and as evidence of the restoration of German national pride in the post-World War II period. Major themes include:
· German football's desire for success on the International stage
· Football expressions of local, regional and national identity
· The East European legacy
· Ethnic dynamics, migrant populations and Europeanization
· German football's commercial economy
· Women's football in Germany
· Literary and media perceptions of the German game
With contributions from a range of disciplinary perspectives, German Football illuminates key cultural moments - the 1954 victory, the founding of the Bundesliga in 1962, the 1972 World Cup victory as hosts, its third World Cup triumph in Italia '90, the winning bid for 2006 - from a variety of angles.
This is an innovative, open-minded and critical analysis of football's burgeoning significance in German cultural life, which will be enjoyed by readers of Sport Studies and German Studies alike.