Where is Fritzi Keller? 50 years of women’s football after the DFB ban

For decades, the German Football Association actively banned and prevented the development of women. Her current role is still largely absent. There is a lonely exception – and too few positive developments.

AOn Reformation Day, this year also marks the anniversary of a wretched chapter of (West) German football that still has an impact today. It was 50 years ago, on October 31, 1970, when the German Football Association (DFB) overturned its fifteen-year ban on women from playing football.

A year after the miracle of Bern, German women had also experienced their blue miracle in football. After they helped out after the war and showed that they could get the store running again without men, they were shown the red card on the soccer field, both specifically and symbolically. The lifting of the DFB ban 50 years ago had nothing to do with the idea of ​​equal rights. It only eliminated gross injustice.