Book review: 1. FC Magdeburg: The kidnapping of a football god

Magdeburg’s former striker Christian Beck shot himself into the hearts of FCM fans with his goals.

Photo: image/Christian Schroedter

Anne Hahn dreams her books – at least partly. Now the writer, who was born in Magdeburg, has written an entire dream book about her football hero Christian Beck and her hometown. Even though she has lived in Berlin for a long time, Anne Hahn is a fan of the blue and white ball kickers of 1. FC Magdeburg. »The city won’t let me go. On the contrary, she even gets closer to me the older I get and the longer I live in Berlin,” she recently told the “Volksstimme” from Magdeburg.

The brochure booklet in a handy format for your jacket pocket has 100 pages. The interested reader can easily take it with him and read it anywhere: on the way to work or to the stadium, on the bus, on the tram or in various waiting rooms. It takes the reader into the world of five women of different generations, all of whom live in and with Magdeburg and, above all, have more or less close connections to the city’s football. Anne Hahn’s dream takes us to the old town hospital, where the anesthetized FCM soccer star Christian Beck was somehow brought. Dreams can rarely be explained logically. But it’s about demanding from the city that the football club, which has been so successful in the past, finally gets a football museum. The kidnapping of the local football legend is intended to wake up city leaders and the public.

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Beck and the patron saint

Meanwhile, the dream gets lost in the history of the city and its patron saint Mauritius, who stands in stone in the cathedral. There are stories and myths surrounding the figure itself. But in any case, Saint Mauritius is said to have been the favorite saint of Emperor Otto the Great. And because Magdeburg became Otto’s favorite place to stay, he made this place the “nursery of veneration” of Mauritius. As the years passed and Magdeburg’s importance grew, the veneration of Mauritius also grew in the city.

In Hahn’s dreams, striker Beck embodies a rebirth of Mauritius.

The protagonists of this dream novel share with us their own stories: their working world, their love of football or their personal problems in everyday life. They lead us through their city from Olvenstedt to Texas, from the museum to the Heinz Krügel Stadium.

Of course we hear about Magdeburg’s legendary victory in the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1974. The author herself has been a member of the 1. FCM for ten years and tries to be in the stadium as often as possible to see her favorite club play. “My main aim in this book was to show how the people in and around Magdeburg live their football club and what it means to them,” says Anne Hahn to the newspaper mentioned above.

Anne Hahn: Anne Hahn dreams Christian Beck. Voland & Quist. 100 p., born 12 €.

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