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Page 1 — Is it political to be against racism?
Page 2 – “We are explicitly not a political club, not a bubble club” Page 3 – You are perceived differently
“You’ve seen it, they’re blind,” shouts Aziz, known as “Atze”, across the artificial turf pitch, which has been worn down by countless football boots. The other team has just missed three huge chances to score. It’s a Wednesday evening, floodlights, slightly below zero degrees, small clouds of fog are forming in front of the players’ mouths. A small training tournament is played. Six against six on a quarter of a field, first and second teams mixed.
It seems like a pretty normal training session for a regional league team. But the club that trains here in the very west of Chemnitz, not far from the A 72 on the Handwerk Rabenstein pitch, is a special one. His name is Athletic Sonnenberg. Founded in 2020, promoted twice since then. And recently the winner of the most prestigious social award from the German Football Association (DFB). The DFB awarded Athletic Sonnenberg the Julius Hirsch Prize, its most important award for integrative work.
So Athletic Sonnenberg stands out. Not just the DFB, but also the rest of Chemnitz. Because they come from a district that right-wing extremists declared a “Nazi neighborhood” ten years ago. That was unsuccessful, even though swastikas are still daubed on daycare centers. Today, Sonnenberg is a diverse district in Chemnitz; the proportion of people with a migration background is significantly higher than in the rest of the city. On average, Chemnitz has one of the oldest populations in Europe, which is why many other clubs in the city are literally losing members. But Sonnenberg is growing like almost no other district in Chemnitz – and people enjoy living here.
Cornelius “Corni” Huster in conversation © Felix Adler for ZEIT ONLINE
This especially applies to Cornelius Huster, known as “Corni”, Mustafa “Musti” Mohamadi, Matthias “Matze” Keussen and Jonas “Ferenc” Georgi. The four of them are sitting in a shisha bar. Neon-colored light illuminates the room, artificial plants hang on the walls, and the furniture is colorful. “We like to come here when we need to smoke a shisha,” says Corni. They met on the “Rubber”, a football cage on the edge of the district. In 2020 they decided to combine their shared passions, football and Sonnenberg, and do something for their neighborhood. Musti and Corni founded Athletic Sonnenberg, the other two joined later. The four of them form the board. “We played in different clubs before,” says Corni, “and we liked a lot of things there, and we wanted to do other things differently. But we didn’t feel like we could really have a say.” So: do it yourself.
Football and the Sonnenberg – these are her passions. © Felix Adler for ZEIT ONLINE
The founding meeting took place in Corni’s then attic apartment in the summer of 2020, just a few weeks after the idea was first expressed and approved. They decided on three pillars, which Corni describes as follows: “We want to be successful in sports. Active in the district. And social commitment is important to us.” Corni is president and spokesman. He tells the big lines, the other three add details or report on the area for which they are responsible. The friends divided the tasks quite tightly. Corni: Youth work. Ferenc: Finance, social media, merchandise. Musti: Sports. Matze: Events. Today, around 15 people are involved with the club’s more than 200 members. Many bring in what they do in the job. Corni works in early childhood education, Musti has taken over his father’s small business, Matze and Ferenc are in the final stages of their studies.
But first the first little shock followed after the club was founded in August 2020: the game started and they weren’t there. They not only wanted to train, but also play for points. But it didn’t happen quite that quickly. They would have known about the administrative effort required to found a club, says Musti: “But we underestimated the amount of money involved in running games.”
In retrospect, maybe that wasn’t so bad. In this way, structures and a team could be found. It started in the 2021/2022 season. Today they compete in the district league, the 8th league, and are fourth there. According to Musti, if the club wants to continue to go up, it needs “more than good footballers”. They are still playing against teams from the city. You can go there by bike. But in every higher league the distances become larger. So sponsors are needed to help on this path. These are still mainly friends and acquaintances, but they are specifically looking for more partners who want to build up “the neighborhood feeling” with them.
If you listen to football in Chemnitz, many people are impressed by what happens on the pitch at Athletic. “They do a good job in terms of sport,” says one who is also active in football in Chemnitz. But what is striking in all conversations: Nobody wants to be quoted publicly. The district football association politely declined a request to discuss Athletic.
“You’ve seen it, they’re blind,” shouts Aziz, known as “Atze”, across the artificial turf pitch, which has been worn down by countless football boots. The other team has just missed three huge chances to score. It’s a Wednesday evening, floodlights, slightly below zero degrees, small clouds of fog are forming in front of the players’ mouths. A small training tournament is played. Six against six on a quarter of a field, first and second teams mixed.
It seems like a pretty normal training session for a regional league team. But the club that trains here in the very west of Chemnitz, not far from the A 72 on the Handwerk Rabenstein pitch, is a special one. His name is Athletic Sonnenberg. Founded in 2020, promoted twice since then. And recently the winner of the most prestigious social award from the German Football Association (DFB). The DFB awarded Athletic Sonnenberg the Julius Hirsch Prize, its most important award for integrative work.
