Many people still have fond memories of the summer fairy tale of the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Can the European Championships this summer have a similar effect to the World Cup 18 years ago?
Summer, sun, party. A football World Cup as a black-red-gold rush. Germany surprises itself as an excellent host, and the world is amazed. “The world as a guest of friends” is not just a motto, it is lived. Plus a German national team that is likeable, that people can easily identify with – and, above all, that is successful. Suddenly the German colors and flags are not only omnipresent, but are part of a new kind of community feeling. The media and politicians are overjoyed and are fueling what they believe to be positive and relaxed patriotism. “I think it’s good that I’m no longer the only one with a flag on my car,” said then Federal President Horst Köhler. The 2006 World Cup in review – a liberation, a four-week celebration full of lightness. In short: a summer fairy tale.
Even 18 years after the World Cup in Germany, those days in June and July are still vivid and pleasant memories for many participants and fans. “We presented ourselves excellently as a country,” said long-time DFB director and national team manager Oliver Bierhoff (56) to the German Press Agency at the OMR digital and marketing trade fair in Hamburg. And not just because the DFB team achieved third place in terms of sport and achieved more than many expected. Even when the affair of a dubious million-dollar payment broke out nine years later, which was suspected of buying votes for the World Cup award, this could hardly tarnish the memories from the stadiums and the fan miles.
“EM is coming in a difficult phase, but at the right time”
The World Cup back then is the benchmark for the 2024 European Championship. Achieving this will be difficult. The most important prerequisite: national coach Julian Nagelsmann’s national team must be as successful and likeable as the team from 2006.
The World Cup was the largest event since German unification. And it took place in quieter times compared to the present. Today there are several geopolitical crises with two major wars. The consequences of the corona pandemic are still noticeable. The climate catastrophe is a constant topic. Domestically, democracy is threatened, society is divided, and the gap between rich and poor is widening. The economy in Germany is stagnating.
“The tournament is not a World Cup, but a European Championship. It comes in a difficult phase, but at the right time,” Per Mertesacker is convinced. As a 21-year-old, he played his first World Cup tournament under national coach Jürgen Klinsmann in 2006 and still has fond memories of the time 18 years ago.
“You were always so caught up and asked yourself: Can we do it? It was only during the course of the tournament that we realized what a jolt it was for Germany,” said the current head of the youth academy of the Premier League club Arsenal FC in London ZDF expert at the European Championships. Beforehand, people couldn’t imagine what the country was capable of.
Lahm’s wish: a turning point for football and society
European Championship tournament director Philipp Lahm (40) wants exactly the same effect this summer. In a guest article for “Kicker,” the first German goalscorer at the 2006 World Cup wrote about a “turning point in German football. And in society.”
With a view to the opening game on June 14th, the European Championship should be seen as a “turning point”: “for Europe, for society, for all of us”. This tournament is a call for solidarity and care as well as for a resurgence of the European idea “in order to be able to better withstand crises and conflicts in the future.”
Anything but a modest claim for a sporting event in the middle of crisis. There seems to be little PR support coming from Berlin politics for the European Championship. And for a long time there was little sense of the EM mood in the country. “The European Championships aren’t really taking place yet,” said 1996 European champion Bierhoff. “But I think once the tournament starts, when you see good games, when the victories come, then people’s enthusiasm will be there.”
No second summer fairy tale?
“A bit of relief through a major football event is urgently needed,” said social psychologist Dagmar Schediwy. And yet the Berlin scientist is not hoping for a second summer fairy tale.
Schediwy surveyed Germany fans on fan miles at the 2006 World Cup, the 2008 European Championships and the 2010 World Cup and published her results in the 2012 book “Completely relaxed in black-red-gold?” published. Her conclusion about the 2006 World Cup: “The 2006 World Cup had the character of a national coming out.”
In her opinion, “the 2006 World Cup led to a normalization of nationalist and historical revisionist attitudes,” she told the dpa. “This ultimately led to the rise of right-wing parties and movements, or at least paved the way.”
Unlike the 2006 World Cup, today not only football fans would be walking through the streets with black, red and gold flags, but also right-wing movements and parties. “At the 2024 European Championship, perhaps unlike in 2006, appeals to express one’s national feeling in a relaxed manner are no longer as appropriate.”
The German Football Association (DFB) had “done good preparatory work with these pink and purple jerseys,” said Schediwy. “A real German national probably can’t identify with these jerseys.”
dpa
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