Alan McDougall

Eyes on the ball: screening football in East German cinema

ABSTRACT In communist East Germany, football was far more popular than the Olympic sports on which the country based its formidable sporting reputation. Very few of the films made by the state film studio Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft (DEFA), though, took football as their subject matter – and those that did have been all but ignored by scholars of East German cinema. Focusing on two little-known works, the childrens film Der neue Fimmel/The New Craze (1960) and the comedy Verzeihung, Sehen Sie Fußball?/Excuse Me, Are You Watching Football? (1983), this article examines the football films evolving role as a marker of socialist values in East Germany. By analysing key themes in the two films, it argues that they chronicle a story of declining public faith in the cause of state socialism. DEFAs football films reflect and represent broad shifts in East German society in this period, charting transitions from the collective to the individual, from playing the game to watching it, and from an engagement with building socialism to a retreat from ideology to private concerns.

East Germany and the Europeanisation of football

ABSTRACT In 1954 the football association of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) became one of UEFAs founding members. With Germany divided, and Cold War tensions at their peak, football provided one of the few cultural outlets that consistently breached the Iron Curtain. East German clubs participated regularly in UEFA competitions. The national team entered the inaugural European Championship in 1960. GDR administrators and referees became respected figures within the European game. This paper examines the history of early East German involvement in European football competitions, and the tensions that surrounded the GDRs dialogue with the European football community. Analysing the experiences of players and spectators, it focuses on the East German game as a multi-layered site of cultural transfer. Allied to the Soviet Union, GDR football primarily looked east for inspiration and opponents. At the same time, it sought contacts with the West, home of Europes best football teams, in order to raise standards and deepen socialist influence in ‘bourgeois’ international sports organisations. There were deep ambiguities to the GDRs position at the geographic centre of European football. These ambiguities reflected competing local, national, and international identities that persistently undercut East German communism.

Sport under communism: behind the East German ‘miracle’

Afghans, now that they have made the cut are determined to stay at the top, a belief reinforced by Albone. This determination was evident when Aimal Shinwari, the chaste English-speaking CEO of the Afghan team, almost pleaded with journalists in Barbados to write about their adventure. Unlike other teams participating in the competition who had all opted to stay away from the media, the Afghans put out all stops to ensure that the media got every opportunity to interact with the players and report on their life stories. They wanted their stories told and justly so. It was the story of a new Afghanistan, not the nation ravaged by the Taliban but one of hope and intensity. It spoke of a new dawn in Afghan history and cricket, as Albone demonstrates, had played a huge part in bringing it about.