FOR GERMAN SOCCER, A LYRIC DEBATE: ARTICLE REVIEW
Introduction/Summary
In this article, the Germany football team kicked up a controversy after some of its members refused to sing the country’s national anthem, The Song of Germans. The public, including football officials and former players thought that the team ought to sing to the anthem, despite the manager insisting that the players did identify with the team and their heritage was important. This occurred at a time when Germany had began re-asserting its national identity since World War II, which has however not been reflected in sports, with national teams losing players with foreign roots to other nations. Players of external extraction appeared uncomfortable with singing the national anthem, although some officials thought the decision was only out of personal preference. The significance of this fact is not lost to the public, especially as Germany has become a destination for immigrants from across the world. Upwards of 18% of the country’s citizens have parents who were born elsewhere, and about half of the country’s national football team players had non-native roots. However, Furhmans & Stevens (2010) point to the fact that Germany’s national anthem’s Nazi history, and the country’s rather different approach towards patriotism that individualizes people’s feelings and expressions as against imposing on them a common ideal.
- Influence of History on Sports Today. Germany’s World War II history is repeatedly referred to as having affected the country’s patriotic psyche, and influenced not only the people’s perceptions about their country, but also their national identity
- Race. Race was an important factor in the War that saw the Holocaust and millions of other civilian and combatant casualties, and thus not surprisingly, the relationships between native and minority races/ethnicities as well as their perceptions of nationalism remain delicate.
- Data Taking In Sports. Statistics are constantly relied upon to make the writer’s point.
- Social Interaction Theory. It is clear that the social relationships in Germany are influenced by the country’s racial relationships, which is in turn influenced by its WWII history. The people are more inward looking and as a nation, self-effacing.
Analysis
There are several key concepts that are clear or apparent in this brief article. To begin with, the matter of Germany’s fascist, Nazi history left scars that are still to heal. The country’s disastrous involvement in World War II and the murderous ideologies that drove its war machine has affected the perception of the people about patriotism, personal and national identity. The article points to the fact that singing Germany’s national anthem is optional owing to Germany’s long standing ambivalence about this practice, and the lack of a consensus about the continued use of a song that is still identified with the Nazi. Immediately after WWII, the country became inward looking, recoiled from open expressions of nationalism, and it was not until recently that people began openly expressing their patriotism through symbolic means such as singing the anthem. According to Christian von Scheve, the 2006 World was helpful in creating the renewed assertiveness in Germany nationalism, when citizens happily unfurled flags, painted their faces, sang the anthem and dressed up in national colors.
The article also points to the intricate race relations in the country, and the influence of the country’s past on the same. Racism has a painful history in Germany, with the Holocaust and the fact that a sizeable number of sworn Nazi remained in the country even after the War. With the emergence of the European Union and the free immigration across the Union, the country’s population has increasingly grown diverse, so much so that 18% of the population has at least one parent born outside Germany. Germany nationals with external heritages have mixed feelings about their expression of patriotism, which has not only been shown through the high number of players opting to play for other national teams, but those who stayed are uncomfortable with open expression of patriotism. The use of statistical/data to bring across issue such as the ethnicity of players such as Mesuit Ozil and Sami Khedira are also held up, along with the fact that the country’s national team now comprises of about 50% of players with at least one non-native parent.
Conclusion
It is impossible to draw a line between sports and society, in the same that it is impossible to sever a people’s history from their own lives. Germany appears to be self-conscious about its Nazi past, which forced it to rethink not only its place in the world, but its own internal social relationships, national values and symbols. Certainly, the open patriotism was f or over five centuries since the war lost. While race relationships have remained difficult, with minority races looking to their heritages for the nationalism that is lacking in Germany. It is however not clear, whether the preference of non-Germany patriotism stems from the fact that Germans of foreign extraction are not well-integrated into the Germany society or simply prefers other countries.
References
Furhmans, V., & Stevens, L. (2010, June 3). For German Soccer, a Lyric Debate. Retrieved Oct 22, 2013, from Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748703340904575284720357621884
Uekötter, F. (2006). The Green and the Brown: A History of Conservation in Nazi Germany. New York: Cambridge University Press.
