The FIFA World Cup in Germany - Ulli Heinicke

It was hard to choose either regional culture or national culture. German states used to be countries and cultures on their own. We have many dialects and different local food and traditions. So, I thought it might be interesting to see what I think represents my national culture.

The video I chose is from 2006 when we held the FIFA world cup. Our recent history has been turbulent: fascism, communism, splitting the country and the reunification. Holding the world cup was great for Germany and the people to have a more optimistic attitude. Germans had to come to terms with the past for many centuries and this was the opportunity we took to come closer together and be proud of Germany as it is today. 

Our hopes for winning the world cup were very high: we had a team that represents Germany with its talent and multiculturalism. The video was filmed after Germany did not make it to the finale. As you can see we celebrated instead of being sad. Everywhere people watched soccer together outside on big screens, ate Bratwursts or Turkish Döner Kebab (both very much part of German food culture now), drank beer and screamed and cried.

The video shows the final goodbye of our soccer team to the fans in Berlin in front of the “Brandenburger Tor.” (On stage are all members of the team and the band) This video shows: a new optimistic, proud generation that is not afraid to show the German flag anymore; soccer, singing, drinking and eating together and German music, but also coping with our past! It also shows a bit of our multiculturalism. This is very important in current issues and intracultural communication because we have a high need of integrating immigrants better into society and overcoming prejudices. But I think Germany is ready to overcome those problems in the future and the video also shows this.

 - Ulli Heinicke

(The band that sings the song in the video is a popular German Rock band. They wrote this song for the world cup 2006 and changed the lyrics after we did not win. The lyrics also capture some of the points I talked about above (by the way: the first three numbers in the title are the years Germany won the world cup.) Lyrics in English: http://lteacherstoolbox.blogspot.com/2013/02/german-sportfreunde-stiller-54-74-90.html )