Alternative narratives: How can the history of football be told in a more diverse way?

If you visit the German Football Museum in Dortmund, you can catch a glimpse of the shiny gold World Cup winner’s trophy and the silver shimmering European Championship behind a glass display case. Game tactics are analyzed there and, of course, the so-called “Miracle of Bern” is also highlighted. At first glance, all of these exhibits and panels, which commemorate the greatest successes of the men’s national team, are very impressive, but also very masculine.

The situation is similar in the Hall of Fame, where well-known footballers such as Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Müller are honored. Only recently has women in football been given more space, according to the museum’s website: “Women have been involved in and for football for decades”. However, their stories remained unheard for a long time and are still often not considered in the narratives about football in Germany. The situation is similar with regard to queer people or people of color. But how can football stories be told from other angles? How can alternative narratives be made visible?

Gender and power relations play a central role.

Participants in the “Is football everything?” event at Freie Universität Berlin have been grappling with these questions over the past few days. “Male actors and male institutions such as the military were primarily responsible for the spread of football in Germany,” says historian Martin Lücke. “Football is always about taking over public space and the question of who is allowed to be visible, how and in what context.”

Gender and power relations already played a central role in the common term “people’s sport”. “Even the use of this semantics obscures the view of who was included at all, namely white, heterosexual, Christian men.” Women, gay men or people of color, on the other hand, were defamed.

Male actors and male institutions such as the military were primarily responsible for the spread of football in Germany.

Martin gap

Veronika Springmann, who is currently working on the future permanent exhibition in the Olympic Park, is also trying to counter this narrative. “In German football, a homogeneity was staged for a long time, in which the DFB and clubs were involved.” At the same time, it is important not only to tell stories of exclusions, but also “stories of people who played football even though they didn’t fit into the picture .”

She warns against affirmation and also refers to other countries such as the USA, where football works differently. “Masculinity, as it was performed here in Germany, cannot be explained solely from the game itself.” Political discourses, for example on intersectionality, which are already much more advanced in Anglo-American countries, play a role. “Sport is about bodies that are and have been standardized, gendered and racialized.”

Construction of football myths

Racist structures in football are also highlighted in the documentary film “Schwarzer Adler” and in the interviews with the footballers. At the same time, the film’s interviews reveal “stories of subversion, appropriation and protest,” says Springmann. This is also relevant for queer historiography. “Because the actors were not always willing to occupy the space assigned to them.”

The football museum in Dortmund is probably one of the last places to write queer history. For Martin Lücke, it even represents the “maximum distance to queer football”. The representation of women in football is also problematic, as is the construction of football myths within the Hall of Fame. “There is now a guided tour of the history of women’s football, but this is being told as an additive story.”

However, the history of men’s football is neither broken nor reflected. “This stabilizes hegemonic narratives overall.” An alternative possibility is an inclusive approach. The aim is to show who is marginalized or even forgotten when remembering. “Remembrance, as a means of domination and a culture of remembrance, becomes a critique of domination.” Whether this approach will also make it into the usual football museums remains to be seen in the years to come.

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