Die schönste Nebensache der Welt

That Funny Old Game

Germany′s women’s football team is the most successful one in the world, and it took Germany′s men almost 50 years to accept it.

In the 1950s, soccer was a popular sport among young girls – until, right after Germany′s men′s team won the World Championship, the German Football Association decided to impose a ban on women′s soccer and render it officially illegal. However, the ban did not serve its original purpose. Rather than keeping women from playing, it caused a national hype and led to the formation of Germany′s first unofficial national women′s team.

It was not until 1970 that women′s soccer became legal and more and more women all over Germany started to play in clubs – also in the former GDR. It was here that Germany′s best club was founded – despite the fact that women′s soccer was demonstratively ignored by GDR officials since it was not an Olympic discipline.

Finally, in the 1980s women′s soccer had its breakthrough. The German Football Association founded their first national women′s team – and presented them with a coffee set for winning the 1989 World Championship.

In "That Funny Old Game", three generations of German female soccer players tell the curious history of female soccer in Germany accompanied with footage from 50 years of East and West German television.

Source: German films Service & Marketing GmbH