The German Football National - Term Paper Example

Sports Germany sports form some of the most popular sports globally. Germans are a people who love sports and most individuals usually keep themselves physically fit by taking part in sports. Competitions, team sports as well as group activities take place quite often. Some of the major German sporting activities are with the inclusion of Football, Basketball, Volleyball, Skiing, Field Hockey and Track and Field events. (mapsofworld.com, 2011) As mentioned earlier one of the major sports in Germany is Football. It is headed by the German Football Federation, which was founded back in year 1900 in Leipzig. It was made up of representatives of 86 German clubs and Dr. F. Hueppe was elected as the pioneer chairman to this football association. Moments after it was created, football rose in popularity in Germany and to this there was the 1903 German Cup as well as the 1908’s national games. However, after the WWII, subsequent to the annexing of Austria by Hitler, the football association’s leadership was taken over by the officials of the Nazi Party. Following the period of the WWII, the German Football National Team was barred from taking part in the international competitions. This ban lasted, until its 1949’s lifting just prior the founding of the First Republic of Germany. In year 1963, there was the forming of the Bundesliga and its first match was played in August of 1963. The German Football National Team continued gaining ground in terms of popularity as well. As per 2011 the Football Association of Germany was composed of 26,000 clubs, about 170,000 teams and well above 2 million players taking part in football actively. Notable is the fact that it is one of the biggest football associations in the globe. (oleole.com, 2011) Soccer is popular in the US but not as it is in Germany. For instance; as Getchell puts it, German soccer is more advanced while compared to that of the US. Germany is said to play a more coordinated and smoother soccer as Hirte puts it in this article by Getchell. The US soccer has not borrowed much from the German soccer, but it has a lot to borrow if need be. (Getchell, 2008) The setting in of basketball in Germany was from around the 1950s. Germany, afterwards participated in the European Championships of Basketball in year 1951, which took place in Paris. Germany attained position 12 out of the 18 participants. Success never went to West Germany until the German reunion of 1990. Before this reunion the East Germans did not have any interests for this game. In year 1993, the German basketball team emerged victorious in that year’s European Championships and was as well voted the ‘Team of the Year’ courtesy of the national press. Afterwards, Germany has become the first runners up in the year 2005’s Championships of Europe and third in the 2002 global Championships. America has not really borrowed a lot from the German Basketball sports but rather contributed to its growth. As a matter of fact the first step towards German Basketball development was made by a teacher from the US by the name Naismith James who invented the sport in the country in the year 1951. These two nations have continued to learn from each other as regards the sport. (basketball-bund.de, 2011) Before 1895, when William Morgan invented a new sport known as volleyball, there was the German sport by the name Faustball invented in 1891. Therefore, William’s invention included the German Faustball, handball, baseball, tennis and basketball as a combination. In America, it was not until 1928, that the sport of volleyball started to be professionally managed by new US Volleyball Association. (essortment.com, 2011) Volleyball continued to grow in popularity and with time it became a bit more strategic as a sport. There came about the defensive and offensive schemes, and set-and-spike among others. The East Germany volleyball team employed some these skills and managed to dominate the sport in the whole decade of the 1970s. Afterwards in the 1980s following the challenge from Germany, despite the invention of the sport by the US, the US started taking a leading role in the world. Thus, in year 1984 the men’s and women’s teams from the US got Olympic medals due to their outstanding performance. (Boga, 1997 pp1-3) Skiing has been a popular sport in other countries like Norway, before spilling to Europe in the 1930s. This is despite the fact that Skiing was put into utilization in military in Germany in around 1892. A popular type of skiing was witnessed first in the 1936 Germany Winter Olympics known as alpine ski. Alpine ski subsequently became a popular ski sport discipline all over Europe in the decade of 1930s. (aboutskischools.com, 2011) Skiing as a sport has grown in popularity over the years and in the line it has seen the development and growth of the industry of mountain resorts as well as skiing in the world over. Some countries in the globe put up many resorts and mostly for the purposes of tourism attraction. USA, as per the statistics of the 1990s had 516 resorts. This is alongside other countries like Japan which had 750 of them. (Milne, et al, 2009 pp3-5) Hockey came into being in Germany with the establishment of Deutscher Hockey-Bund in the year 1909 and this was during the international week of hockey held in Bonn. From 1909 through 1914 Germany had had 70 clubs of Hockey. However, there was no further development in the period of the Great War. In year 1922 there was a hockey boom that saw the number reach about 400 clubs, though. There was an upward development in the game in the following years that saw the German men’s team win a bronze in the Olympics that took place in 1928. For a while, afterwards, DHB (Deutscher Hockey-Bund) was not the governing body for hockey since a new sports Federation had taken up the task. Several years later, this sport took a break due to WWII up to around 1950 and subsequently DHB was reinstated. In 1972 the men’s hockey team got a gold medal for their first time in the Munic Olympics and this was followed by the 1976 win by their women counterparts in Berlin as well as in the 1981 Buenos Aires Olympics. The men hockey team also performed exemplarily in 1984 as well as 1988 where they won silver. Both the teams also performed well in Kuala Lumpur in the year 2002. (Bartel, 2011) Other Events With the fall of the great Berlin wall, the US and the Germany have had an on and off relationships that have led to the great influence they have had on each other. Several events have occurred after and prior to this occurrence that have led to their enemity or otherwise. Most of these have happened during the World wars and this has seen these two nations as allies and as enemies in different timelines. One of these events is the latest Libya turmoil that has seen Germany not taking sides in the supporting of the UN Security Council. The US, of course supports the whole thing. The neutrality of the German side has seen it being able to be on the same side as China and Russia while dragging the US along with it. It has also promised to supply munitions to the European allies it has. (Heilbrunn, 2011) There was also the Great War that saw US’s president declare war on Germany in April 1917 upon the US entry to this war. Subsequently, Germany did not give in to the threats and it also showed its might by declaring war on the US. It said that it would sink all the vessels of any approaching forces trying to fight it. The German atrocities it committed in Belgium and its threat that it would sink the US vessels in the ocean of North Atlantic in the year 1917 triggered the war between the two nations and removed America from its neutrality towards the WWI. Also there was fascism that saw the US to change its view on Germany that led to the WWI. Germany was under a regime that upheld fascism and was under a dictator by the name of Hitler. This event made US to have the urge to change this system of rule and thus remaining against Germany. Another thing that happened in the history of Germany that influenced the US’s urge to attack it is the idea of militarism. This is where Germany alongside other powers that formed its allies in the war wanted to prove their might in the army that they had. The other event is explained as per the paragraph. Through out the WWI, US remained neutral. However, another event that led to its decision to enter the war and attack Germany was the event that saw Germany sink the ocean liner from Britain by the name RMS Lusitania. It was not that US was against Germany or for Britain, but it was the public opinion that the sinking of this ocean liner was not a good move by Germany. (historyonthenet.com, 2011) The other event is the WWII which saw Germany defeated. This is following the bombings that occurred in the year 1944. One of the reasons that is said to have caused the defeat of Germany was the American vast powers in terms of armaments. US was particularly against Hitler’s government. Another event that had led to the US’s urge to down Germany in the WWII was the German invasion of Poland in year 1939 and also the attack of the China’s People’s Republic about which the US was not pleased. Also there were the unresolved issues after WWI. WWII was also caused by the fact that the regime in Germany was in support of the Russia’s effort to spread communism. This was totally against the idea held by the US due to the fear of a violent revolution by communists. (Overy, 2011) 1990 marked the end of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin wall. Americans celebrated this fall of the Berlin wall and the relations of the US and Germany also took another angle. This is since, the arising of the United Germany saw the ideas of the US upheld. Examples of these ideas that brought the US and Germany together were the rise of democracy, the rule of law upholding, individual sovereignty and the rise of the market system of economy. 1989 marked the year when the authorities of East Germany opened the West-East German border. The loss of support by most of the European countries saw the Soviet Union weaken. Germany at this moment in time was operating as West and East Germany and through this the Soviet Union would gain its support. However, subsequent to the close of the Cold war in 1990, the Soviet Union was no more. This gave an opportunity to the US to enhance the unification of both of the German sides. Thus, the fall of the Berlin war and a new united Germany that supported the US ideas. Therefore, these events before the end of the Cold war and the aftermath had Germany related to the US in different capacities and the ultimate was the alliance between the two powers. This influenced the ideas that the two nations hold on international policies. However, the future may not be speculated on since as events unfold day after other different relations may arise that may bring about different impacts on each of the two nations. (Sloan, 2011) Therefore, while concluding the study one can see that the sporting events of Germany had in one way or another influenced the US system of sports. Also, besides the sports, there were also other events occurring in Germany and especially during the global conflicts that affected the US in numerous ways. References: aboutskischools.com. (2011). History of Skiing. Retrieved 14 September 2011 http://www.aboutskischools.com/ski/instruction/history.asp Bartel, Torsten. (2011). Germany - Deutscher Hockey-Bund. Retrieved 14 September 2011 http://www.eurohockey.org/ehf/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=102&I temid=32 basketball-bund.de. (2011). German's basketball history. Retrieved 14 September 2011 http://www.basketball- bund.de/basketballbund/en/dbb/geschichte_und_statistik/19111.html Boga, Steven. (1997). Volleyball. Edition illustrated. Stackpole Books. pp1-3. essortment.com. (2011). Sports History of Men and Women’s Volleyball. Retrieved 14 September 2011 http://www.essortment.com/sports-history-men-womens-volleyball- 21963.html Getchell, Cherie. (2008). Youth Training – USA v Germany. Retrieved 14 September 2011 http://soccerlens.com/us-germany-youth-training/11209/ Heilbrunn, Jacob. (2011). Is Germany America's Ally? Retrieved 14 September 2011 http://nationalinterest.org/blog/jacob-heilbrunn/germany-americas-ally-5546 historyonthenet.com. (2011). World War One – Causes. Retrieved 14 September 2011 http://www.historyonthenet.com/WW1/causes.htm mapsofworld.com. (2011). Germany Sports. Retrieved 14 September 2011 http://www.mapsofworld.com/germany/germany-sports/ Milne, Janet E. (2009). Mountain resorts: ecology and the law. Edition illustrated. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. pp3-5 oleole.com. (2011). German Football Federation History. Retrieved 14 September 2011 http://www.oleole.com/germany-football/history/fhif.html Overy, Richard. (2011). World War Two: How the Allies Won. Retrieved 14 September 2011 http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/how_the_allies_won_01.shtml Sloan, Stanley R. (2011). The Fall of the Berlin Wall: Effects on and Impressions of the United States. Retrieved 14 September 2011 http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:_mwJsc4HvyAJ:www.kas.de/upload/Pub likationen/Panorama/2009/1/sloan.pdf+the+fall+of+the+berlin+wall+and+its+impact+o n+the+us&hl=en&gl=ke&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjC6ECmgqtG4zbHBiq2doodzNXUn LlHSJ2SIda93f- SDR0PeggEysGsWtCmWqp6SZJ7xsAYN1eJ2kqawHkYcvyzmNtbKEhVNNbZSBEw byyUC_CMG3Pd2loEFFMARUk944mMDuOb&sig=AHIEtbTuN6Ue9gNwHm0gbIH xX-RICQk0Xw Read More