Der deutsche Sieg bei der Weltmeisterschaft 1954: Mythos und Wunder oder historisches Ereignis?

Abstract

Still today for great parts of the German public the German victory at the football world cup in Bern/Switzerland in 1954 is a point of reference when national identification is concerned. On the occasion of its 50th anniversary, plenty of belletristic and scientific literary publications, a feature film and audio as well as picture documentations have been produced. Without reference to the respective genre, the majority of these works tends to regard the winning of the world cup as a „myth”, some even take it for an origo myth of a national foundation. Apart from that, a striking feature is the personifying point of view, putting special emphasis on the performance of individual figures (Sepp Herberger, Fritz Walter, Herbert Zimmermann). Approaches that focus on „Bern 1954” as a historic event are rare: Attempts to present the winning of the title against the background of the political history of the young Federal Republic of Germany can sometimes be discovered. Examinations with methods of daily life studies or the history of mentalities remain to be done.