A Union Berlin fan from the UK tours Germany in search of its football, its history and its culture
This sweltering summer, all eyes have been on Germany as the country has hosted the Euros in ten venue cities. From Scotland’s horror show opener in Munich on June 14 to this Sunday’s final in Berlin, supporters have trekked across this complex country, drinking its beer and dancing in its fan zones.
But beyond the clichés, the supposed infallibility at penalties and unfashionable cut-off jean jackets covered in sew-on patches, few are too familiar with this unusual football culture, one that avoids the riches and bling of La Liga and the Premier League.
One man who has explored it inside out is Berlin-based British-German writer Kit Holden. Author of Scheisse! We’re Going Up!, shortlisted for the 2023 Sunday Times Sports Book Awards, about his local club Union Berlin, Kit has recently published Played in Germany about the history and culture of the game from Bavaria to Brandenburg.
A regular contributor to Der Tagesspiegel, The Athletic and Die Zeit, Kit spoke to Libero about his latest timely project.
“There’s a big culture war in German football right now,” begins Kit, who moved to Germany over a decade ago after studying here for a year as part of his language degree. Mainly raised in the UK, Kit also had family in Germany.
“Many want to protect German football culture, which is why fans at grounds around the country were chucking tennis balls onto the pitch for weeks.”
This initiative during the recent 2023-24 season were in protest against the prospect of external investors sponsoring the Bundesliga. In Germany, with the notable exceptions of Leverkusen, Leipzig and Wolfsburg, all clubs must stick to the 50+1 principle, whereby ownership cannot pass into the hands of a capricious oligarch or American billionaire.
This in turn means, of course, that clubs do not have the means to transform their team overnight into an outfit of superstars like, say, Real Madrid or Manchester City.
“Ultimately, the protest won and the Bundesliga backed down,” says Kit. “For fans, this was a red line. It was them saying, ‘we don’t want success at just any price’.”
Kit’s own exploration of German football began with Union Berlin, whose exploits and fan culture he outlines in his first book, Scheisse! We’re Going Up! Shortlisted for the 2023 Sunday Times Sports Book Awards, it sits in the club’s gleaming superstore, Union Zeughaus, by Frankfurter Allee S-Bahn.
Such rampant commercialism might seem at odds with Union’s punk heritage, the mythology of spiky underdogs who got together to save Union from bankruptcy in the late 1990s. Then again, few clubs in Germany are more commercial than St Pauli, the self-styled pirate rebels of Hamburg.
“It still feels like an old-fashioned English ground,” says, Kit, of Union’s 22,012-capacity Stadion an der Alten Försterei, set in the woods of Köpenick. It’s an atmosphere that inspired him to write his book, it’s title loosely translated as ‘Shit, We’re Going Up’, although Kit is at pains to point out that Scheisse isn’t as strong a swear word in German as its direct equivalent in English – “even the German ambassador was fine reading it out at a presentation at the embassy in London,” he recalls.
Its success led Kit to explore themes of culture and identity further with his Played in Germany, which “uses football as a way to talk about Germany in more depth,” as he describes. In seeking the right balance, Kit interviews as many people as possible involved in the German game to create a fascinating and entertaining read.
While unsure of his next move, Kit remains rooted in Berlin, where Union prepare for another Bundesliga season after narrowly escaping relegation. First, though, there’s this weekend to think about…
Played in Germany by Kit Holden, available on Amazon and Scheisse! We’re Going Up!, also available on Amazon
