The stadiums are ready, the grass is cut and sleek. The giant sculptures of
Bayer aspirin tablets and Adidas soccer shoes, proud German inventions, rise
over parks and fields. Out walking their dogs or sunning in the Tiergarten,
Germans seem happy, almost loose, ready to become unhinged by the madness,
euphoria, heartbreak and torment of the World Cup.
German national soccer team players
make gymnastic at a training session on
Sardinia.[Reuters] |
The monthlong soccer
tournament is a swirl of passions and nationalism, superstitions and prayers,
bets and scandals. Old legends are recollected and new ones blossom.
It is the alchemy of sporting genius and marketing prowess, echoing with
dozens of languages and fans that include Asian Buddhist monks, topless
Brazilian women, chattering Italians, drunken Brits, irreverent Czechs and, dare
we say, the nearly giddy Germans.
"The image of the German people outside of Germany is not very good. But
we're reunified and we're in the middle of Europe. We know how to party," said
Markus Kurscheidt, a sports economist at Ruhr University.
"No one would believe that Germans know how to celebrate. You tend to think
of the Italians. But Germans know how. The World Cup is a chance to show that
Germans are nice."
Germany has been preparing for six years for the tournament that begins
Friday. Teams from 32 countries will eliminate one another until the
championship match July 9.
Play will be scattered among 12 stadiums stretching from Munich to Hamburg to
Berlin, where the 1936 Olympic stadium has been renovated with a translucent
roof. Three million tickets have been printed, and the overall economic benefit
is expected to be U.S.$10 billion.
"It's a fever that grows and grows, and as it comes closer I completely
devote myself to soccer," said Bernhard Dizer, a philosophy student. "There is
nothing that touches soccer. There is no higher religion of sport. If you win,
you are king of the world."
Before it has a chance to play king, Germany must be innkeeper for more than
1 million expected visitors. To help the arriving throngs navigate the country's
rigid personality, Der Spiegel magazine's online version has posted the "Germany
Survival Bible."
It is filled with cultural idiosyncrasies on such things as nude unisex
saunas, leaf sweeping, statistical obsession, bicycle fanaticism and the darker
side of the beloved garden gnome.
"The common garden gnome has fallen on hard times," the
survival guide says. "He's despised as the embodiment of kitsch and
petit-bourgeois parochialism. Some outsiders have even sought to savage the
image.... There are pornographic gnomes, one-eared Van Gogh gnomes and 'Scream'
versions a la Edvard Munch."
Who knew?
Such knowledge could be useful in a beer hall after a soccer match, when,
say, a diversion is needed to calm arguments about David Beckham's power or
Thierry Henry's grace, not to mention the German coach who lives in L.A. and
flies in like a prodigal prince.
Gnomes aside, the World Cup lands here as Germany is rising in international
stature. The nation was the world's leading exporter in 2005.
Chancellor Angela Merkel is a formidable voice in Europe and has begun
repairing relations with the United States that were damaged over Berlin's
opposition to the Iraq war. And many Germans hope, although they consider it
unlikely, that their team will repeat 1954, when it won the first of its three
World Cup victories and lifted the nation's image after World War II.
This year's tournament will conjure past demons and rouse present fears:
terrorism, neo-Nazi and right-wing radical marches, hooliganism, racist slurs
and, when Iran takes the field, questions about nuclear weapons and Middle East
tension. Security concerns have led the German Parliament to consider deploying
the army around certain venues, a sensitive prospect.
"We're used to the green suits of police in the streets, but not soldiers,"
said Linus Zahn, a theater sound and lighting technician.
For many fans, sex is moreof a concern than
battalions.The country's iconic sex store, Beate Uhse, is selling "sporty
vibrators" and a "World Cup Porno" film.
