Sport in Germany
History
Friedrich Ludwig Jahn known as Turnvater Jahn (father of gymnastics) was born in 1778 and worked as an assistant teacher in Berlin. At Berlin's Hasenheide Friedrich Ludwig Jahn opened the first German gymnastics field ('Turnplatz'), or open-air gymnasium, in spring 1811. His activities were particularly pointed at the youth, with whom he went to the gym field in free afternoons. The German gymnastics, understood by Jahn as a whole of the physical exercises.
Jahn developed well-known gymnastic equipment, invented also new apparatuses. Jahn invented the parallel bars, rings, high bar, the pommel horse and the vault horse. Particularly by his main writing "Die Deutsche Turnkunst" (1816) the apparatus gymnastics developed to an independent kind of sport, and so the gym activities were not only limited to simple physical exercises, which he quoted as following: "Going, running, jumping, throwing, carrying are free exercises, everywhere applicable, as free as fresh air."
Jahn´s
With the national gymnastics festivals in Coburg in 1860, in Berlin in 1861 and in Leipzig in 1863, the memory of Jahn's ideas returned into the people's consciousness. The inscription at the gable of his house "Frisch, Fromm, Fröhlich, Frei", translated as 'fresh, pious, cheerful, free", which originated in Jahn's time, became the basic idea of the German gymnastics movement.
In 1934, the Nazi government founded the
Olympics
In the
Germany has hosted the
Germany claimed the most, if not, gold medals and the most total medals during the 1992, 1998, 2002 and 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. East Germany claimed the most gold medals at 1984 Winter Olympics.
Main sports
Association football
Germany's top level soccer league, known as the Bundesliga, has the highest average attendances of any soccer league in the world; among all professional sports leagues, its average attendance is second only to American football's NFL. As of the 2019–20 season, the Bundesliga is placed third in UEFA rankings, which are based on the performance of clubs in the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League.[3]
Soccer in Germany is (like in most European countries) the number one attended and practiced sport. Besides the national league, the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championship have much attention among its population.
Bayern Munich (German: Bayern München) is the most successful German soccer club, with 30 national championships, 20 National Cups and 6 European Champions titles (three European Cups and three Champions Leagues) to its credit, as well as several other international titles. Like many other German soccer clubs, Bayern Munich is a multi-sport club.
The
The women's national team is also a world power, with its wins of the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2003 and 2007, making Germany the only nation to win both the men's and women's World Cup and European titles.[4]
Handball
Germany together with
Handball is widely regarded to be the second most popular team sport in Germany and when a study conducted by Repucom asked people which sport besides football they preferred a total of 33% voted handball, while basketball came in second with 25% of the votes, ice hockey got 24%, and volleyball got 11%. It is also the second-most played team sport in Germany with approximately 750,000 active registered players around the country as of 2016.
The German men's national team have won the IHF World Men's Handball Championship three times, the very first world cup in 1938, the West Germany team won it in 1978 and the united German team won it at home in 2007. They also have been crowned European champions twice first in 2004 and then in the 2016 rendition of the tournament. In the Olympic Games their efforts have resulted in one gold medal (1936), two silver medals (1984 and 2004) and one Bronze medal (2016).
The German
The sport attracts large television viewership; around 16 million TV viewers watched as Germany beat Poland in the 2007 World Cup as well as 13 million during the 2016 European Cup final. During the
Ice hockey
Ice hockey is one of Germany's most popular sports, although considering its importance and spectator popularity in the nation it is ranked far behind football. There are many leagues but the top one is the 14 team
In 2010,
Basketball
Together with football, ice hockey and handball, basketball in Germany is among the most popular spectator sports.[citation needed]. The Basketball Bundesliga is the highest level league of professional club basketball in Germany.
One of the most popular non-football athletes to come out of Germany is
The
Motorsport
Germany is one of the leading motorsports countries in the world. While countless race winning cars have come from Germany, only
.Schumacher is tied with Lewis Hamilton for the most Formula One Drivers championships with 7. In 2003, Schumacher set a new record for driver's championships when he surpassed Juan Manuel Fangio's total of 5 championships, a record that had stood for 46 years since 1957. He was also the highest paid athlete in sports history, with an annual salary of some U.S. $70 million from the Ferrari team, and an estimated $25–30 million more coming from endorsements. In 2005, he became the world's first billionaire athlete, according to Eurobusiness magazine. He is regarded as one of the greatest drivers of all time; when he first retired at the end of the 2006 season, he held 7 championships and every significant F1 record. He returned to F1 in 2010, celebrated his completion of 20 years in F1 in August 2011, and retired for a second time at the end of the 2012 season.
In 2010, Vettel became the youngest driver ever to win the world championship, he also successfully defended the title in 2011, 2012 and 2013. Before winning his first F1 drivers' championship, Vettel had already been the youngest ever to drive at a Grand Prix meeting, earn F1 world championship points, start from pole position in an F1 race, and finish as runner-up for the drivers' championship.
In 2016, Nico Rosberg became the third German driver to win the Formula One World Championship.
The
Situated in Germany is the
In sports car racing, Stefan Bellof and Hans-Joachim Stuck won the World Sportscar Championship in 1984 and 1985, whilst more recently André Lotterer, Timo Bernhard and Marc Lieb won the World Endurance Championship in 2012, 2015 and 2016 respectively.
The
Winter sports
Germany is one of the most successful winter sport nations. Its dominance in sledding disciplines can be attributed to it being the only country in the world to have four bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton tracks. These tracks are located in Altenberg, Königssee, Oberhof, and Winterberg.
Germany has long been dominant in the sport of
In
In
Biathlon has become one of the most popular winter sports in Germany in recent years,[6] and enjoys some of the highest TV ratings in Germany for any sport aside from association football.[7] Germany has won 59 Olympic medals in biathlon, more than any other nation, and is the joint most successful nation in terms of Olympic golds won, with Germany and Russia having won 20 golds each. Some of Germany's most successful biathletes include Frank-Peter Roetsch, Michael Greis, Sven Fischer, Ricco Groß and Frank Luck among the men and Uschi Disl, Andrea Henkel, Kati Wilhelm, Magdalena Neuner and Laura Dahlmeier among the women.
Tobias Angerer has enjoyed success in cross-country skiing, winning consecutive overall FIS Cross-Country World Cups in 2005/06 and 2006/07. Other notable cross-country skiers include Peter Schlickenrieder, Axel Teichmann and Jens Filbrich.
Along with biathlon, ski jumping is the most popular winter sport in Germany, with TV broadcasts regularly attracting five million viewers,[8] and the country has produced a number of top jumpers. Jens Weißflog is Germany's most successful ski jumper and was one of the top competitors in the world from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. Other notable athletes include Hans-Georg Aschenbach, Sven Hannawald, Martin Schmitt and Severin Freund. Two of the four rounds of the prestigious Four Hills Tournament are held on German hills, at Oberstdorf and Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
German athletes have been competitive in Nordic combined. Title-winning competitors include Georg Thoma, Ulrich Wehling, Hermann Weinbuch, Ronny Ackermann and Eric Frenzel.
Germany has enjoyed great success in alpine skiing, although the most successful German alpine skiers have tended to be female. One notable male alpine skier was Markus Wasmeier. Felix Neureuther is Germany's most successful male skier in terms of World Cup race wins with 13.[9] Rosi Mittermaier, Katja Seizinger and Maria Höfl-Riesch have won multiple world-level titles on the women's circuit.
In
Germany has a heritage in
Germany has been a regular competitor in Olympic
While a minor sport in the country, Germany national bandy team has qualified for Division A of the 2017 Bandy World Championship. In terms of licensed athletes, bandy is the second biggest winter sport in the world.[10]
Tennis
The two most successful German tennis players of all time are Steffi Graf and Boris Becker.
Becker became the youngest champion in the history of the men's singles at Wimbledon, won six-time Grand Slam singles titles and an Olympic gold medal together with Michael Stich.
Graf won 22 Grand Slam singles titles, second among male and female players. In 1988, she became the first and only tennis player (male or female) to achieve the Calendar Year Golden Slam by winning all four Grand Slam singles titles and the Olympic gold medal in the same calendar year.
The
Cycling
American football
The history of American football in Germany began in 1977, when the Frankfurter Löwen were formed as the first club to play the game in Germany. The German Football League (GFL) is the elite league for American football in Germany and was formed in 1979 and is among the best leagues in Europe. Playing rules are based on those of the American NCAA. In 1999, the league switched its name from American-Football-Bundesliga to German Football League.[13] [14] European league of football was officially created in November 2020, and kicked off its inaugural season in June 2021.[15] The majority of teams in this league are based in Germany.
Bandy
Bandy was played in Germany in the early 20th century, but the players and audience then turned to football and ice hockey instead. The sport was reintroduced in the 21st century, with the German Bandy Federation being founded in 2013. A national championship has been played every winter since 2014/15.
Beach volleyball
Germany featured a men's national team in beach volleyball that competed at the 2018–2020 CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup.[16]
Chess
Card games
Germany's national card game is Skat, played by an estimated 20 to 25 million Germans – more than play football – according to the German Skat Association.[17] David Parlett describes it as "a national institution".[18] Another leading game is Doppelkopf, the most popular traditional four-player game in the north and west of Germany which is regulated by the German Doppelkopf Association and has 69 affiliated clubs.[19] In Bavaria, the "supreme discipline" of Bavarian card games and the "mother of all trump games" is Schafkopf, played by an estimated 2½ million people in south Germany.[20] Apart from international games like
In addition to games played with the
Boxing
Boxing is among the most watched TV sports in Germany with both male and female fights enjoying regular spots on national television. Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko are among the two most popular boxers in Germany. German television network RTL has listed the Klitschko brothers as their most important asset next to football.[21] In recent years Germany has become a hub for boxing, the Vegas of Europe, and many international fighters travel to fight out of the country.[5][22][23] Henry Maske is a successful recent German box champion.
Golf
As recently as
The Solheim Cup, the women's counterpart to the Ryder Cup, was hosted by Germany in 2015.
Two-time
Lacrosse
Lacrosse has been played in Germany since 1992, with roughly 5,000 players registered in the German Lacrosse Association (DLAXV - Deutscher Lacrosse-Verband e.V.). It is growing fast, with youth hotbeds being at the SC 1880 Frankfurt and the Berliner Hockey Club.
Germany has sent national teams to the Under-19 World Lacrosse Championships.[24]
Rugby union
The first German rugby team was formed at
Rugby league
Water sports
See also
References
- ^ https://www.ndr.de/geschichte/Aeltester-Sportverein-HT16-feiert-200-Jahre,jubilaeumht100.html
- ^ "German football: Tor! Tor! Tor!". The Economist. 2013-05-25. Retrieved 2013-10-07.
- ^ "Weiterleitung auf Korrekte Seite".
- ^ Germany set the record straight. FIFA. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
- ^ a b "Archived copy" (PDF). IIHF. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-01-31. Retrieved 2017-12-30.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - Csmonitor.com. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
- ^ Becker, Lars (28 November 2017). "Thanks to Laura Dahlmeier & Co: Biathlon World Cup Excites Millions – and Sponsors". Internationale Fachmesse für Sportartikel und Sportmode. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
- ^ Becker, Thomas (12 May 2018). "Michael Greis: "I'm As Ambitious As Ever"". Internationale Fachmesse für Sportartikel und Sportmode. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
- france24.com. 16 March 2019. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
- ^ Bandy destined for the Olympic Winter Games!
- ^ a b "2017 Tour de France - Düsseldorf - New start for Germany". Tour de France. Retrieved 18 October 2016.
- ^ "Germany tops 2016 UCI Road World Championships medal table". cyclingnews.com. 16 October 2016. Retrieved 18 October 2016.
- ^ Geschichte (in German) AFVD website, accessed: 29 December 2010
- ^ "Pro football returns to Europe: European League of Football kicks off in 2021". AmericanFootballInternational.com. November 4, 2020. Retrieved November 4, 2020.
- ^ "Neues Hamburger Footballteam spielt im Stadion Hoheluft" (in German). Hamburger Abendblatt. 17 February 2021. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
- FIVB. 22 June 2021. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
- ^ Skat: Ein Lieblingsspiel der Deutschen at dw.com. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
- ^ Parlett (1990), p. 271.
- ^ Deutscher Doppelkopf-Verband e. V. at doko-verband.de. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
- ^ Bavarian Schafkopf at pagat.com. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
- ^ "Company - RTL".
- ^ Kulish, Nicholas (23 February 2008). "In Germany, Boxing Finds Appreciation and a Hub". The New York Times.
- ^ "The Heavyweights 2014 - Long Live the King — Boxing News". December 2013.
- ^ Record 23 lacrosse teams to play at Men's Under-21 World Championship Ali Iveson (Inside the Games), 30 May 2021. Accessed 9 June 2021.
Further reading
- Carr, Gerald A. "The involvement of politics in the sporting relationships of East and West Germany, 1945-1972." Journal of Sport History 7.1 (1980): 40-51. online
- Ebert, Anne‐Katrin. "Cycling towards the nation: the use of the bicycle in Germany and the Netherlands, 1880–1940." European Review of History: Revue européenne d'histoire 11.3 (2004): 347-364.
- Frick, Bernd, and Joachim Prinz. "Crisis? What crisis? football in Germany." Journal of Sports Economics 7.1 (2006): 60-75.
- Hanssen-Doose, Anke, et al. "Population-based trends in physical fitness of children and adolescents in Germany, 2003–2017." European Journal of Sport Science (2020): 1-11.
- Koebel, Michel. "The organisation of sport and sports policies in Germany." in Sport, Welfare and Social Policy in the European Union (Routledge, 2020) pp. 75-85.
- Krüger, Michael. "Historiography, Cultures of Remembrance and Tradition in German Sport." International Journal of the History of Sport (2014) 31#12 pp 1425-1443.
- Large, David Clay. Nazi games: the Olympics of 1936 (WW Norton & Company, 2007).
- McDougall, Alan. "Whose Game Is It Anyway?" Radical History Review (May 2016), Issue 125, p35-54; the history of East German football after 1950.
- McDougall, Alan. The People's Game: Football, State and Society in East Germany (Cambridge University Press, 2014).
- Meier, Henk Erik, and Cosima von Uechtriz. "The Key Role of Sport Policies for the Popularity of Women’s Sports: A Case Study on Women’s Soccer in Germany." Sociology of Sport Journal 37.4 (2020): 328-345.
- Meier, Henk Erik, Borja García, and Mara Konjer. "Resisting the pressures of globalisation: the repeated failure of elite sport reforms in re-united Germany." German Politics (2020): 1-21.
- Merkel, Udo. "Football fans and clubs in Germany: conflicts, crises and compromises." Soccer & Society 13.3 (2012): 359-376. online
- Schiller, Kay, and Chris Young. The 1972 Munich Olympics and the making of modern Germany (Univ of California Press, 2010).
- Schulz, Saskia Sarah, Klaus Lenz, and Karin Büttner-Janz. "Severe back pain in elite athletes: a cross-sectional study on 929 top athletes of Germany." European Spine Journal 25.4 (2016): 1204-1210.
- Suckow, Christina. "Literature review on brand equity in professional team sport: a German perspective on ice hockey." International Journal of sport management and marketing 5.1-2 (2009): 211-225.