Spiel Christmas Edition

8/3/2019 Spiel Christmas Edition

1/6


2/6


3/6

ONLINE:

WWW.SPIELMAGAZINE.COM

@SPIEL_MAGAZINE

CONTACT:

[email protected]

+44 (0) 7791667804

[email protected]

+44 (0) 7527509400

POST:

BASECAMP3

29 PARLIAMENT STREET

LIVERPOOL L8 5RN

WITH THANKS:

MATT HULL, CHRIS COWLEY, GREG

BOTT, YOUNG PINES, WILL DAW,

THOM ISOM

EDITORS:

PAUL GLEESON & DAN BYRNE

CHIEF SUB-EDITOR:

MATT HULL

BRANDING:

MERCY

MERCYONLINE.COM

DESIGN AND ILLUSTRATION:

YOUNG PINES

YOUNGPINES.COM

TEXT:

HEADLINES ULTRAMAGNETIC

BODY NEUZEIT GROTESK

SUPPORT AKKURAT MONO

You have found our Christmas

present to you and we hope that

you enjoy it. Gift giving at this

time of year has a long tradition

- we have given gifts in midwinter

for much longer than we have

celebrated Christmas - and at its

heart is goodwill. With our gift

pack we continue this tradition

and in it there are articles centred

around perhaps the most famous

act of Christmas goodwill, the

Christmas Truce. There is also a

limited run poster showing you all

that we want for Christmas.

If Christmas is a time of gifts and

goodwill then New Year is the time

for plans and resolutions. We have

plans a-plenty and if you keep

checking twitter in early January

we will be breaking some news. In

the meantime it just remains for us

to wish you a Merry Christmas and

Happy New Year!

SPIEL CHRISTMAS GIFT PACK01

02

WORD FROM THE

EDITORS


4/6

Despite the recent ignorant

screechings of blockheaded

players and the ramblings of a

certain spittlelipped official one

of footballs greatest qualities is

its power to unite. In the wake

of the invasion of Iraq images of

soldiers kicking balls about with

ragged looking children in the

ruins of recently liberated towns

were abundant. A heartwarming

antidote to the pictures of charred

buildings and bodies. Winning

hearts, minds and feet.

There is one particular piece of

peacemaking football which holds

a special place in the popular

imagination though. In Christmas

1914, less than six months after

the beginning of the First World

War, a brief unofficiated truce

was held between the groups of

soldiers from both sides of the

trenches. Men who had been firing

at each other just days before met

and found that their enemies were

not so different from themselves;

working men who had been

wrapped in uniforms and sent

to kill each other. Carols were

sung; hands were shaken; tins

of bully beef were exchanged

for parcels of bratwurst. It has

also been widely asserted that,

at various points along the lines,

both sides took part in games of

football. Numerous letters sent

back from British units mention

matches between soldiers while

some correspondence recorded

a 3 2 victory to the German

side, perhaps an ominous portent

of painful fixtures to come. In an

interview nearly seventy years

later, Ernie Williams, veteran

of the 6th Cheshire Territorials

recalled the atmosphere at

one of the impromptu matches,

Everyone seemed to be enjoying

themselves. There was no sort of

ill will between us. There was no

referee. No tally. No score.

A friendly kickabout, like the

schoolyard games that many

would have been playing only a

few years before. And perhaps

there was no collective will for the

implementation of rules; maybe

they felt too much like orders. No

stomach, any longer, for matters

of yards and numbers. At our

historical remove its tempting to

read broader significance into

Ernies account.

There is, though, some dissenting

opinion on the matter of the

Christmas Truce matches.

Unsurprisingly, given the nature of

censorship during the period, there

is a lack of documentary evidence

of the games actually happening.

Historians, including the influential

Modris Eckstein, have declared

the idea of the matches by turns

politically nave and, with no-

mans land churned by artillery

fire and thick with barbwire and

barricades, physically impractical.

Christmas spirit and football

fandom, though, is an intoxicating

combination. Like all great

legends the Christmas Truce

football matches refuse to be

shackled to verifiable proof, it is

instead rooted in a deeper truth

of the power of play to heal even

the widest and bitterest of rifts.

The Premier League recently

announced a new under-12s

football competition, its name; the

Christmas Truce Tournament. The

matches are to be dedicated to

the memory of all who fell in the

Great War and played in Ypres,

just minutes from where the shells,

and perhaps for a few precious

minutes on one cold December

25th, the balls flew.

Words by - Matt Hull

01

02

BULLY BEEF AND

BRATWURST: THE

CHRISTMAS TRUCETHE CHRISTMAS TRUCE, OR IN GERMAN DER WEIHNACHTSFRIEDEN, IS INEXPLICABLY

TIED TO FOOTBALL, DESPITE QUESTIONABLE EVIDENCE OF THE MATCH TAKING PLACE.

MATT HULL INVESTIGATES THE TRUCE AND ITS BROADER SIGNIFICANCE.

SPIEL CHRISTMAS GIFT PACK


5/6

02

02

DER WEIHNACHTSFRIEDENTHE FABLE OF THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE IS A STAPLE AT THIS

TIME OF YEAR. SCHOOLS RETELL THE TALE OF HOW, AMONGST

THE BLOODSHED AND SHELLS, THE TROOPS OF WORLD WAR ONE

DOWNED ARMS FOR A BRIEF HIATUS. YET WE RARELY HEAR THE

GERMAN PERSPECTIVE. CHRIS COWLEY INVESTIGATES.

For a long time, The First World

War was simply remembered

as The Great War. A war which

engulfed so much of Europe and

ended the lives of so many young

men that it has become shorthand

for the waste and futility of armed

combat.

Reading the poetry of Wilfred

Owen or Seigfried Sassoon to

begin to understand the brave

soldiers who fought and died

between 1914 and 1918 must have

been stretched. Writing this now, I

am glad it is a feeling I will never

truly know.

And yet, amid all of the bloodshed,

in the depth of December

1914, something extraordinary

happened. Something that would

send out a prevailing message

of humanity for all generations

to come. A game of football

took place between English and

German troops.

Admittedly, this is not the only

reported act of amity to take place

during what has become known

as The Christmas Truce, in which

cigarettes were shared, carols

were sung and fallen friends were

jointly remembered, it is perhaps

though the element which has

most vividly etched itself into

British folklore.

Its interesting then, that if you

were to ask many Germans about

their knowledge of this impromptu

international, they usually

respond with blank faces. Der

Weihnachtsfrieden is, of course,

remembered in Germany too,

but most of my colleagues, when

specifically quizzed about the

football match, had either never

heard of it or thought it had much

more to do with the French than

themselves - often citing the 2005

film, Joyeux Nol.

How could it be that a moment as

significant as this one could be so

well preserved in one culture and

not in the others? Is it simply the

case the events were described in

more detail or widely recorded in

one language than they were in

another? Perhaps, as the victors, it

makes sense that we would want

to maintain the few memories of

such a horrendous war that can

undeniably present our troops as

honourable, well principled men,

who were victims of a cruel fate.

Maybe that would not be the case

for those on the losing side.

Still, if either of these were the

reason for the fooball match

gradually petering out of memory,

then you would assume that all

other tales from the Christmas Truce

would do as well. It could well be

that the fact that this alone seems

to have dwindled in significance

has more to do with our nations

respective relationships with the

beautiful game than with the war

itself.

ASK MANY GERMANS ABOUT

THEIR KNOWLEDGE OF THIS

IMPROMPTU INTERNATIONAL,

THEY USUALLY RESPOND WITH

BLANK FACES.

Even listening to the commentary

and punditry surrounding The

Premiership nowadays, it is clear to

see that we English fans still think of

football as being, in its purest and

most authentic sense, an English

pastime. We are repeatedly

told that our domestic league is



6/6

02

02

the best in the world, precisely

because its players are the only

footballers able to play with the

high octane gusto required to

compete at this top level. In other

words, it has become a medium

through which our plucky national

spirit, which is often cited as the

exceptional quality that through

the world wars, can be preserved

and propagated. It could well be

that it is this relationship between

football and British fighting spirit

that has both preserved and

made legend of that football

game, which took place one

Christmas Eve so long ago, where

in Germany it has been all but

forgotten.

Of course, this is not to say that

Germanys relationship with

football is any less strong; just

that it has a different meaning,

especially when you consider that

in terms of the national team,

Germany has also had a fair

amount more success than us.

Crucially these victories have also

come at times when Germany has

been going through something

of an upheaval. Whereas the

English relationship to the game

has become defined by the

preservation of our national

identity, Germanys has become

associated with its reinvention.

HOW COULD IT BE THAT A

MOMENT AS SIGNIFICANT AS

THIS ONE COULD BE SO WELL

PRESERVED IN ONE CULTURE

AND NOT IN THE OTHERS?

Take, for example, the 1954 world

cup final known as The Miracle

Of Bern. Going into the match

as a nation who had been torn

apart by two world wars and the

unforgivable atrocities committed

in the name of their Volk, Germany

was on its knees. The team faced a

Hungary squad, who were widely

believed to be the best in the

world, Germany were immense

underdogs. Within eight minutes of

play, all expectations appeared to

have been confirmed as Hungary

found themselves 2-0 up thanks to

goals from Puskas and Czibor. It

looked all over for the Germans,

when out of nowhere, they

suddenly found themselves back

in the game thanks to braces

from Max Morlock and Helmut

Rahn, who went on to bag his

2nd in the 84th minute, with what

would prove to be a winner and a

sensational comeback.

Germany were crowned world

champions and in an instant, the

nation had reason to celebrate.

However, it was more than just

a game. This was also the first

time since the end of WW2 that

the national anthem had been

played in public and is seen by

many scholars as a landmark

in German history as the point

they began to look forward to a

new future. This phenomenon of

reinvention through football was

again strengthened in the world

cup of 1990, when a reunified

Germany celebrated their first

World Cup victory together, since

the Berlin wall had been erected

in 1961. It proved to be a symbolic

moment in the coming together

of East and West, and again

strengthened footballs role as a

national game changer. Even now

in 2011, players like Mesut Ozil and

Lucas Podolski are challenging

conceptions of German national

identity, with many citizens from

migrant backgrounds looking to

them as role models.

With all of this in mind, it is perhaps

no surprise that a football match,

which took place on no mans

land in a war long gone would not

permeate a contemporary German

consciousness that is full of much

more radical associations with

football. For us, it is a reminder of

why we are proud to be British, but

for the Germans, it is a relic of the

nation they used to be.

Words by - Chris Cowley


Spiel Christmas Edition

Documents

Transcript of Spiel Christmas Edition