04/24/24
January 10, 2006
Oh, those crazy footballers!: It ain't quite "Springtime for Hitler," but it's close enough for most Europeans' sensitivities. Since when did wearing bright orange Nazi-style helmets to a World Cup match qualify as "making fun of Germans?"
posted by The_Black_Hand to soccer at 09:40 PM - 14 comments
Speaking of Nazi helmets though, did anyone else see footage when the roof of that German ice-rink collapsed over the holidays? Anyone else notice the helmets the German fireservice wear? Pretty evocative of something a bit more sinister I thought.
posted by JJ at 09:48 AM on January 11, 2006
Uh, that's a stretch. Current US military lids have that same general shape, because it works. That said, the Dutch aren't really known for their sense of humor, are they?
posted by Hugh Janus at 10:42 AM on January 11, 2006
Same general shape perhaps, but hardly the same, and hardly evocative of a Nazi stormtrooper. Those German ones look like they came out of the same factory (which is now doing a profitable little sideline in orange plastic injection moulding it would seem).
posted by JJ at 11:27 AM on January 11, 2006
So that fireman really looks like a Nazi stormtrooper to you? I'll grant you, the helmet is the same shape (without the visor and debris fringe), but that's what I meant when I said "that's a stretch." That helmet shape is like a pickelgruber without a spike, too. So maybe German firemen are all secret agents of the Kaiser. Sinister, indeed.
posted by Hugh Janus at 11:57 AM on January 11, 2006
Oh I'm not suggesting sinister at all, just a bit odd from a nation which seems to go to great lengths to avoid mentioning the war. The picture isn't the best to illustrate what I'm talking about, it was really the TV footage of the guys trying to free the trapped folk in the collapsing ice rink. I got confused while channel hopping and thought I'd come across a war film for a minute. They had white jackets and pants on, and none that I saw had helmets with the visor attached, so they looked immediately like snow camoflaged Nazi stormtroppers. I was waiting for Richard Burton to appear and start trying to call Dannyboy.
posted by JJ at 12:11 PM on January 11, 2006
I was waiting for Richard Burton to appear and start trying to call Dannyboy. That's great. I just choked on my sandwich, that was so funny.
posted by Hugh Janus at 12:59 PM on January 11, 2006
I was waiting for Richard Burton to appear and start trying to call Dannyboy. I just cackled out loud, frightening the guy in the next office out of a sound sleep. Thanks JJ.
posted by The_Black_Hand at 03:09 PM on January 11, 2006
There's a great book by Simon Kuiper called 'Football Against the Enemy'. The first chapter is on the Holland-Germany rivalry. After the Hamburg match in Euro 88 (which Holland won) thousands of Dutchmen and women spontaneously packed public squares waving bicycles in the air. The reason? The German occupiers had confiscated bicycles during the war. One famous Dutch poet was moved to write: 'those that died rose... saluting from their graves.' I guess you have to be Dutch to understand the depth of feeling. But the Orange supporters are well known for their sense of humour, and even won an award from FIFA as the world's best a few years ago.
posted by owlhouse at 03:43 PM on January 11, 2006
I sent a link to the story to a friend of mine. His response: The dutch have let it go surprisingly well given that the gremans rounded up and gassed three quraters of a million of their citizens and then deliberately started a famine in their country for no reason whatsoever. owlhouse - that's a nice story - sounds like a good book.
posted by JJ at 04:30 AM on January 12, 2006
In fact, I've ordered it. And Amazon talked me into £30-worth of other purchases to go with it. I'm such a sucker.
posted by JJ at 05:34 AM on January 12, 2006
You won't regret it, JJ. The chapter on Dinamo Kyiv and the sale of nuclear warheads is also a good read.
posted by owlhouse at 06:50 AM on January 12, 2006
One of the others the suckered me into buying was Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football. That's been on my list for a while now. Have you read it?
posted by JJ at 07:11 AM on January 12, 2006
I haven't, but with Guus Hiddink and now Johan Neeskens looking after the Aussie national team, I'd better get across the Dutch mental stuff! I've heard that's a good book. I should Amazon more, but prefer to shop in person - Sportspages in Charing Cross Road is a favourite. I just picked up Franklin Foer's 'How Soccer Explains the World' from a Borders shop in Sydney, and I'm looking forward to reading it.
posted by owlhouse at 03:11 AM on January 13, 2006
"We reject every link between soccer and the war," Huizinga said. "There are so many ways you can make a joke, but this is too obvious to be funny, it shows no creativity at all." So a more creative joke accusing Germans of being Nazis would be funny? Prince Harry is a keen football fan - I wonder if he will be attending any of England's games, and, if so, what he'll be wearing.