Football Fever: The Euros Bring a Fun and Festive Air to Berlin
By Staff Reporters
BERLIN — Soccer fans from all over Europe have descended on Berlin as Germany hosts the month-long UEFA European Football Championships, or “Euros” tournament with the city’s Olympic Stadium acting as the venue for several games, including the final match on July 14.
Among those at the 80,000-seat stadium for a recent Netherlands and Austria game, a Dutch fan who gave his first name, Michael, was attending his first ever Euros match.
“Coming to a Euro match to support my home country was a dream of mine since I was a little boy,” he said. “It’s one of the best feelings sitting together with everyone. I love hearing all the chants from each side.”
The day after the game, a group of singing Austrian fans overwhelmed a section of Charlottenburg’s Kantstraße, celebrating their victory over the Netherlands and paying no mind to oncoming traffic.
VisitBerlin, the city’s travel promotion site, estimates some 1.9 million tourists are among the 2.5 million visitors coming through town for soccer-related festivities. Berlin also has the largest delineated fan zone in the country — more than a mile long — in the vicinity of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag parliament building, attracting rowdy fans dressed in their country’s kits and colors.
But all over the city, at cafes, house parties, restaurants and biergartens, sports lovers cram in, wearing their nations’ football jerseys with pride, and spontaneously erupting in a cheer when a player scores. Their eyes are glued to huge screens that project the matches each evening, glancing away, only briefly, to drown their sorrows or celebrate their successes in a cold pint of German beer.
“There are events every day and always a place to hang out,” said 23-year-old Italian fan Andrea Karavello, as he clinked bottles with his friend Mattia Scrivantia at a beer garden in Mitte at the tail end of a game between France and Poland. The two, who are from Milan, say they don’t mind the crowds and sometimes raucous behavior.
For young Berliners such as 15-year-old student Matthias Hochleiter, the tournament is much more than sports, it’s a social event that fosters a strong sense of community. Hochleiter does not consider himself a huge soccer fan, but he enjoys the communal aspect, the inclusive spirit the tournament fosters, saying it creates a sense of belonging and unity.
“It’s very nice. I met many people from Poland and Austria,” he said. “I watch the games with my friends. We go to someone’s house and take our phones and tablets to the roof and watch together.”
While some Berliners have complained about too many people on the public transit system, bar owners and merchants are reaping the benefits. Liese Schubert, a bartender in the Kreuzberg district, says that if there is one thing that goes hand in hand with sports it’s beer, and she has sold a lot of it.
“It’s good for the shop all the time. Even in the mornings. People seem to gather with their friends as soon as we’re open, to talk and drink and get themselves excited.”
Nahid Rzayev is an employee at a fried chicken food stand at the riverside Holzmarkt outdoor dining compound in Friedrichshain. Originally from Azerbaijan, he is rooting for Turkey, which he favors for the cup. He has noticed a lot more customers than usual, with so many tourists and super fans flooding in. “As a worker with a fixed salary, it doesn’t benefit me. But if I speak in the name of my boss, I think it has a very positive effect,” Rzayev said.
Nearby, standing over the grill at Andolito’s taco stand, a cook who moved here from England says he has noticed the Euro Cup brought with it a rise in patriotic spirit. “It’s the one time [Germans] can come together and feel all right with being nationalistic,” he said, giving his first name, Antony.
Antony calls the Berlin soccer scene “more reserved” than what he is used to in the UK. To him, it is just Berlin, “but with more brightly colored football shirts.” As someone who loves an underdog story, Antony hopes Ukraine will take the cup home.
Hotel receptionist David Deingruber, 24, notes that Berlin is a multicultural city even without the games, but the liveliness factor has gone up in recent weeks. “I like the vibe,” he said. “People are happy with their trikot [sports jerseys] and flags and it’s fun.”
Deingruber does not typically follow soccer, but said he is watching the more prominent tournaments, and decides in the moment who to support. “I like how people from Albania are honking in cars and Turkey celebrates a lot,” he said. “I pick the team that is the most vibey.”
Susanne Haas, a 54-year-old resident of Bavaria said she comes to Berlin once or twice a year as a break from being an office manager for the German army. This time, she came to visit a Berlin-based friend she had met while deployed in Kosovo.
Hass views the sports event as a chance to “express national pride” and build community. “It makes a difference to have it here. It shows German pride. In America, there are flags everywhere. It’s nice to see it here,” Haas said.
Germany’s World War II history has made outward displays of nationalism unpopular, and the rise of the far right is again on people’s minds as the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) garnered a considerable 15.9 percent of votes in recent European Parliament elections. To many Berliners, the bonding power of sport can be a compelling — if temporary — antidote to swelling political woes.
“This togetherness is more welcome than ever,” said Andreas, a 26-year-old personal trainer, while catching an England-Slovenia game at a bar overlooking the Spree. “People cheering for the same team right now —particularly Germany — lets us forget about these [political] things for the moment.”
Andreas’s companion at the Mitte bar, 27-year-old financier Alex, is rooting for his native Romania. But he says the chance to rally behind a united cause, whichever of the 24 competing teams that may be, is the sort of social glue Germans may need in place of rising radicalism.
“I think it’s good for the city, but mostly for the country,” Alex said.
Not everyone agrees.
For Vide, a barista originally from Lund, Sweden, the crowds have caused less of a thrill than a nuisance and a safety concern. “I realize sometimes when coming back from work that there are more men in the streets and it makes me feel a little more unsafe,” he said. “When I go to bed, I hear people screaming outside.”
Vide expressed indifference towards soccer as a sport and disdain towards the fans it brings into the city. “It is not my crowd of people,” he said.
He also finds the national spirit that the Euros has brought to Germany out of sync with the German tendency to avoid flag waving and parades due to the country’s complicated past. “Germany has a history of patriotism leading to bad things,” he said. “It’s interesting to see the flags being waved in the open. Doing this is quite a statement. It is unusual.”
In the upscale, Prenzlauer Berg district, neighborhood cafés stream each game with a more hushed, restrained air, unlike that in Berlin’s central squares. Well-to-do families and young creatives go about business as normal during the warm days.
As long as 76-year-old Armin, a former coffee shop owner, soaks up the sunbeams in peace, the soccer excitement can still feel far off and doesn’t get in his way.
“I’ve been in this neighborhood 22 years, working, loving how international and artistic it is,” he said, sprawled out on a park bench. “The Euros make no difference to me. Here, I’m not disturbed.”
Reported by: Julia Chie, Francesca D’Agata, John Glab, Jackie Jauregui, Eleanor Jonas, Nicole Johnson, Amanda Marroquin, Michelle McConnell, Katherine Pappas, Mikaela Stone, and Sofia Welch.
