Calorie games

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Calorie games were sports competitions, primarily football games, that were played after the end of World War II . The name comes from the fact that the players were not rewarded with money, but primarily with food, but also with other natural products .

After the end of the war, sports clubs were banned in Germany. But as early as the late summer of 1945 - differently according to the occupation zone and occupation commander - new and re-established associations were gradually permitted, initially under strict Allied control. Different football leagues have been established over time, also depending on the respective allied sector. Thousands of spectators came to the first games after the end of the war.

In particular, the well-known club teams such as Fortuna Düsseldorf , 1. FC Kaiserslautern , FC Schalke 04 , 1. FC Nürnberg and FC Bayern Munich quickly got together again. As the players were, however, powerless and starved usually they tingelten regularly "through the villages" and carried friendlies against payment by kind and kind. These encounters were called "calorie, eating or potato games".

Matthes Mauritz , a former Fortuna Düsseldorf player , recalled: "We played three times a week between 1945 and 1947 and always drove to the villages as far as the Dutch border." The fee was furniture, cigars, half pigs and hot food given. "We were so full of ourselves that we often lost," said Mauritz. 1. FC Nürnberg also played for potatoes, cherries, meat, a three-tier cake, a bale of cloth, coal or even wire netting . Fritz Walter was quoted in 1953: "Wherever a ball or some jerseys, a sack of potatoes or the like beckoned, you won the booty by playing for it." Former Düsseldorf international Felix Zwolanowski reported in 1985: "In Bünde we played for one box of cigars per man, non-smokers got a pot of milk. In Bielefeld there was shirting, in Bremerhaven , a box of fish in Weißenthurm much strong beer that we fell down in rows. "In Wuppertal went u. a. the then German record champions FC Schalke 04 , Hamburger SV , Hertha BSC , VfR Mannheim , FSV Frankfurt and 1. FC Kaiserslautern .

“Calorie games” were also played in handball , as reported by Heinz-Georg Sievers , a former THW Kiel player .

The calorie games took place in West Germany until the summer of 1948. At that time the currency reform came into effect and the first German championship after the war was played.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dirk Bitzer: Storming for Germany. Campus Verlag, 2003, ISBN 978-3-593-37191-7 , p. 161 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  2. ^ Hans Dieter Baroth: kick-off in ruins. Football in the post-war period and the first years of the upper leagues South, Southwest, West, North and Berlin . Klartext, Essen 1990, ISBN 3-88474-454-2 .
  3. ↑ a b c Christoph Bausenwein: Fußball in Franken 2. BoD - Books on Demand, 2019, ISBN 978-3-924-27092-6 , p. 53 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  4. ↑ "Calorie Games" for natural produce. In: welt.de . May 7, 2015, accessed April 11, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Dimitrios Gavrilas: Football in the economic miracle - The development of football in West Germany 1945-1963. GRIN Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-656-05857-1 , p. 4 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  6. ↑ Eduard Hoffmann / Jürgen Nendza: From the Spielkaiser to Berti's boys. On the history of the soccer game in Germany . Landpresse, Weilerswist 1999, ISBN 3-930137-84-4 , p. 56 .
  7. ^ Peter Keller : Wuppertal on the ball. Amateur football 1945 to 1975 . Sutton, Erfurt 2007, ISBN 978-3-86680-167-7 , p. 7 .
  8. ↑ 100 years of handball. In: German Handball Federation. Retrieved April 11, 2019 .