Moving towards a "New Patriotism"?

Bachelorarbeit von Philipp Scherzer

Abstract:

The 4th of July 1954 marks a crucial event in German history. With a 3:2 victory over a Hungarian team that had not been beaten for four whole years West Germany had won the F.I.F.A. World Cup for the first time. Helmut Rahn’s winning goal instantly revived the spirit of an entire country that not even a decade before had experienced huge devastation in the Second World War. A general sentiment that ‘we are somebody again’ began to overlie the whole population and furthermore helped rebuild a confidence that had been tainted by the twelve years under the Nazi regime. Since the final took place at Wankdorf Stadium in the capital of Switzerland, this triumph went on to be remembered in people’s minds as the ‘Miracle of Bern’. Only one year later the West German Wirtschaftswunder (engl: ‘economic miracle’) began and even nowadays Germany’s Ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder counts this success towards the most important post-war events in the country’s history.

In 2003 then, German director Sönke Wortmann, in collaboration with the German Football Association (D.F.B.), was the first to attempt a full reconstruction of this event in the extent of a feature film. His movie, conveniently called The Miracle of Bern, tells the story of eleven-year old Matthias (‘Mattes’) Lubanski (Louis Klamroth) and his by the war emotionally devastated father Richard (Peter Lohmeyer), who are brought together by West Germany’s unexpected World Cup victory.

While there had been a certain fear that Wortmann might destroy what had already become a myth in the minds of many Germans, he himself believed that the film was necessary in order to keep the legend alive for a younger generation, who had no direct connection to or never even heard of this renowned event. In the end, Wortmann’s film became a huge success in Germany drawing more than three million people to the box office and thus making it one of the most successful films of the year over the whole of Europe. One has to say, however, that some critical voices emerged as well. In his review, Helmke, for example, claims The Miracle of Bern to be the ‘most American German film of all time’. He also states that in contrast to other German films about football such as Fußball ist unser Leben and Nordkurve, which primarily intend to depict the milieu and life of the teams’ supporters, Wortmann’s predominant concern is to enhance the sporting triumph of the West German national team into a myth. According to Helmke, this has never been attempted before in German cinema, but of which there are plenty examples in the United States. As Briley explains:

While objective class, racial, and gender (…) divisions were growing in America during the 1980s, [nostalgic sports films] emphasized a longing for a mythical past – usually in the 1950s – in which Americans were united in a consensus based upon sustained economic growth and whose security was threatened by the evil Soviet Union.

Still, whilst Helmke remains rather vague with regard to his comparison of The Miracle of Bern to what might be called the ‘classic’ American sports film, I would like to provide a closer analysis of the subject matter. The aim of this dissertation is to critically examine Wortmann’s film in comparison to three successful U.S. sports films of the 1980s – namely Field of Dreams, The Natural and Hoosiers. I have chosen these films, as they contain many of the traits characteristic of this ‘hybrid sub-genre’. Due to the restrictions of this paper, I would like to cast my focus on the following major topics: The Success of the Underdog, The Focus on the Star Player, The Father/Son-Redemptive Plot, The Role of the Supportive Woman, The Issue of National Identity.

The chapters of this dissertation are structured according to these five contextual points. In compliance with my research, I would furthermore like to suggest possible reasons why Wortmann might have orientated himself on a particularly American model in order to approach a subject that could not be more German.

Table of Contents:

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Chapter 4: The ‘Exclusion of the Feminine’ and the Role of the Supportive Woman:

Now that we have seen the resemblance of the roles of fathers and sons in both the chosen American sports films and The Miracle of Bern, it is neither less important to cast a glance at the roles of women in the 1980s Hollywood sports film compared to Wortmann’s movie. Do they also share similarities?

Baker states that ‘[t]he competitive opportunities offered to male athletes in most sports films justify patriarchal authority by naturalizing the idea of men as more assertive and determining, while women generally appear in the secondary role of fan and dependent supporter.’ This rather passive function of the female protagonists already comes to the fore if we have a look at the character of Iris Gaines (Glenn Close) in Levinson’s The Natural. Throughout the film, Iris is frequently shown as the girl/woman who supports Roy’s quest to become ‘the best there ever was’. When Roy, for example, tells her that the Chicago Cubs have invited him for a tryout, she assures him that he will make it. Furthermore, later on in the film Iris appears as an angel-like figure in the audience during one of Roy’s baseball games (see Plate 4.1). Here, by standing up she causes Roy to hit the winning home run of the game and when Roy later asks her why she did it, she confirms her supportive role by answering that she did not want to see him fail. In the end of the film, we are then presented with perhaps the most vital image of Iris in her role as passive mother in support of her husband when she watches Roy play catch with his son in the cornfield.

Similarly, the role of the supportive wife can also be discovered in the character of Annie Kinsella (Amy Madigan) in Field of Dreams. Whilst Annie throughout the film comes across as a confident woman who is able to stand up for her beliefs, her main function appears to be the support of her husband Ray in his supernatural quest following the voice he has been hearing. This can not only be seen in the fact that she literally seems to share her husband’s dreams, but also when she defends Ray’s cause against her brother and his fellow debt collectors. Rowe confirms this when he writes that ‘the gender-inflected gap between men and women over their romantic attachment to sports is overcome by the former turning a personal hobby into a family business and the latter’s „stand by your man” indulgence of her partner’s passions.’ Plus, her frequent positioning in the frame either arm in arm or very close to her husband further emphasizes her role as the supportive wife (see Plate 4.2).

Also, according to Kibby, ‘Hoosiers creates a nostalgic world where Americans were unified by a common set of values, women were passive supporters of the active man’s quest for success (…).’ In the film, this theme is clearly highlighted in the transformation of the assistant principal Myra Fleener. In the beginning of the film, Myra is established as antagonist and poses a threat to hegemonic masculinity in the fact that she requests Norman to stay away from the team’s former star player Jimmy because she wants him to escape the small town life through higher education and not basketball. Thus, Myra stands in total opposition to Norman Dale and the townspeople’s goal of bringing the local high school’s basketball team to success. What is more, she underlines this role by dismissing the value of basketball to the people and further disapproves of the fact that a basketball hero is almost treated like a god in Hickory. Myra’s antagonistic role, however, appears to reach its peak when she has to tell Norman that the townspeople have requested a referendum on his removal as coach after the first games have not brought the hoped-for achievement.

In the following town meeting, though, Myra makes the first step in her transformation towards the more traditional female role as passive supporter of the male pursuit of success. Here, she steps up to the podium and pleads to the townspeople that it would be a big mistake to let coach Dale go and with Jimmy announcing his return it also becomes apparent that she cannot hinder her protégé from identifying with Norman as a father figure. Furthermore, a crucial scene that indicates Myra’s transformation towards the supportive woman takes place when she and Norman take a walk together and Norman confesses his love for Myra and kisses her. After that, Myra appears to be the total opposite of what she used to be. Not the ‘frustrated spinster’ anymore, she then fully takes on the traditional passive role of female characters and becomes an ardent follower of the Huskers basketball team. We can clearly discover this during the final match of the film when Myra is shown in a variety of close-up shots, in which she buries her face in her hands because she cannot stand the tension as the game unfolds. Her journey towards becoming the supportive wife is then completed with a relieved smile that she exchanges with Norman after the Huskers have won the championship (see Plate 4.3).

If we focus our attention on The Miracle of Bern now, we find that there are two major female characters that we have to compare this to: Annette Ackermann and Christa Lubanski. As we will see, similar to Myra Fleener in Hoosiers, both women first appear as a threat to hegemonic masculinity, but are later confined to the more traditional female roles that Iris Gaines and Annie Kinsella occupy throughout the other two American films.

As Bühler states, many traditional gender and family roles had begun to crumble as a result of the Second World War. In The Miracle of Bern, this becomes particularly apparent in the character of Christa Lubanski. Being the archetype of the German Trümmerfrau, Christa is a woman that has learned to take care of the family all by herself while her husband was in the war. Her role as workingwoman is also confirmed by the way she looks. In contrast to Annette Ackermann, one can clearly see the years of work that have strained her appearance. Similar to her husband Richard her costumes often make her blend in with the rather dim background of the Ruhr Area and the fact that she wears no make-up and often has an apron above her dress emphasizes her role as Trümmerfrau even more.