The 2016 Rio Olympic football final entered the PK battle, German goalscorer Nils Petersen who participated as an overage player was saved, Brazil won Germany, and finally won the coveted football gold medal, although it has the reputation of "football kingdom" and won the World Cup five times, Brazilian football in the century-old Olympic history has always missed, and before the dream came true in 2016, 20 countries have won the gold medal before Brazil. The Germans won once, but not by the "German team" we knew, but by another German team – East Germany.
The Germans in the history of Olympic football performed well, just like the German football team in our impression, just looking at the history of Olympic football, what is more conspicuous is the vanished regime "German Democratic Republic" (GDR) football team, with the end of the Cold War, the world gradually forgot that the earth was divided for half a century, and with the reunification of Germany, East Germany was directly forgotten, including their football.
The German's only Olympic football gold medal
After the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, the country was divided by the great powers, and because the United States, Britain and France disagreed with the Soviet Union, the occupied Germany after the war ushered in a real division, the West-supported Germany was called "West Germany" because of its geographical location, and the "GDR" supported by the Soviet Communist regime was called "East Germany", and the attitude and culture of the development of football between the two Germans were completely different, and the differences caused by this 40-year period affected German football after reunification.
The period of German division marked the opposition between democracy and the communist world, with the construction of the Berlin wall, the barriers are more obvious, although the same Germans, living in different atmospheres, East German football is like other communist countries, led and distributed by the government, the organization of the military and police worker system deeply affects the domestic football ecology, and East Germany because it is close to West Germany, the ruling regime is afraid of being taken to compare the thriving West German football at all times, deliberately making fine adjustments in many places, resulting in East German football is obviously very powerful, It was unknown in world football, and in modern times, with the reunification of the two Germanys, it has completely declined and been forgotten.
In the 1974 World Cup in Germany (in fact, West Germany was hosted), the participating countries held a draw ceremony, the landlord West Germany and the (first promotion) East Germany actually drew in the same group, it is a joke played by God, compared to other divided countries, the relationship between the two Germany is indescribably ambiguous, several Olympic Games after the war, the two Germany participated in the name of the "German United" until 1968, and the time of the sports division was even only half of the political division. The host country West Germany is powerful, while East Germany is a "mystery": before the Seoul Olympics, professional athletes were not allowed to participate in the Olympics, most football players could not participate because of their professional status, and communist countries took advantage of this, and a large number of athletes from Eastern European communist countries benefited from "socialism" and swept Olympic medals with "amateur status", and the East German team was not surprised.
Germany 1974 World Cup matches, West Germany (left), East Germany (right)
More powerful than described in the history books
Munich 1972: Bronze medal
Montreal 1976: Gold medal
Moscow 1980 Olympics: Silver medal
Looking at the Olympic football results in the 1970s, the Communist World that can send the strongest team to sweep the gold list, the Western world can only play with college students and amateur players, the strength is far less than the real national team, in fact, these gold medalists such as the Czech Republic, Poland are the world football powers in the 1970s, the Czech Republic even won the 1976 European Championship, in contrast, the East Germany that won the medal three times should be stronger than the historical record.
The main reason why East German football will be underestimated comes from the deliberate suppression of the official, when the two Germans formed the "German United" to participate in the Olympics, the representative members of the "German United" were not selected from all German amateurs, but West German amateur representatives played a game with the East German team, and the winning side went abroad to participate in the Olympics; During the split of Germany, public opinion repeatedly wanted East and West Germany to play one international friendly match, but the East German government did not want to (afraid of losing), and for decades East Germany only communicated with the communist countries of the Iron Curtain camp, and the East German football team was the super football power of the communist world.
The only football match in the history of international competitions between East and West Germany
In 1974, the draw before the match finally gave the two German football representatives a chance to compete, and the rest is known as history, the third match of the group stage was held in Hamburg City East and West Germany, although West Germany made more offensive points, and in the end East Germany scored the only one point to win the match.
West German "Football Emperor" Franz Beckenbauer (left), "East German Footballer" Bernd Bransch (right)
West Germany, which was in its heyday with a strong lineup, actually lost to East Germany, which surprised the Western world, but Seon lost his horse and knew that it was not a blessing, and the politically significant defeat completely woke up the group of stars in West Germany, and more importantly, they avoided the "death group" of the second cycle, avoiding Brazil and the Netherlands, and West Germany finally reached the final and won the king.
West Germany, which was the 1972 European champion and the 1974 world champion, lost to the "same country" East Germany in the international competition, and the bronze medal in the 1972 Olympic Games and the gold medal in the 1976 Olympics later seem that the East German football team is really stronger than expected.
The 1990 Italian World Cup champion is West Germany, the strength of the West German team during the event is obvious to all, the lineup to the tactics is good, but before the last game of the qualifying round, can not play a decent level, the points are not ahead of the West German team has been criticized at home, but East Germany originally held the last game to advance, the result was tricky, West Germany won the last game of the qualification ball scenery promotion, East Germany is in Vienna "eat pot stickers", swallowed up Italy without chance, with the reunification of the two Germany at the end of the year, The world will never again see the East German team on the international stage. In fact, this was the beginning of the decline of East German (regional) football, which continues to this day.
Unification caused East German football to begin its real decay
October 3, 1990 is the unification day of the end of the division of the two Germanys, the previous month (September) European Cup qualification kicked out, countries sprinted to the 1992 European Nations Championships held by Sweden, the draw ceremony at the time of the East German government had not decided to "close business", so East Germany still drew lots and lined up the event, because the country disappeared, the subsequent events were canceled, but the East German regime was still in the international week in September, so the qualification match and the Belgian tournament became an international friendly match, and originally a volleyball was required. From West Germany and East Germany to play a friendly match, highlighting the political integration of the two Germanys, the East German government did not obviously push back this time, but the masses reacted excessively, and finally canceled, and the football match with Belgium became the last battle in East German history, and it was a swan song in front of and behind the scenes.
The East German football league lived longer than the East German regime, because the reunification of the two Germany was decided in March 1990, the season was nearing the end, the political territory was simple, the cultural relics system was of course difficult to merge and unify, East Germany was integrated into West Germany, the question of the ownership of football clubs became a problem, and finally decided to play the East German League (Oberliga) for another year, and use the ranking to decide how to join the Bundesliga in West Germany.
The top 2 of the last East German league were merged into the Bundesliga, the 3-6 places were merged into the German second division, and the last two were relegated to the regional league
The way to discuss a merger on the scale of the East and West German leagues was fair, but it caused unexpected confusion in the future. The 7-12 places in the East German league must pass the play-offs to join the German second division, which means that the 7-12 places result is to lose the play-offs, not only do you not have the opportunity to join the next season's German second division, but you will even lose the current situation of professional clubs (most countries only have 1-2 leagues called professional, the team and players in insurance, contracts, financial income are quite different from amateurs), the unified predecessor East German second division teams do not even have a chance to fight, directly fall into the future regional league (amateur league), more importantly, Qualified East German players would not have played in the last league at all, and the summer before the start of the season, the coveted Western teams had already struck, and the league was in a dilemma of running out of top talent.
After the merger of the two German football leagues, because of the different financial situation, the rich West Germany can naturally poach and attract good players to "go west", without the support of the former East German battalion system, the team from East Germany faces the most fundamental dilemma of capitalism - no money, not only the loss of talent, but also financial autonomy is difficult, and then the potential rookies from East Germany "go west" when they are teenagers, more than half of the teams in the former East Germany encountered financial crises after reunification, and after a few years, they "occasionally" entered the Bundesliga and were quickly relegated, and in recent years they fell into the third division. Today, 30 years after reunification, the football culture of East and West Germany is still not unified, but East Germany has not produced football talents in the past.
As early as before the 1996 European Cup, because of the defeat of the 1994 World Cup, the German media began to emphasize the importance of youth training, and also pointed out that after German reunification, the "golden generation" of the old West Germany was aging, and there was a problem of not connecting, and after reunification, several famous players of the former East Germany, who could support the main force, that is, Matthias Sammer and Ulf Kirsten, played a solid defensive football and let Germany win the 1996 European Championship. Samore played like a king of the ball, and won the Ballon d'Or that year, these brilliance did not last, and also led to a group of veterans who won the Italian World Cup to continue to occupy the main force until the 1998 World Cup in France, and the cup appeared old and defeated.
To say that the defeat is like a mountain, the German team in the 2000 European Championship is more appropriate, can not win Romania, but lost to England and Portugal, lack of world-class players, can not hold the opponent high-speed counterattack, so that Germany is considered to fall out of the European first team, the following year 2001 experienced the "Munich Massacre" - England away Munich against Germany to achieve a 5-1 historical victory, let the young Englishman Michael Owen forcibly take the hat-trick, German football officially fell to the bottom.
Perhaps it is the realization that the skills are not as good as others, Taiwanese fans are impressed by the 2002 World Cup, the German team is not optimistic at all, playing a steady defense, no exciting attack, actually passed all the way to the final, first sign luck is true, but that year's main defense, the style is indeed suitable for large international competitions, and finally created the name of goalkeeper Oliver Kahn, and also held Michael Ballack, in fact, the German team 3 goalkeepers, Only 9 of the 20 national players are from West Germany, including Barak, Bernd Schneider and Carsten Jancker. Accept the cultivation and cultivation of the East German system, physical exercise is more fierce, from the 2002 World Cup German team style analysis, does explain why so many "East Germans" were used as national players that year.
The well-known teams of the former East German era, it is difficult to stand in the 2nd division, after deducting the merger, 2 teams directly "logged in" to the Bundesliga, through the promotion to the Bundesliga former East German regional teams, only "4 times" in 30 seasons, only 5 teams have played in the Bundesliga, Dresden Generator joined the Bundesliga for a few more years before being relegated, and never promoted to the Bundesliga, Hansa Rostock was relegated as soon as he joined, but in 1995 he was promoted back to stay in the Bundesliga for 10 years, becoming the former East German region. For most of the 30 years, the Bundesliga did not have a single East German team.
THE 2022/23 BUNDESLIGA STANDINGS ARE LED BY 1 FC UNION BERLIN, A TEAM THAT WAS VERY INCONSPICUOUS WHEN THE TWO GERMANYS MERGED, AND EVEN ALMOST COLLAPSED SEVERAL TIMES, AND HAS BEEN PROMOTED TO THE BUNDESLIGA IN 2019 FOR FOUR SEASONS OF STEADY OUTPUT.
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The active players born in the former East Germany are more than 30 years old, after all, it has been 32 years since the reunification of Germany (1990/10/03), and in modern times more people discuss the differences in the development of football in the former East and West Germany, more is the decline of football culture in the East Germany, from the brain drain, the treasure house of youth talents has been emptied, and finally everyone goes to the western big cities to play football, the most famous German star from the former East Germany, absolutely Toni Kroos, who was born on January 4, 1990, Although the two Germans were reunified within a few months, his father, a standard East German, a football coach, moved his family when Bayern Munich invited Tony Kroos for his son's future.
Tony Cross was born in East Germany a few months before German reunification
Nils Petersen relied on Megatron German Bundesliga, briefly joined Bayern Munich as a striker, and joined the German Olympic team at the Rio 2016 Olympics, but unfortunately was saved in the key fifth PK in the final, leaving Germany only in silver, the reason why he is mentioned in the first paragraph is because he is so far "the last German football player from the former East Germany", and there may not be the next one. Before the 2018 World Cup, the 29-year-old Nils Petersen was selected for the initial squad and was awarded playing time in the friendly match, but was not taken to Russia.
There are very few active German football players born before reunification (after all, that means at least 32 years old, like Neuer), purely identified by their place of birth, and no one from the "former East Germany" geographical area is actually from the 26-man squad announced by Germany for the Qatar World Cup! Thirty years after reunification, the difference in football levels between East and West Germany has widened.