In November 2003 Bayern Munich lost a league match at Schalke 04. Afterwards the goalkeeper Oliver Kahn said: Eier, wir brauchen Eier. Eggs, we need eggs. Eier is slang for testicles, and here for courage and fight. The line names no one. Kahn said wir, we. The line is probably his most famous saying. In 2016 the broadcaster Sky Sport News HD used it in a promotional spot built on legendary football sayings. In November 2022 Kahn, by then Bayern’s chief executive, alluded to it again before Germany played Spain at the World Cup.
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The Captain as the Team’s Envoy
On 2 September 2024 the national coach Julian Nagelsmann explained why Joshua Kimmich would captain the German national team. He described the role this way: Er ist ein Abgesandter der Mannschaft und platziert die Meinung des Teams bei uns. He is an envoy of the team and brings the team’s opinion to us. He also gave a reason for the choice: Wenn Josh etwas anders sieht, dann spricht er das offen, ehrlich und direkt an. When Josh sees something differently, he says so openly, honestly and directly. According to Nagelsmann, Kimmich had set a benchmark at the European Championship on home soil. Kimmich, Antonio Rüdiger and Kai Havertz formed the team council, the Mannschaftsrat, together with four other senior players.
War as a Continuation of Policy
Der Krieg ist eine blosse Fortsetzung der Politik mit andern Mitteln. War is merely a continuation of policy by other means. Carl von Clausewitz wrote this in Vom Kriege, On War, published in 1832.
Clausewitz did not treat war as a separate technical field. He wrote that war is not only a political act but a real political instrument, “eine Fortsetzung des politischen Verkehrs, ein Durchführen desselben mit andern Mitteln”, a continuation of political dealings, carried out by other means.
Decisions at the Lowest Possible Level
Reinhard Mohn took over the Bertelsmann company in Gütersloh from his father in 1947. Under his leadership, it grew into an international media group. In talks collected in 1984, he said that every decision should be made auf einer möglichst niedrigen Ebene in der Führungspyramide, at the lowest possible level of the leadership pyramid.
To keep large companies flexible, he named decentralization, profit centers and delegation. Wir müssen Ziele setzen und erläutern. We must set goals and explain them. Mohn also said that the world of work must offer Freiraum für eigenverantwortliches Handeln, room to act on one’s own responsibility.
“Go Out and Play Football”
Geht’s raus und spielt’s Fußball. Go out and play football. It is one of the best-known sentences of Franz Beckenbauer. Sky Sport lists it among his famous quotes as his tactical instruction as a coach.
FC Bayern records a longer version and places it in the dressing room before the World Cup final of July 1990: Geht’s raus, habt Spaß und spielt’s Fußball. Go out, have fun and play football. Germany won the final against Argentina, 1 to 0. The exact wording differs between the sources.
Everything Is Interaction
Alles ist Wechselwirkung. Everything is interaction. Alexander von Humboldt wrote this sentence in 1803. The researcher Tobias Kraft says of it: “Wenn es eine Humboldt-Formel gibt, dann ist es dieser Satz.” If there is a Humboldt formula, it is this sentence.
Humboldt wanted to explore the larger connections behind each single observation. The Humboldt scholar Ottmar Ette calls his science a Vernetzungswissenschaft, a science of connections.
The Whole and Its Parts
Das Ganze ist mehr als die Summe seiner Teile. The whole is more than the sum of its parts. This is the guiding principle of Gestalt psychology. Its more precise form is Das Ganze ist etwas anderes als die Summe seiner Teile, the whole is something other than the sum of its parts.
Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler worked together on the theory from 1910, first in Frankfurt and later in Berlin.
The sentence is often credited to Aristotle. In his Metaphysics, Aristotle wrote that the whole is something besides the parts.
I Am This Nobody
In 1759 Gotthold Ephraim Lessing answered a claim that nobody would deny that the German stage owed much of its first improvement to Professor Johann Christoph Gottsched. In the 17th of his Briefe, die neueste Literatur betreffend, dated 16 February 1759, he wrote: Ich bin dieser Niemand; ich leugne es gerade zu. I am this nobody. I deny it outright. Es wäre zu wünschen, daß sich Herr Gottsched niemals mit dem Theater vermengt hätte. It would be desirable if Mr. Gottsched had never got involved with the theater.
Enough Words
In the prelude to Goethe’s Faust, a theater director talks with his poet and his comic actor about the play they must put on. He cuts the discussion short. Der Worte sind genug gewechselt, / Laßt mich auch endlich Taten sehn! / Indes ihr Komplimente drechselt, / Kann etwas Nützliches geschehn. Enough words have been exchanged, let me at last see deeds! While you are turning compliments, something useful could be done. The first two lines are often quoted.
Serving the Matter
On 7 November 1917 Max Weber gave his lecture Wissenschaft als Beruf, science as a vocation, to students in a Munich bookshop. In it he said: „Persönlichkeit“ auf wissenschaftlichem Gebiet hat nur der, der rein der Sache dient. In the field of science, only the person who serves the matter purely has personality.