In 2022, the German registers of associations listed 615,759 associations. Sport is the largest field, with 22 percent of all civil society organizations. In 2024, 36.7 percent of people aged 14 and over did voluntary work, about 27 million people. In 2019, the share had been 39.7 percent. Almost a quarter of volunteers give three to five hours a week.
sports
The Assistant Becomes National Coach
Helmut Schön became assistant to the national football coach Sepp Herberger in 1956. After eight years as assistant, he succeeded him in 1964. Jupp Derwall was assistant coach of the national team from 1970 and national coach from 1978 to 1984. Joachim Löw joined the leadership of the national team under Jürgen Klinsmann in 2004 and became national coach in 2006. Hansi Flick was Löw’s assistant from 2006 to 2014 and became national coach in 2021.
Saturday at 3:30
Bundesliga matchdays used to kick off always on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Today four or five of the nine matches still start at that time. From the 2017–18 season, five matches a season were moved to Monday evening. Fans protested. On 19 February 2018, Eintracht Frankfurt played RB Leipzig on a Monday. Fans planned to drown out the referee’s whistle with up to 5,000 vuvuzelas, and the club expected only 32,000 spectators, although 43,000 tickets had been sold. In November 2018 the league confirmed that from the 2021–22 season no first-division match would kick off on a Monday.
Two Months for the Analysis
Germany went out of the 2018 World Cup in the group stage. The last group match was on 27 June 2018. The national coach, Joachim Löw, withdrew from public view. About two months after the exit, on 29 August 2018, he presented his analysis. He named two main mistakes, among them his reliance on possession football. Das war fast schon arrogant von mir. That was almost arrogant of me. In 2024 Löw said that not stepping down after 2018 had been a mistake: Das war sicherlich ein Fehler.
The Table Has Its Right
The international rules of Skat were adopted at the German Skat Congress in Halle in 1998. A card counts as played when it lies fully on the table. Eine (aus)gespielte Karte darf nicht zurückgenommen werden. A card that has been played may not be taken back. Bidding, passing and the announcement of the game cannot be withdrawn either. Chess has the same principle. A player who deliberately touches one of his own pieces must move it, if it can be moved. In German this is the Berührt-geführt-Regel, the touched-moved rule. The card players’ version is the saying Tisch hat sein Recht, the table has its right.
The Members Want the Floor
At Bayern Munich’s annual general meeting on 25 November 2021, a member had moved that the club end its sponsorship by Qatar Airways. The motion was not put to a vote. The vice president said: Ich werde hier nicht zulassen, dass wir über rechtswidrige Anträge abstimmen. I will not allow us to vote here on unlawful motions. Many members missed an open debate on Qatar and human rights. They chanted Wir sind Bayern – und ihr nicht, we are Bayern, and you are not. After midnight, president Herbert Hainer closed the list of speakers, and the meeting ended amid protests. The member who had made the motion later reported that Hainer had called him.
Respectless Reporting
On 19 October 2018, the leaders of Bayern Munich held a press conference against the media’s criticism of their team. The chairman, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, cited the first article of the Basic Law, that human dignity is inviolable. Wir werden uns diese herabwürdigende, hämische Berichterstattung nicht mehr bieten lassen. We will no longer put up with this degrading, gloating reporting. The president, Uli Hoeneß, said: Wir werden keine respektlose Berichterstattung weiterhin akzeptieren. We will not accept respectless reporting any longer. The public answered with mockery. The trade magazine Horizont headlined Mia san Mimimi, a play on the club motto Mia san mia.
The Hair Sample
In 2000 it was agreed that Christoph Daum, coach of Bayer Leverkusen, would become national coach in the summer of 2001. On 1 October 2000, the Bayern manager Uli Hoeneß hinted in a newspaper that Daum used drugs. On 9 October Daum gave a hair sample of his own accord. Ich tue das, weil ich ein absolut reines Gewissen habe. I am doing this because I have an absolutely clear conscience. On 20 October he was told the result from the Institute of Forensic Medicine of the University of Cologne. It showed cocaine. Leverkusen dismissed him without notice, and Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder, then acting head of the DFB, declared: Der Handschlag-Vertrag mit Daum ist gegenstandslos. The handshake contract with Daum is void.
One Team Across the Aisle
FC Bundestag is the football club of the members of the Bundestag. It was founded in the 1960s, and members of all political camps play in it. In 2018 the CDU member Johannes Steiniger wrote that members of otherwise competing parties form one team across party lines. In March 2024, the club’s members’ meeting declared membership of the AfD incompatible with membership of the club. In March 2025, the Berlin regional court declared that resolution void on formal grounds. The club’s statutes allow any member of the Bundestag to join, and a resolution of the members’ meeting is not enough to change that.
Only the Captain
Since the 2024–25 season, German football has applied one rule at every level, from the professional leagues to youth football. Nur der Teamkapitän darf sich nähern und den Referee ansprechen. Only the team captain may approach the referee and speak to him. A player who ignores this is cautioned with a yellow card. If the goalkeeper is captain, a field player is named before the match. A DFB referee official gave the reason. The referee no longer has to talk with several players at once while under pressure.