During the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, eight members of the Palestinian terror group Black September attacked the Israeli men’s team. They shot two Israelis and took nine athletes hostage. The hostage-taking began early on 5 September and lasted about 20 hours. A political crisis staff on site worked to end it. Its members included the federal interior minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, the Bavarian interior minister Bruno Merk, Munich’s police chief Manfred Schreiber and the head of the organizing committee, Willi Daume. In the night to 6 September, a failed rescue attempt by the Bavarian police ended in disaster. All hostages, one police officer and five Palestinians died. A 2022 article by Eva Oberloskamp, published by the Federal Agency for Civic Education, describes the crisis management. The decision-makers konnten sich auf keine klar definierten Verantwortungs- und Entscheidungsfindungsstrukturen stützen, could rely on no clearly defined structures of responsibility and decision-making. The Bundeswehr had trained snipers, but German law did not allow it to be deployed. The police officers sent to Fürstenfeldbruck had evidently been inadequately trained. The GSG 9, a new police special unit, was founded in direct response to the attack. The legislative process was launched on 26 September 1972. In April 1973 Ulrich Wegener, the officer charged with setting it up, reported the unit ready for action.
sports
Who Closes the Pitch
The town of Griesheim has written rules for its grass football pitches, the Richtlinien zur Bespielbarkeit der Rasenplätze, rules on the playability of the grass pitches. The mayor names one town official, the Sportplatzbeauftragter, for all questions of playability. Each club names two contacts. On match days the decision should be made by 11 a.m. if possible, so that the visiting team can be told in time to save its travel costs. Die Entscheidung über die Bespielbarkeit des Platzes wird grundsätzlich abschließend durch den Beauftragten der Stadt Griesheim getroffen. As a rule, the town’s official makes the final decision. Once the match has started, the decision passes to someone else. Während des Spiels obliegt die Entscheidung über die Bespielbarkeit allein dem Schiedsrichter. During the match, the referee alone decides, and he must be aware of his responsibility for possible damage. The town’s official cannot stop a match in progress on his own. From 15 December to 28 February all grass pitches are closed. The official may decide on exceptions.
The referees of the Württemberg football association have guidance for the case where the two disagree. If the owner closes a pitch that the referee thinks is playable, the referee must walk the field and test it in football boots, with sprints, stops and jumps. He must then describe in detail in the match report how he examined the field.
After the Blackout in Rio
In the 2014 World Cup final against Argentina, the German midfielder Christoph Kramer collided with Ezequiel Garay and blacked out. He asked the referee: Schiri, ist das das Finale? Ref, is this the final? He stayed on the pitch for about fifteen more minutes with a concussion and was taken off after 30 minutes. He still cannot remember it. In June 2019 the German football association’s medical commission told the clubs that every professional in the first and second Bundesliga must have a neurological baseline screening at the yearly fitness examination. In March 2023 the clubs signed the first common DFL-Protokoll Kopfverletzungen, a protocol for head injuries. Head coaches, sporting directors and team doctors each signed it. It obliges club medical staff to attend emergency training every year. An appendix sets out the return of a player to training and matches after a concussion. The doctor who led the working group, Tim Meyer, said: Kopfverletzungen sind keine Bagatellen. Head injuries are not trifles.
Thirteen Coaches in a Century
Otto Nerz took over the German national football team in 1926. A hundred years later, Jürgen Klopp became the 13th Bundestrainer, national coach, in the history of the German Football Association, the DFB. He started on 15 August 2026. Sepp Herberger was in charge for almost 28 years, from 1936 to 1964, with a break of several years during and after the Second World War. Helmut Schön followed him until 1978. Joachim Löw coached the team for 15 years, from 2006 to 2021. In 2018 Germany went out of the World Cup in the group stage. It was the worst German result at any World Cup. The DFB kept Löw. On 3 July 2018 he thanked the association for das Vertrauen, das der DFB weiterhin geschlossen in mich setzt, the trust that the DFB, united, continued to place in him. Then the pace changed. In September 2023 Hansi Flick became the first national coach in DFB history to be dismissed. His successor, Julian Nagelsmann, asked to end his contract after the disappointing World Cup of 2026.
The Bronze Badge at the Pool Gate
The German swimming badge in bronze is still widely called the Freischwimmer, the free swimmer. To earn it, a child must swim for 15 minutes, or at least 200 meters, dive, and jump from the starting block or the one-meter board. The badge is often the condition for going to the pool alone, without an adult. By June 2026 the leisure pool in Werl, in North Rhine-Westphalia, admitted children aged 7 to 11 alone only if they held the bronze badge. Children aged 12 and older could come without an adult. Non-swimmers could use only the non-swimmers’ pool. The Federal Association of German Swimming Masters wants children under 16 without the bronze badge to enter outdoor pools only with a parent. Its president, Peter Harzheim, called the debate a wake-up call to parents. The Green politician Schahina Gambir warned that such a rule could have an indirectly discriminatory effect.
Planning the Mountain Tour
The German Alpine Club, the Deutscher Alpenverein (DAV), has more than 1.3 million members. It keeps statistics on their mountain accidents. One category is the Blockierung, the blockage. It covers emergencies in which climbers or hikers are not hurt but must call mountain rescue, for example because they are lost or too exhausted to go on. In August 2020 the DAV wrote that blockages lassen sich durch eine präzise Selbsteinschätzung und akribische Tourenplanung relativ gut vermeiden, can be avoided quite well through precise self-assessment and meticulous tour planning. It appealed to mountaineers to prepare especially carefully for their tours and to plan defensively.
Words for How a Win Was Earned
German football talk rarely stops at the score. It also says how the win came about.
ein verdienter Sieg — A deserved win. DWDS gives the example of a cup final that ended mit einem knappen, aber verdienten Sieg, with a narrow but deserved win.
ein glücklicher Sieg — A lucky win. DWDS lists it among the usual ways to describe a win.
der Arbeitssieg — A work win. Duden marks it as sports jargon: a win gained only with effort against an opponent who is actually weaker.
der dreckige Sieg — A dirty win. DWDS: a game won despite a weak performance of one’s own, a win that was not deserved. Coaches often say their team needs one now and then.
der Dusel — Duden: unverdientes Glück, undeserved luck. Since the 1970s the phrase Bayern-Dusel has been used about late, lucky wins of Bayern Munich.
In October 2008 Bayern won luckily at Karlsruhe. The reporter of the club’s own channel, fcb.tv, asked Uli Hoeneß: Haben wir heute wieder die Dusel-Bayern erlebt? Did we see the lucky Bayern again today? Hoeneß answered: Sie müssen sich in der nächsten Woche einen neuen Job suchen! You will have to look for a new job next week. He added that the question would have been understandable as the seventh question. From the club’s own reporter as the first question, he called it hirnverbrannt, brainless. The club’s media director said the reporter had only been standing in. He added that the young man would probably not be used again.
The Tour Off the Air
In 1997 Jan Ullrich won the Tour de France. He is still the only German to have done so. In 2003 his duel with Lance Armstrong drew more than nine million viewers on ARD. Then the doping cases came. On 18 July 2007 a positive test of the German rider Patrik Sinkewitz became known. That same day ARD and ZDF stopped their live coverage of the Tour. ZDF’s editor-in-chief Nikolaus Brender said: Wir wollen einen sauberen Sport. We want a clean sport. After 2011 both public broadcasters dropped the race altogether. ARD only announced its return in January 2015. In November 2023 Ullrich admitted it outright for the first time: Ich habe gedopt. I doped.
The Staff Decide at the Pool
The city pools of Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance have a Haus- und Badeordnung, house and bathing rules. The version in force from 9 May 2026 says: Das Aufsichtspersonal und weitere Beauftragte des Bades üben gegenüber allen Badegästen das Hausrecht aus. The supervising staff and other agents of the pool hold the Hausrecht over all guests. This is the right to decide who may stay on the premises. Den Anweisungen des Personals oder weiterer Beauftragter der Anlage ist Folge zu leisten. The instructions of the staff must be followed. A guest who breaks the rules can be sent out of the pool at once. Die Benutzung der Sprunganlagen ist nur nach Freigabe durch das Aufsichtspersonal gestattet. The diving boards may be used only after the supervising staff have opened them. The school swimming pools of the district of Kelheim in Bavaria say much the same. Das Personal trifft die hierzu nötigen Anordnungen, denen stets Folge zu leisten ist. The staff give the necessary orders, and these must always be followed.
The Bathing Rules
On 28 July 1912 the landing stage at the end of the pier in Binz, on the island of Rügen, broke. Sixteen people drowned, two of them children. At the time, according to the German life-saving association DLRG, about five thousand people drowned each year and few people could swim. The DLRG was founded in Leipzig on 19 October 1913. Today it teaches its Baderegeln, bathing rules. Some of them, as written in DLRG training material:
Nicht kopfüber in unbekannte Gewässer springen! — Do not dive headfirst into unknown waters.
Nicht mit vollem Magen schwimmen gehen! — Do not go swimming on a full stomach.
Nicht alkoholisiert baden gehen! — Do not go swimming after drinking alcohol.
Überanstrengungen vermeiden, eigene Kräfte nicht überschätzen! — Avoid overexertion and do not overestimate your strength.
Gewässer bei Gewitter sofort verlassen! — Leave the water at once in a thunderstorm.
A DLRG group in Bad Salzuflen turned the rules into a quiz for children. Für uns ist wichtig, dass die Kinder die Bedeutung der Regeln verstehen und auch in eigenen Worten beschreiben können. What matters to us is that the children understand the meaning of the rules and can describe them in their own words.