Kicking Through the Wall: Football, Division and Entanglement in Postwar Berlin

Seldom is the German capital referred to as a "Fußballstadt" ("football-city").When Berlin and football are mentioned together, themes of corruption, hooliganism, the Stasi, and scandal dominate.And yet, Berlin holds a rich footballing history that dates back to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and has long played an important role in the lives of Berliners as spaces for sociability.In the postwar period, two divergent states emerged, each with their own competing structures of football.Whereas in the Federal Republic football remained an autonomous but not apolitical space, it was explicitly politicized in East Germany.As an important form of "soft power" during the Cold War, the people's game reveals the extent to which the Iron Curtain was much more porous and elastic than the imagery of the Berlin Wall suggests.Rather than view football as "war without the fighting", a microcosm that interprets the German and Cold War past as simplistic, reductive, and dichotomous, this dissertation analyzes the sport's inherent dynamism that presented Berliners on both sides of the Wall with unique spaces for social interaction.Although both German states tried to use the sport to assert their own interests, this dissertation argues that football simultaneously provided fans with a relatively free space authorities could not effectively control, opening the opportunity for German-German interactions.Revealing these spaces of German entanglement provides a iii nuanced interpretation for the ways division was experienced, constructed, and negotiated during the Cold War and after the Wende.iv Acknowledgements After a match between Hertha BSC and Nürnberg, I overheard a teenage son describe his thoughts of the city to his father: "Berlin ist kein Fußballstadt."I heard this expression many times during my research trip to Berlin.Often, the comments were voiced by visiting football fans or residents of the city that were not particularly attracted to football.If I learnt anything in researching this dissertation, it is that Berlin may not be recognized universally as a "Fußballstadt", but football has played an important role in its fascinating history.I would like to thank the many friends I met during my research stints in Berlin, with whom I could chat about all matters football until I could no more, and who showed me that Berlin could be as much as a "Fußballstadt" as any.My journey did not begin in Berlin, however, it began on the fourth floor of Patterson Hall, between the Rideau river and the Rideau canal in Ottawa.I would like to express my thanks and sincere gratitude to the History Department at Carleton University.From the first moments I started to consider Carleton for a Ph.D, I have been struck by the kindness and support of its faculty and staff.At Carleton, first and foremost, I am severely indebted to my supervisor, Jennifer V. Evans, whose support and instruction over the years made taking my Ph.D. possible.Without her I would not be in a position to type acknowledgements on a completed dissertation.I would like to extend

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