More than Football, Flags and Freibier...

I am standing in the ‘Treptower Park’ in Berlin in the middle of a huge crowd of Germans all watching Germany versus Italy in the semi-final of the soccer world cup 2006. German flags everywhere and suddenly after 118 minutes Italy scores.

Within that split second the whole atmosphere changes. I can feel the energy drop. The emotions of millions of people take a big turn in that moment. It feels like the whole city falls into a hole and I have to remind myself that the hollow feeling in my tummy is just a result of this sudden change in energy.

The next day I step outside and notice – to my surprise – that all the German flags on cars balconies and windows are still there. The city feels quiet but the flags are still there.

A few days later Germany plays Portugal in the game for the third place. And the Germans celebrate. The streets are overflowing with fans, flags and music. Germany has become third in the soccer world cup 2006…

It is 1.30 at night, Zoo station. I am sitting on the tube on my way home from watching the game. A bunch of very drunk youngsters squeezes into the train and starts singing “Wir wollen wippen, wippen, wippen…” rocking the wagon, making me wonder if we are going to see the next station. In the middle of all this a woman in her mid-forties is busy changing shirts with her 25-year-old boyfriend and we unwillingly all get to have a look at her bra… I look at the couple sitting next to me. They are probably in their mid sixties holding little German flags in their hands and are smiling at the whole scene.

This is the moment where I start wondering if I am in the right country?!
Maybe only someone that has been to Germany and has spent some time here will understand why I ask myself this question.

This isn’t just another soccer world cup. Of course, it is some sort of mass event but this event has turned into a lot more. It has changed something. Something inside the Germans has been set free. Suddenly they are allowed to feel German, to feel that there is such a thing as a German identity and a sense of community amongst the people of this country. They are even allowed to show their flag without getting concerned looks from the rest of the world.

And against all negative expectations there haven’t been any major incidences of aggression or racist assaults against any of the hundreds of thousands of visitors. Instead I see a German flag that has been attached to a Turkish flag hanging out of a car window as I walk down the Ku’ Damm.

I am not saying that this soccer world cup has solved all our prejudices and problems with racism in this country, but it certainly has shown that there is more to Germany and its people than generally expected. Over the past few weeks the Germans eventually got the chance to show the humanity, the sense of community and the openness that lies within them.

The humanity is mirrored in the people on the streets and on all the Thank-You-banners to the German team. A team that had to deal with lots of criticism before the tournament and coach that pushed thru in spite of all the difficulties.

Juergen Klinsman has managed to build a team that is very young and still became third in this world cup. But more importantly a team that played with passion for the third place and that showed respect and support for former goal keeper Oliver Kahn who had to sit on the bench in this tournament but had a worthy farewell in this last game.

So the Germans celebrate.

They celebrate Klinsman, Kahn, Lehman…

and they celebrate themselves and their newly discovered humanity and openness – sometimes even able to forget why they are actually celebrating…

In Transition

As the plane takes off I see the mountain rising out of a sea of clouds. The city lights of Cape Town are fading in the rising sun that paints the mountain golden. The beauty of this is almost painful…

As the plane turns and the mountain gets dragged out of sight I suddenly get this feeling of a total anti-climax. I had one hour of sleep in the last twenty-four hours. I am feeling tired and exhausted on all levels. For a moment I ask myself why on earth I am on this plane.

Then I breathe and sink back into the seat easing myself into the space. I start feeling that there is no point in asking myself such questions since I can’t really go anywhere else now. I get a sense of peacefulness.

It is this feeling of being in transition. I have left one place because I decided I wanted to go somewhere else. Now I am in this space between places and in the time it takes to get from one to the other.

It is a familiar feeling, a feeling that airports and planes hold. I look around me and feel a strange bond with all the strangers on the plane. All these people come from different places and for very different reasons have decided to travel to some other place. Their lives are so different. There is not much talking going on between the strangers, yet they are all sharing the same space for a whole day, all of them in transition.

I can sense that some of these people hate this state for the very same reason that leaves me with a sense of peacefulness.

Today no movement is possible. It is not so much the fact that you can’t stretch your legs without knocking over the glass of water in front of you. It is much more the feeling of not being able to shift anything either in the place you are coming from or in the place you are going to. You cannot even change the route or the timing in which to get somewhere. All of us are at this point in time completely reliant on the technicalities of the airplane and the abilities of the pilot.

Why does this make me feel peaceful? I certainly feel that the freedom and the ability to make choices is an important part of our lives. Being in a position where you can make choices about where you want to be or what you want to do is a precious thing, but once a choice is made we also need to learn to trust the process of getting where we chose to go to.

This brings me back to the transitional feeling I have sitting on this flight from Cape Town to Berlin. This is a situation where all I can do is sit and trust that I will get to where I need to get to without me doing anything more. I have made all the arrangements and am now on a journey. So why not trust that I have chosen the right path and use this time to be grateful for the moments I have had where I come from and looking forward to the moments I will experience where I am going to?!