Fussball in Berlin

I still think soccer (football) is boring…but I love the world cup.

On Friday, friends and I went to an area called “fan mile” – a strip more than a mile long stretching from the Tiergarten near “Berlin Mittle” all the way to the Brandenburg Gate – to watch the Ukraine versus Tunisia match.

Before entering the fan mile, every fan is subjected to an extremely thorough pat-down, mostly to check for knives and other soccer-hooligan paraphernalia. My buddy and I made a couple of teenage girls’ day when we lined up in what turned out to be the female line; they told us “boy’s go over there,” pointing and giggling. Following an inspection (in the correct line, I’m happy to say) that included a bit of an un-requested and un-appreciated squeeze on the backside, we were officially in soccer heaven.

The first thing one sees upon entering is a huge inflated Duracell bunny – no, not the standard Energizer bunny, but apparently a rival, pink, battery powered creature. The closed off mile long strip is filled with at least a dozen jumbotron sized screens showing the game, a ferris wheel, a fake beach complete with sand castles, and numerous stands lining the way. The stands are filled with merchants selling eclectic food – I saw Thai noodles, beer, candy, currywurst, and donut stands among others – and numerous stands selling souvenirs in the colors of all thirty-two “Welt Meisterschaft” countries. When Germany took on Ecuador a couple of days ago, 700,000 people turned out to the small area to watch; while not nearly as crowded today (understandably so), there was still a sizeable crowd. Luckily for us, the “anti konflict team” was in place in neon yellow vests to quell any possible “Konflicts” that might arise with such a large, passionate crowd.

Initially greeted by a surprisingly laid-back crowd at the front, which featured more relaxed fans sitting on benches enjoying a “Bier und fussball,” we made our way down the entire mile towards the front where we knew the crazy fans would be. There, connected to the Brandenburg gate, was an even larger jumbotron, where the game was being shown before a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd made up almost exclusively of Ukrainian fans.

The area at the front near the Brandenburg gate was crazy. Chants of “Oooooh-kran-eee-aaah” followed by six claps dominated the area, sometimes following a good play by the team, other times seemingly at random. Flags small and large waved in the foreground, and noisemakers – horns and drums – played the usual refrains of “let’s go” and “Ole.” Ukraine won a close match 1-0, with a goal coming early in the 2nd half.

Coming back from the game, my roommate and I decided to pick up a German necessity: a case of beer. Germany has a fantastic economic incentive system to encourage recycling: bottled beverages cost more than market value nationwide; however, the rewards for returning empty bottles back to the place of purchase are far larger here than in the US, creating a significant incentive to recycle. Our case of beer, for example, cost 17 Euros, but 3.5 Euros will be given to us upon retuning the bottles. The amount is significant enough – as opposed to a nickel in the US – that we will go out of our way to make sure the bottles and even the case itself are recycled. Upon receiving the recycling refund, consumers are no worse off for the temporary tax, while the environment is, in fact, improved thanks to increased recycling. Sounds like German efficiency to me!

While carrying the case back, a group of German girls hanging out near the window of their apartment yelled down to us that they wanted some of our Beer. I yelled back that we didn’t have any beer, that it was just a case of milk. They giggled (the second group of girls we made giggle today), and we went on our way, though now that I think back, perhaps we should have lingered longer outside their window, where we could have shared a beverage and a talk on their remarkable environmental economic incentive system. Maybe next time.

The view of fanmile from the communist TV tower (more on this later)