How Teenage Cheek & Charm Lead to the Founding of Germany’s Oldest Football Club: Germania 1888
As Euro 2024 approaches and Germany becomes the centre of attention, it’s a good time to think back to a time before the beautiful game being the most popular sport in the world, and think of the game’s humble beginnings in Germany. BFC Germania 1888 is Germany’s oldest active football club, and it was founded way back in 1888 on the 15th of April.
Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, the father of organised sport in Germany
Lithograph Georg Ludwig Engelbach, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Friedrich Ludwig Jahn and the Beginnings of Organised Sport in Germany
The roots of organised sport in Germany can be traced back to the early 19th century, thanks largely to Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, often referred to as the “Father of Gymnastics.” Born in 1778, Jahn believed that physical education was essential for the development of a strong and unified nation. In 1811, he established the first Turnplatz, or outdoor gymnasium, in Berlin, laying the foundation for the Turnvereine movement. These gymnastics clubs quickly spread across the country, becoming centres of physical training, fostering a nationalistic spirit (which is to say, not that kind which came much later, but the ‘perhaps we should unite as a nation’ kind).
The Turnvereine movement emphasised the importance of physical education, communal effort, and moral development. It aimed to cultivate a sense of national identity and unity through physical fitness, aligning with Jahn’s vision of a robust and resilient German populace. Participation in sports was seen as a means of personal and communal betterment, rather than a pursuit of financial gain, fostering a culture where sportsmanship, fair play, and personal improvement were highly valued.
Football Comes Over from England
While the Turnvereine movement was flourishing in Germany, football was rapidly gaining popularity in England. By the mid-19th century, football had evolved from a chaotic, unregulated pastime into a more organised and codified sport. The establishment of the Football Association (FA) in 1863 marked a significant milestone. Rules were standardised. Now, with a fixed structure, the game could spread across England and beyond.
Football eventually made its way to Germany, initially introduced by English expatriates and German students who had studied in England. The first documented all-German football game took place in October 1874 in Braunschweig, played between students from the Martino-Katharineum school. This match is considered by many to be the birth of German football - the first ever football game played by Germany only.
Football meets tradition: The German Sportvereine
As football began to take root in Germany, it became popular within the existing framework of Sportvereine (Sports Clubs), the multi-sport clubs that had been inspired by Friedrich Ludwig Jahn’s Turnvereine movement. Members of these clubs could do all sorts of sports, including gymnastics, wrestling, and rowing (and even today chess, table tennis, eSports and all sorts), and gradually they started to embrace football due to its growing appeal. Berlin, as the capital and largest city in what was then the newly formed German empire, was no different to the rest of the country. Young Berliners were going mad for the new and exciting game, and the Sportvereine couldn’t keep up.
The birth of Germany’s Football Clubs
Football’s rapidly growing popularity meant that some lads wanted to just get out there and play, and so that’s what they did. On April 15, 1888 Paul Jestram, alongside his brothers and his friends, started to play football. Berliner Fussball Club (BFC) Germania 1888 was born! Little did they know that their little team would still be around much more than a century later.
Jestram & co. had a problem though. Where to play? Berlin’s wide, flat open spaces weren’t necessarily open to the public like they are today. Back then, they were used by the Prussian military as training and parade grounds. These were the days when the Prussian Army was a highly-respected battle & war winning machine; it was Prussia’s battlefield prowess that had been key in defeating Napoleon and later on unifying Germany.
So, with all the cheek, charm, and confidence that teenage lads can muster, the Germania boys went to the Prussian military and asked them if they could use their big, flat, grassy fields on Sundays, when they were otherwise sat empty.
Amazingly, they said “yes”.
And so Germania, alongside many other early Berlin football clubs now had somewhere to play. In fact, many people, though not organised clubs, still play out on these former military grounds today; the most well-known of which is the infamous former Tempelhof airport.
Germany’s first ever competitive international football team, April 5, 1908
Fritz Baumgarten, 5th from right (wearing a hat)
Photographer unknown, via Wikimedia Commons
Founding Members of Organised German Football
In 1890 Germany’s first football league, the Bund Deutscher Fußballspieler (BDF) was founded. Germania were of course a founding member. Not only that, but when the DFB, Germany’s present-day governing football body, was founded in Leipzig in 1900, Germania were also a key part of the show.
In fact, when they would play their first ever (official) international football match on the 5th of April, 1908, it would be Germania’s goalkeeper, Fritz Baumgarten, who would keep goal for Germany. They lost 5-3 to Switzerland.
Like many Berlin teams, Germania would not go on to great success. Both sport and Germania continued, though interrupted by food & player shortages, in WWI, and then again with all that plus bombing and other terror during the fascist dictatorship & WWII. Following the war there were a few years were sport was all but prohibited in occupied Germany by the victorious powers. As the situation started to ease up though, Germania reformed and continued to play.
Today, they play in the Kreisliga B, a local Berlin league.
