The Germans played their first international as the DFB against Switzerland in April 1908 in Basel. In 1920 the Swiss were the first opposition for the post 1st World War German side and again in 1950 the Swiss were chosen to bring the Germans back into the footballing fraternity after World War 2. In 1990 the German side including the new East German Association also played the Swiss, once the "wall came down".
The official historic England results list shows the Germans winning 15 matches and England 13, with 3 draws, surprisingly only 31 games between the two.
The first official engagement was in 1930 with a 3-3 draw in Berlin and then we hosted them in 1935, winning 3-0. By 1938, national captain Eddie Hapgood and the heroic Stanley Matthews were amongst a reputedly strong English side to meet the Germans in Berlin again, a nation under Hitler's control. The players were "told" by an FA Official, Charles Wreford Brown (an Old Carthusian), to acknowledge the German leader by giving the salute before the match. 140,000 watched this episode as Nazi Germany showed off and England thumped them 6-3. This was belittling for Hitler and later on the same sports' field, his "super race" also were shown up at the Berlin Olympics by the black American athlete, Jesse Owens.
By 1938 Austria became part of Germany under the Anschluss (the annexing of Austria into Nazi Germany) and since the Austrians at the time were a major force in European football, the Germans benefited from this injection of talent. However it did not help in the 1938 World Cup, as the Germans lost on aggregate to Switzerland...there they are again!
England and Germany met again in 1954 but by this time they were called West Germany. England won 3-1 with Len Shackleton, Roy Bentley and Ronnie Allen scoring in front of 100,000 at Wembley.
Since then, there have been regular fixtures with World Cup ties in 1966, 1970, 1982, 1990, 2000 and recently games in 2016 and 2017.
No comments:
Post a Comment