Rugby in Germany
Rugby is booming in Germany – among top athletes and in sports clubs.
Admittedly, most people think of New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Great Britain, Ireland or France when they hear the word rugby. Germany does not have a reputation as a traditional rugby-playing nation, as football outshines everything else. Nonetheless, the German rugby sevens squad achieved remarkable victories against the top Scottish and English teams in the most recent European Grand Prix series, and is placed tenth in the overall European ranking. Although they cannot compete as yet with the New Zealand All Blacks, Manuel Wilhelm appeared optimistic in an interview with German daily “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”: “I believe we have the potential to compete consistently among the top six in Europe.” In his role as sports development officer at the German Rugby Federation (DRV), his goal is to be in the first team of the German Olympic Sports Confederation. Rugby will be celebrating its comeback at the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil – the last time it was included in the Games was in 1924.
Longer tradition than football
There is an even longer tradition of playing rugby in Germany than football. The first German rugby team was established at Neuenheim College in Heidelberg, whose pupils 1850 caused a sensation in around with a game that was known in the local Heidelberg dialect as “Durchtragerles” – which roughly translated means “carry-throughers”. It was not until more than 20 years later (in 1874) that football was introduced in Germany by Braunschweig teacher Konrad Koch. The first rugby clubs were founded in Heidelberg and Hanover, both cities remaining important centres of the sport to this day. Although rugby may still be a long way from having mass appeal in Germany, the DRV does now list 125 clubs with a total of nearly 14,000 members. The teams have experienced constantly growing demand in recent years, especially among students and workers who have come to Germany from rugby-playing nations. They are made welcome in the clubs and quickly feel at home. Entry-level versions of the game such as touch or tag rugby are also becoming increasingly popular at schools in Germany – these variants involve little or no physical contact between the players. Actually the game looks rougher than it is, as strict rules apply. As the writer Oscar Wilde is alleged to have said: “Football is a gentleman's game played by ruffians and rugby is a ruffian's game played by gentlemen.”
For the German Information Center Africa, the South African coaches, who have directed the German National Team since 2013, gave exclusive interviews describing their lives in Germany and the state of German rugby: