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90 Minutes for Israel and Germany

May 9, 2015

When Bayern Munich play in the Champions League, Israeli fans in Tel Aviv sing "Go on Bayern, score a goal..." and celebrate Germany’s national soccer team. How can that be?

https://p.dw.com/p/1FGCC

90 Minutes for Israel and Germany

When Israeli national team player Almog Cohen takes the pitch against his old love, Nuremberg, his German fans welcome him with Israeli flags. A German, Michael Nees, is technical director and coach of the Israeli under-21 team and is helping to build the future of Israeli football. With more than 2,000 participants, the next “European Maccabi Games” at Berlin Olympic Parc, where the Nazis celebrated their triumphs in 1936, will be the largest event to feature Jewish athletes outside Israel. Israeli team captain Alec Privalov wears the Star of David on his chest and the German tricolor on his back. Tsvika Riz, the German national team’s biggest fan in Israel, sees no contradiction between walking through Tel Aviv in a Germany shirt, although his grandfather refused to allow even a single German product into his house. Almost the entire Tsvika family died in the Holocaust.

29.04.2015 DOKU 90-Minuten Alec-Privalov mit Deutschland Trikot
The captain of the Jewish-German football club “Maccabi,“ Alec Privalov, wearing a German shirt.

Football as a Trailblazer for Reconciliation?

When Germany and Israel established diplomatic relations 50 years ago, all this was unthinkable. The Holocaust was still too fresh and a "normal relationship" between the two countries was impossible. In the documentary “90 Minutes for Israel and Germany - Football between Tel Aviv and Berlin,” DW authors Thomas Lemmer and Matthias Frickel tackle the question as to why football has always played a pioneering role in reconciling the two countries. But can this relationship ever really be called “normal” at all?

29.04.2015 DOKU 90-Minuten 90 Minuten Team mit Shmuel Rosentahl
Authors Matthias Frickel and Thomas Lemmer also went to Arad in Israel to visit Shmuel Rosentahl, the first Israeli to play in the Bundesliga.

Bayern Munich has Lots of Fans in Israel

How do Jewish footballers in Germany live? And how does a German coach in Israel tread the fine line between historical legacy and current conflict in the Middle East? Why do fans in Tel Aviv root for Bayern and the German national team at all? The authors look at four biographies to examine how football brings Germans and Israelis closer together. What do they like about each other and what problems do they still have to face because the Holocaust defines their mutual perceptions even now?

29.04.2015 DOKU 90 Minuten Tsvika Riz
Tsvika Riz is a fan of Bayern Munich and the German national team.


Broadcasting Hours:

DW

SAT 09.05.2015 – 22:15 UTC
SUN 10.05.2015 – 06:15 UTC
SUN 10.05.2015 – 13:15 UTC
SUN 10.05.2015 – 17:15 UTC
MON 11.05.2015 – 04:15 UTC
MON 11.05.2015 – 10:15 UTC

Cape Town UTC +2 | Delhi UTC +5,5 | Hong Kong UTC +8
San Francisco UTC -7 | Edmonton UTC -6 | New York UTC -4

DW (Europe)

SUN 10.05.2015 – 04:15 UTC
SUN 10.05.2015 – 17:15 UTC
MON 11.05.2015 – 06:15 UTC
MON 11.05.2015 – 13:15 UTC

London UTC +1 | Berlin UTC +2 | Moscow UTC +3

DW (Arabia)

SUN 10.05.2015 – 04:15 UTC

Tunis UTC +1 | Cairo UTC + 3 | Dubai UTC +4

DW (Amerika)

SUN 10.05.2015 – 06:15 UTC

Vancouver UTC -7 | New York UTC -4 | Sao Paulo UTC -3