Political Emotions in the Post-War Stadium: A Franco-German Perspective on the 1950s and Early 1960s

Abstract

From the first post-war football matches between high-level French and West German teams in the early 1950s to the “international match between friends” in Stuttgart in 1962, not only the social and political conditions changed, but also the nature of Franco-German encounters and the way they were handled. From the beginning, political actors, but also football officials, tried to instrumentalise the emotions associated with the matches for purposes of cautious rapprochement and reconciliation. This channelling of emotions was only partially successful at the beginning, so that the political actors increasingly relied on preventive measures to contain negative consequences for the Franco-German relationship. Only in the course of time did it become clear that Franco-German football matches could also be used actively in symbolic politics for the reconciliation of the two countries. The aim of this chapter is to take a closer look at such attempts to channel and instrumentalise emotions and thus also to contribute to a better understanding of the football relations between the two countries.