Today only difficult to imagine: Women’s football was banned by the DFB in the Federal Republic until 1970. The ban on the association did not stop women and girls from playing, organizing themselves and fighting equality.
Little recognition, sexism and degradation in society and through the media have long been part of everyday life playing football. The generation of the war became football as a territory for men in which women have lost nothing. Josef “Sepp” Herberger, who was active as a player in the 1920s, was of the opinion that football was a “martial arts” that was not suitable for women.
Torsten Körner’s documentary “Girls cannot play football” lets the women have their say, who were significantly involved in making women’s football the sport he is today.
Women’s football was an official taboo for a long time: The German Football Association (DFB) introduced the ban for its clubs in 1955, on the grounds that sport was strange to the essence of women and dignified the body and violated the decency. In a DFB yearbook from 1955 it says: “In the fight for the ball, female grace, body and soul disappear inevitably damage and the view of the body is violated.”
Nevertheless, the women continued and organized the first unofficial teams and games in the 1950s and 1960s – also with less male officials – in the 1950s and 1960s.
One of the women who were never forbidden was Christa Kleinhans. She is considered a pioneer of women’s football in the 1950s and 1960s, which actively played in her club DSV Fortuna Dortmund 55 against the ban on women’s football.
According to information from the Federal Center for Political Education, around 60,000 girls and women actively played football at the end of the 1960s. In some DFB associations, too, despite the ban on the establishment of their own women’s football departments. At the federal level, the DFB is now also afraid that the football women could found their own association. In order to prevent such a competition, the DFB raised the ban on women’s football in Germany on October 31, 1970.
GDR: No prohibitions, but also no support
In contrast to the Federal Republic, women’s football is not prohibited in the GDR, but is also not promoted. In the GDR, too, footballers are faced with neglect, women’s football is not considered equal. Women are denied clubs and sports clubs.
Women’s football teams can be found primarily in the company sports communities (BSG). The sponsoring companies, to which the clubs are connected, take care of equipment and provide the company’s own sports fields.
In 1979, the GDR sports officials decided to introduce a “district best investigation” and to set up a “GDR best women’s team”-including BSG Chemie Wolfen and BSG Post Rostock. However, separate means, for example for sports equipment and trips to tournaments, are not provided.
“Women’s football was not Olympic, there were no world championships and that’s why he was in popular sports and not in competitive sports,” says Jena player Doreen Meier today. The word championship alone was reserved for men’s football. The GDR is also about a struggle for recognition and women’s rights.
Absurd regulations for women’s football in the 1970s
The footballers in the Federal Republic are still far from equality on the square. The association officials of the DFB stand across and put an absurd set of rules into force: women have to play with a youth ball, tunnel shoes are prohibited and the season is limited to twice 30 minutes. In the 1970s active sports doctors, women still consider the weaker gender.
Sexist, condescending statements by the media are also part of the everyday life of the players. Sports commentators like Wim Thoelke are great in reducing the game of women to their bodies, well -rounded calves and housewife activities. “We were already hard-boiled because what is called sexist today was normal in the 1970s,” said Hamburg footballer and later DFB official Hannelore Ratzeburg today.
Ratzeburg was elected consultant for women’s football at the DFB in 1977. As a official, she was the first woman who entered men’s bastions and caught the doors for women’s football with a diplomatic sense. On their initiative, the DFB Cup of women have been aligned since 1980 and the women’s cup of women since 1981. She also contributed to the establishment of the women’s football team.
Bärbel Wohlleben’s goal of the month goes into history
Back to 1974: The first German women’s football championship takes place. DJK Eintracht Erle from Gelsenkirchen and TuS Wörrstadt qualified for the final in Mainz on September 8, 1974. The Rheinhessen from Wörrstadt win the first German women’s football championship title.
And even more: Bärbel Wohlleben is the first player whose 3-0 is recognized in the sports show as the “goal of the month”. With this gate, Wohlleben opens many pre -judgmental eyes: women can also score “beautiful” goals and have a hard shot. Not only their goals, their quick -wittedness also becomes legendary. “For me it was just the winning goal that we had won the game and the first German championship with it,” says Wohlleben today. It was only years later that she realized what her goal did.
Special role of SSG Bergisch Gladbach – The role of Anne Trabant
What Hannelore Ratzeburg did in the DFB committees, Anne Trabant-Haarbach has achieved on the square. She is considered the “Grande Dame” and master trainer of German women’s football and played, among other things, alongside Bärbel Wohlleben near TuS Wörrstadt.
In November 1982, she played the first official international game of a German women’s national team with SSG Bergisch Gladbach in November 1982. The Germans win the game against Switzerland in Koblenz 5: 1. “You have to understand that after this long period of waiting we could prove to all men that women can also play football,” she said a few minutes after the final whistle.
Later Trabant-Haarbach is active as a trainer in Bergisch Gladbach, but continues to work in her profession as a graduate sports teacher. At that time, women’s football is still a long way off.
In 1988 the German football women created the European Championship qualification for the first time. The European Championships takes place in 1989 and the women win the final – now even with a winning bonus: for each player there is a coffee service from the brand “Villeroy & Boch”.
Despite this non-serious premium, the DFB makes one thing: it gives the green light for the foundation of the women’s Bundesliga. The rest? Is history. Even if women in professional football still earn less today than their male colleagues: that femininity and professional football can be combined, it seems sufficiently proven.