On November 13, 2015, the German national soccer team experienced the unthinkable at the Stade de France in Paris: during the international match against France, explosive devices detonated directly in front of the stadium gates. Even during the game, Paris is shaken by a wave of terror. In the end, the attacks will cost 130 people their lives in a total of five different locations, and the 80,000 people in the stadium will only narrowly avoid a catastrophe caused by suicide bombers. It will be one of the darkest nights in France and European football. “It became clear to everyone that we were really in an incredible emergency situation,” said then national coach Joachim Löw, remembering the situation in the stadium. And Bastian Schweinsteiger, captain of the DFB team in 2015, says: “You think you’re going to the football game – and in the end that was the blackest day.” The DFB team spends the night in the dressing room in the stadium. Players like Kevin Trapp, André Schürrle and Christoph Kramer describe fear, silence and helplessness. “You’re afraid, you’re panicking – you don’t want to show it, but you have 1,000 thoughts in your head,” says Trapp, remembering that night. The friendly match against the Netherlands is scheduled to take place in Hanover just four days later – as a symbol of strength and normality. But shortly before kick-off the stadium was evacuated. The suspicion: concrete risk of attack. “We had to ask ourselves: Could something like that happen here too?” says Uwe Kolmey, then LKA director in Lower Saxony. Oliver Bierhoff, team manager of the German national team at the time, remembers: “The whole time was on my mind – are we the target now?” The documentary “Terror. Football. Paris 2015 – The national team in its sights” shows the subjective view of the players, coaches and officials, accompanies emergency services and counter-terrorism units back to the threatening situations in Paris and Hanover and shows how narrowly the national team escaped a catastrophe.
