3. December 2007 :: 1. FCK on the train ::

Anybody who is familiar with German soccer history knows who these brothers are: Ottmar and Fritz Walter- famous soccer players of the club 1. FC Kaiserslautern. These are pics of them on 2 trains which I took to get from my university back home...

• It was popular knowledge in Germany that Walter appeared to play better the worse the weather was, and so now the term "Fritz Walter's weather" is used to describe rainy weather conditions, often rendered with odd local dialect grammar "of Fritz, his weather".
  
  
• He played for only one club, 1. FC Kaiserslautern, making his first-team debut at the age of 17. He scored a hat-trick on his international debut two years later. And on 4 July 1954, he captained West Germany to their first FIFA World Cup triumph, as they beat Hungary 3-2 in Berne. [...]West Germany were world champions and the victory gave the country renewed self-confidence nine years after the end of the war. (This historical material was even used for a movie "The Miracle of Bern", which doesn't exist in English)
  
  
• The home stadium of 1. FC Kaiserslautern is named the Fritz Walter Stadion.

• Ottmar Walter played together with his brother, Fritz Walter, at the club 1. FC Kaiserslautern. They also played together for the Germany national football team in the 1954 FIFA World Cup. Ottmar scored 4 goals in the tournament as West Germany won their first ever World Cup title. In total, Ottmar earned 21 caps and scored 10 goals for Germany.

Yees, I was a 1. FC Kaiserslautern fan, ...back in school... but maybe more because I had to be fan of something else than my big brother who was talking about the "Eintracht Frankfurt" club nonstop... I don't think I had very "sensible" reasons for choosing this club. My dad was born in Kaiserslautern and they won more often than Frankfurt I think :) So for someone who doesn't really know a lot about soccer that was reason enough. aaah and the 3rd reason: both of my neighbours were Kaiserslautern fan... which also didn't really help to convince my brother that he had chosen the looser-team. :D
(Why are people so crazy about a clubs? I don't think I will ever get that... it's all about money...the one who has the most gets the best players and wins most of the time -thats it. After a few months, the team which you liked soooo much doesn't exist anymore... so??? )