Das grosse Spiel - Excerpts From the 1942 Film

January 05th, 2009 edit

  • Not many feature films have been made about soccer. Das grosse Spiel is the only one I know of that was made during the Third Reich.

    It's about a team called Gloira 03, which is clearly based on Schalke 04, the leading club of the time. The color footage is of the Meisterschaft final between Schalke and Rapid Wien, played in the Olympiastadion on June 22, 1941. That was the same day Germany invaded the Soviet Union, so the spectators' minds might not have been entirely on the game.

    Excerpts:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClCCywAZBoI&feature=related

    Synopsis:

    http://www.goethe.de/ges/spr/prj/tor/film/emp/en154333.htm

    IMDB page:

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033681/


  • Yes it would be wonderful if the complete match footage ever surfaced but the odds are overwhelmingly against it. About the only hope is that copies were made and sent to the Wehrmacht to show to the troops and that one somehow miraculously survived.

    Apparently this was a controversial match. There was feeling in some quarters that Rapid benefited from several questionable decisions because "higher authorities" felt it would be better if a club from the Ostmark won the championship, rather than Schalke who had won the previous two.

    Summary from http://www.rapidarchiv.at/

    Olympiastadion Berlin, 95.000, Reinhardt

    RAPID: Raftl; S. Wagner, Sperner; F. Wagner, Gernhardt, Skoumal; Fitz, Schors, Binder, Dvoracek, Pesser

    SCHALKE: Klodt; Bornemann, Schweißfurth; Füller, Tibulski, Gellesch; Burdenski, Szepan, Eppenhoff, Kuzorra, Hinz

    Tore:
    1:0 (5.) Hinz
    2:0 (8.) Eppenhoff
    3:0 (58.) Hinz,
    3:1 (62.) Schors,
    3:2 (63., Freistoß) Binder
    3:3 (65., Elfmeter) Binder
    3:4 (71., Freistoß) Binder


  • I am amazed by the colour clips of the 1941 German Championship final there. I guess the film crew recorded the whole 90 minutes and then cut out the less interesting scenes. The question is whether the complete colour footage was saved ... if that game in full glorious colour would someday see the light of day again, it would be an absolute sensation.


  • Thanks for that-- I find that period in German history quite fascinating.







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