A nation with a rich history honours its past and it goes without staying about Europe’s most successful footballing nation Germany.
In 2015, Germany paid tribute to its footballing heritage when it opened the doors of the Germany Football Museum in Dortmund.
Dortmund has a significant place in Germany’s recent football story and it was there where the post-war Bundesliga was established in 1962.
The three-story building in Dortmund’s central business district houses memorabilia and artifacts from over 100 years of Germany’s football.
It is one of three high profile national football museums in the World, together with the English in Manchester, and Japanese in Tokyo.
The first floor houses the league and international club memorabilia that includes the oldest known match day ticket to the German Football Hall of Fame.
Upon the third floor is dedicated to the history of the national team including the exploits of the Women’s who are the second most successful team in the World with two FIFA Women’s World Cup titles and are the record eight-time European champions.
The floor also includes two 3D cinemas’ that focus on Germanys 2014 FIFA World Cup triumph in Brazil.
The main one is a ten-minute candid and behind the scenes documentary on the highs and lows of the ultimate tournament specialists’ odyssey to 2014 final in Rio.
The other is a 3D team dialogue by that World Cup-winning teams’ players.
However, two exhibitions stand out with probably the first dedicated to Germany’s first World Cup triumph in 1954 in Switzerland.
Dubbed ‘The Miracle of the Berne’ ‘Die Mannschaft’, as the Germany national team is known as defied the odds in the final to beat a hitherto invincible Mighty Magyars Hungry who had the legendary Ferenc Puskás in their ranks.
This is after a modest German side was initially crushed 8-3 in the group stages by a Hungarian side who had come into the tournament as favorites and unbeaten 32 successive matches heading into the World Cup.
But in true fairy tale fashion in the final, Germany came from 2-1 down in the first eleven minutes of the first half to go into the break 2-2 before Helmut Rhan snatched their first-ever World Cup triumph and to set the foundation for bigger things to come.
That iconic team’s life-size black and white portrait enjoys its distinguished place on the third floor in The Golden Generations Stand.
In the middle of the Golden Generation Stand is the very ball that Germany romped to victory with.
Staying on the theme of the FIFA World Cup final, also on display on the third floor is the penalty spot from which Andreas Brehme scored the late penalty and only goal in Germany’s 1-0 win over defending champions Argentina scored the only goal of 1990 final.
Undeniably, the 1966 World Cup final is also in focus with footage from the various angles of Geoff Hurts’ controversial second goal of England’s 4-2 victory over then West Germany at Wembley Stadium in London.
And to crown Germany’s decorated past, The German Museum’s houses the massive trophy vault where the splendor in the Gold from all of the Four FIFA World Cup’s and the Silver from Three European champions triumphs are on display capped in glass casings in the dimly-lit hall.
Only Italy, with four World Cup and one UEFA Euro title, comes close to Germany in terms of Europe’s most decorated teams.
Meanwhile, the Museum also has a section honouring Jewish resilience during the Holocaust on the second floor chronicling the structured league that set-up at Terezin Ghetto in the present-day Czech Republic during Nazi occupation.
Lastly but not least and staying on the theme of the Second World War, the exhibition also includes the old Empire Trophy presented to the pre-war winners of the Bundesliga.
The majestic Empire Cup vanished and was believed destroyed during World War 2.
However, after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, East Germany revealed they had the Empire Cup in their custody.
