Kick-about with writers

 

Football with unusual players: In Berlin there is a team made up of Israeli and German authors.

 

It will be a friendly, but nonetheless it goes without saying that no one wants to lose. On 13 April a team of German and Israeli authors will play against pupils and teachers from Ernst Abbe grammar school in Berlin. After the match the teams will exchange ideas about writing, football, and their view of Israel and Germany.

 

Among others ,the Israeli literary figures Ori Kerman, Roi Shani and Dovi Keich, Amichai Shalev and Assaf Gavron, and German writers Norbert Kron, Moritz Rinke, Albert Ostermaier and Jochen Schmidt, intend to play for the German –Israeli team. Most of them are also attending the German-Israeli literature symposium “Wir vergessen nicht, wir gehen tanzen” (We don’t forget, we go dancing), which is being held on 12 April, likewise in Berlin.

The idea for this unusual football cooperation first saw the light of day in 2008. Back then the Israeli authors’ national squad had been invited to play a match in Berlin under the patronage of the then and present-day Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the then President of the German Football Association (DFB) Theo Zwanziger. It was the first match played by the newly founded Israeli team. That same year there was a return match in Tel Aviv.

 

The German authors’ national team was established in 2005 on the initiative of the writer Thomas Brussig. In 2010 the team became European Champion.