The People's Game: Football, State and Society in East Germany

Well good

Es un buen libro con informacion valiosa, pero el formato, con el autor explicando continuamente de qué va a hablar (y luego no hablando tanto), y la bibliografia al final de cada capítulo lo hacen bastante pesado.

This book was a fantastic suprise. I'm really not much into football but I was very curious of how this sport could fit in the philosophy of a Communist State. This book guide you through different aspects of the football world in the DDR: from the biggest team and their stars to the amateur games passing through holliganism and female teams. All the different chapter tackles one topic moving from the post war years up until the demise of the DDR in the 1990. The author ammassed a huge body of references coming from the infamous Stasi's archive but also from statements from people who live those years. It makes for a fascinating read of a world where the "quiet resistance" of people against a state with the paranoia of control was channeled in the football game. This is the reason why notwithstanding all the efforts of the SED (Communist Party) football was an unruly world. If you are interested in the history of the DDR this is a must read.

I bought this after hearing the author on a podcast and am a general reader with an interest in both football and the DDR. Overall this book is interesting, but I found it difficult to understand all of the context. It is assumed that one knows the DDR was a dictatorship and had a version of socialism, that a Trabant wasn't as nice as a Mercedes-Benz and that by the 1970s the DDR had a vigorous police state, but matters do not progress much beyond that (currently two thirds of the way through). I enjoyed Jonathan Wilson's "Behind the Curtain" more, but I cannot recall that saying much about the DDR. Authors in this area probably have the same problem the DDR had itself: it is difficult without a Puskas or Yashin or Czechoslovakian team of 1976 to show how DDR football fits in.