Weltmeister and fulfilling a promise

I said on Sunday that if Germany won the World Cup I'd post a particular song that my wife wanted me to post on Sunday. For a bit of background, my wife is German, I'm English and our kids are smart enough to support Germany when it comes to football and once England are eliminated I want them to win too. On Sunday night Germany did win the World Cup, their fourth, hence this post.

Germany had previously won the World Cup in 1952, 1974, as hosts, and 1990 while competing as West Germany. The 1990 World Cup happened after the fall of the Berlin Wall but before German reunification, which was officially completed on 3rd of October, 1990. (After the post-World War II split of Germany the West German team started up in 1950 and got to keep the legacy of the pre-war team. The East German team started up in 1952. They appeared in one World Cup, the 1974 tournament in West Germany. They were drawn in the same group as West Germany in the first round and beat West Germany 1-0 in the final group game to win their grooup. East Germany were knocked out in the second round while West Germany went on to win, as mentioned above. The match between the two sides was the only time they faced each other and was the only match West Germany failed to win in the whole tournament. East Germany won the Olympic football Gold medal in 1974 and I'll stop there before this turns into a too long digression about East German football).

I'd like to take a moment to recommend the film Good Bye, Lenin! set around the time of German re-unification which features the 1990 World Cup in a small but important role, without too much of the turgid football that tournament produced on display. It also has one of the best shot scenes in cinema history.

My wife has since amended her request to two songs, and I've added a third from my brother-in-law's favourite band.

The first song she requested is Extrabreit's cover of Flieger, grüß mir die Sonne, (Flyers, Say Hello To The Sun) which was released in 1990. Extrabreit were very popular in the early 1980's, coming along at the time of the Neue Deutsche Welle (New German Wave), but not really a part of it. (Neue Deutsche Welle was a movement based on British punk & new wave, although it developed away from that into something very unique. It also featured lyrics in German, something not too common in rock music in Germany at the time). The original version of the song was by Hans Albers, a phenomenally popular German actor in the 1930's and early 1940's, and comes from the soundtrack to the film F.P.1 antwortet nicht  (Floating Platform 1 Doesn't Respond). Again, I'll stop here before I spend an hour talking about Weimer film.

The next song is Die Elf vom Niederrhein (The 11 from the Lower Rhine) by Böhse Onkelz. Niederrhein is an area of Germany and the 11 from there are Borussia Mönchengladbach, sometimes just referred to as Gladbach, team. My wife is a Gladbach fan, hence this song.  Böhse Onkelz are from Frankfurt which isn't exactly close to Gladbach and there are two clubs in Frankfurt, Eintracht Frankfurt being the biggest and FSV Frankfurt playing in the second tier, so I have no idea why they are singing this song.

Lastly, this is Zehn Kleine Jägermeister (Ten Little Hunters) from Die Toten Hosen (literally The Dead Trousers. It's less literal translation is more like The Dead Beats). Die Toten Hosen are from Düsseldorf, the capital of Nordrhein-Westfalen, of which Niederrhein is a part. Die Toten Hosen are, at least as far as I'm aware, the most successful German punk band. This is their biggest hit, it came out in 1996 and reached No.1 on the German charts, they wouldn't have a second No.1 until 2012.

Although you're probably aware of Jägermeister as a drink it means 'master of hunters' and can be used to apply to gamekeepers.