In the 1974 World Cup game in Hamburg, the GDR surprisingly beat the DFB team 1-0. West Germans don't notice the total surveillance of GDR players and fans.
A murmur goes through the room on January 5, 1974 at the draw for the soccer World Cup:the GDR team meets the host team - the Federal Republic of Germany. The game will take place in Hamburg on June 22 - six weeks after GDR spy Günter Guillaume caused the fall of Chancellor Willy Brandt. The Cold War reached football with the historic game.
Stasi monitors players and coaches
In 1974, the GDR was able to qualify for the soccer World Cup for the first and only time. But even before that, the officials are very concerned that players in the West could be defected to the "class enemy" or enticed away. In November 1973, Stasi chief Erich Mielke issued the first order to monitor competitive athletes. All footballers receive political training beforehand. In addition to the athletes, coaches, officials, masseurs, doctors and journalists are also monitored.
With the "Leather Campaign" to the tournament at the "class enemy"
Excerpt from the order for "Leather Campaign" by Erich Mielke. The action began on June 12 and ended on July 8, 1974.On May 15, 1974, Mielke issued the order for "Action Leather", a catalog of measures intended to prevent poaching attempts as well as political provocations against East German footballers. The Stasi also regulates which citizens are allowed to travel to the West as football fans:"Citizens are to be selected who, as conscious socialist citizens, show an active participation in political and social life and who have proven their political reliability." At the same time, the GDR football tourists "are to be kept under control in their work, living and leisure areas until they leave for the games. Suitable and verified IMs are to be used for this. Postal checks are to be initiated," according to the memo. One of the chosen ones is Dieter Tetzlaff:"I was one of the chosen ones because I had a family, a house, a bigger car. I wasn't doing badly, and that's why you certainly came across it:Well, we can let him drive, he is loyal to the line and will be back."
The fans are also given a clear mandate:in their fan block, they should support the team politically and morally in the competition, while maintaining discipline and avoiding exaggerations. They are also trained how to react in the event of a "provocation by the class enemy".
Jürgen Sparwasser shocks the Federal Republic
A goal that hits West Germans to the core:Jürgen Sparwasser celebrates after scoring 1-0 for the GDR.No one in the Stasi suspected that the GDR team would prevail against the favored West Germans on June 22, 1974 in Hamburg's Volksparkstadion. Jürgen Sparwasser scored the winning goal for East Germany in the 77th minute and ensured that the match between the two German states went down in history. The defeat hit the self-confidence of the West Germans hard, no one had seriously expected the GDR team to win.
But the success against the neighbor proves in retrospect to be a Pyrrhic victory. Because as the group winners, the East Germans meet the football greats Brazil, Argentina and the Netherlands in the second round and are eliminated.
Through defeat to victory:a team pulls together
In the end, the West was victorious:Captain Franz Beckenbauer received the World Cup trophy on July 7, 1974.The West Germans were so shocked by the defeat that the team of individualists, led by Franz Beckenbauer, pulled themselves together - and in the end won the title. In the final in Munich, coach Helmut Schön's team beat the Netherlands 2-1. Jürgen Sparwasser, on the other hand, does not bring much luck with his goal. Many envy his success, believing that it will give him special privileges. In fact, he only collects the same bonus as all other players. In the years that followed, he was under the special surveillance of the State Security. Nevertheless, he was able to escape to West Germany in 1988 on the occasion of a soccer game in Saarbrücken.