Diversity and anti-discrimination are among the core values of the educational work taking place within German football. Promoting tolerance and integration is also an important issue to FC Bayern München – always remembering former FCB president Kurt Landauer. Landauer, honorary president since 2013, led the club for nearly 20 years. In 1939 he was forced to flee from the Nazis to Switzerland because of his Jewish heritage. He returned to Munich in 1947 after the end of the Second World War and retook his place at the helm of FC Bayern for another four years.
As part of the collaborative project ‘Erinnerung vereint’, a memorial visit to Auschwitz for FC Bayern supporters took place this weekend. Several Munich institutions such as the National Socialism Documentation Center, the Jewish Museum and the FC Bayern Erlebniswelt supported the project and provided content and preparation in the form of study days and workshops.
Aumann lays wreath
A group of 24 Bayern fans made their way to Oświęcim last Friday, accompanied by representatives of the ‘Fanprojekt München’ and FC Bayern. The programme for the five-day trip consisted of visits to Kraków, the Jewish Center in Oświęcim, the original Auschwitz I concentration camp and Auschwitz II-Birkenau.
Raimond Aumann, Bayern’s supporters and fan club coordinator and a key initiator of the project, also travelled to Auschwitz on Saturday and laid a wreath at the ‘Death Wall’ (in the yard between blocks 10 and 11) on behalf of FC Bayern München. “As a club we take our social responsibility seriously and actively campaign to ensure that the crimes of National Socialism are not forgotten, as well as fighting all current forms of racism and discrimination,” said Aumann. “I’m very proud that we could implement this project with some great partners. The fact that Bayern fans gave up a football-free weekend to travel to Auschwitz, where over a million people were murdered by the Nazis, commands huge respect from me and gives me hope for the future.”
The group return to Munich this coming Tuesday.
