FC Bayern president Herbert Hainer: ‘Kurt Landauer more relevant than ever’

Former FC Bayern President Kurt Landauer was imprisoned for 33 days in Barrack 8 of the Dachau concentration camp before being released and ultimately fleeing the Nazi terror regime from his home town of Munich to Switzerland. Now, 80 years later, current Bayern president Herbert Hainer was sitting in the Dachau Reconciliation Church to discuss the horrors of yesterday, the challenges of today and the responsibility for tomorrow at a panel discussion.

A full house

The room was full, with 70 guests including descendants of concentration camp inmates, representatives from politics and sport such as the president of the Bavarian Football Association Christoph Kern, as well as the Kurt Landauer Foundation and FCB fan club QUEERPASS. Hainer emphasised on the occasion of Holocaust Remembrance Day: “Kurt Landauer is a unique example of reconciliation, because he reached out his hand to FC Bayern and the Germans after his return. He is also an inspiration for future generations, and his memory is more relevant today than ever. At a time when divisive forces such as the AfD are trying to jeopardise our democracy, we are standing up to them. Not today, not tomorrow, and above all, not with us.” That statement was greeted by long applause.

According to Hainer, Bayern's history shows “how important it is to take a stand in order to shape the future”. The president praised the commitment of the fans, not least the Kurt Landauer Foundation, and explained that the German record champions regularly create space for encounters with their Red against Racism initiative, which was founded five years ago, including at the weekend around the home game against Holstein Kiel with a joint Shabbat celebration organised by FCB members and the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria led by its president Charlotte Knobloch, which was being held for the third time. “Remembering alone is not enough. We have to be active, impart knowledge and listen. What we also need is a positive narrative when confronting anti-democratic forces. For over 70 years, our democracy has guaranteed us a freedom that has never existed in Europe before, as well as lasting peace. It is important to stand up for this and to critically scrutinise anyone who questions values such as tolerance and cosmopolitanism.”

Remembrance work on many levels

The Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp was liberated 80 years ago on 27 January. As in German society as a whole, there was long resistance in football to coming to terms with the National Socialist past. Today, remembrance work is practised in football in a variety of ways, not least since 2004 through the !NieWieder (Never Again!) campaign. With a network of fan groups and projects, anti-racism alliances, amateur and professional clubs, the German Football League (DFL) and the German Football Association (DFB) as well as numerous people and institutions from civil society and political education work, the aim is to encourage people to remember the persecuted members and to do everything they can to “ensure that Auschwitz never happens again”.

After introductory words from Frank Schleicher, deacon of the Church of Reconciliation, Hainer discussed the topic with Uwe Dziuballa (initiator of the German-Jewish meeting centre Shalom eV Chemnitz), Regina Rockinger, granddaughter of a former concentration camp prisoner, and Eberhard Schulz, founding member of ‘!NieWieder’. In video messages, Eva Szepesi, a survivor of Auschwitz, recalled a time “that should never happen again. You must be careful, everyone must feel responsible for democracy”, and Zvi Cohen, a survivor of Theresienstadt, who warned: “There are Nazis in Germany again - the greatest danger to democratic Germany.”

Years ago, FC Bayern commissioned an independent study from the Institute of Contemporary History (IfZ) to come to terms with its own past, the findings of which were incorporated into the FC Bayern Museum and the travelling exhibition ‘Revered - Persecuted - Forgotten’. It was first shown in the Church of Reconciliation in Dachau, where other FC Bayern decision-makers such as long-time CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and former presidents Willi O. Hoffmann, Fritz Scherer and Karl Hopfner had already taken part in commemorative ceremonies.