A host of visitors, media representatives and also schools parties gathered at the FC Bayern Erlebniswelt on Monday 26 January, when FC Bayern München AG chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, joined president of the Israeli cultural community in Munich and Upper Bavaria Charlotte Knobloch, to open a special exhibition entitled “Players, fighters and legends: Jews in German football and at FC Bayern” (Kicker, Kämpfer und Legenden – Juden im deutschen Fußball und beim FC Bayern). VIP guests including Israeli General Consul Dr Dan Shaham also attended the event of the day before the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
“FC Bayern München wishes to contribute as often as possible to this chapter in history never being forgotten. The special exhibition is another symbol against racism and all forms of discrimination in football. It is an honour for us to host it here in our club museum, complemented with exhibits from our own history,” Rummenigge commented after a tour of the special exhibition.
The team responsible for the club museum at the Allianz Arena began supporting the !Nie Wieder Initiative two years ago with special events and guided tours marking the annual “Day of remembrance for the victims of National Socialism and against racism and all forms of discrimination in German football”. This year, a dedicated special exhibition examines this important aspect of German history and also considers related current developments in football. Charlotte Knobloch praised the club’s efforts: “It is absolutely desirable that other clubs take FC Bayern’s intense re-examination of its own history as an model. It means proactively working towards ensuring those of us here in the present, and hopefully also everyone in the future, will never have anything to do with this subject again.”
Special exhibition runs until 12 April
“Players, fighters and legends,” compiled by Centrum Judaicum in Berlin shown for the first time in 2006 in Berlin and later maintained as a touring exhibition by the Church of Reconciliation at Dachau, has been expanded in cooperation with the church and the Munich municipal archives to include the FC Bayern dimension using a number of previously unseen exhibits and revealing lost histories. Visitors to the special exhibitions area at the FC Bayern Erlebniswelt will learn about leading Jewish figures in German football an specifically at FC Bayern. Key themes include the Jewish influence on the club and biographies of the 31 Bayern members who were displaced, politically persecuted of murdered by the Nazi regime. “Players, fighters and legends: Jews in German football and at FC Bayern” runs at the FC Bayern Erlebniswelt until 12 April 2015.
“Our intensive exploration of the topic has shown that research in this area is far from concluded yet. The exhibition presents a rounded overall picture of the current status of the research,” commented Erlebniswelt team member Fabian Raabe. The intention is to continue the cooperation with all partners over and beyond this specific project, in order to throw this fascinating part of the club’s history into a new and always changing light in the future. The impressive special exhibition is the start of that process. Regular FC Bayern Erlebniswelt admission prices apply.
