Franz Beckenbauer: Football Kaiser
He’s probably the most famous German alive today. When you google his name, you’re likely to score over a million hits. Franz Beckenbauer is an institution, in real life and on the Web. A mind-boggling career founded his reputation: a phenomenal player moves into the top league of coaches and then into the complex world of international sport politics. Franz Beckenbauer, born on 11 September 1945 in München-Giesing, the son of a postal worker, a football whiz kid in the economic miracle era, 103 internationals, 424 Bundesliga matches, usually just nicknamed “der Kaiser”, is a veritable stroke of luck for Germany. The shining light. His name is mentioned in the same breath as that of Péle. He combines football with contemporary history and creates unforgettable moments. The way he regularly sends the country into a state of collective ecstasy every 16 years, as stunningly relaxed as his precision-packed passes across half of the pitch. Moments made for eternity. He’s the captain and “the brains“ of the 1974 World Cup winners, manager of the winning World Cup team in 1990 and – again 16 years later – president of the organizing committee for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. The sun-drenched, rapturously fan-filled, unique staging of the “summer’s fairytale” performed in 64 acts over several weeks under his omnipresent directorship reaps worldwide admiration as the masterpiece of the “Kaiser’s” monumental works. Franz Beckenbauer, president of Bayern Munich, ambitious hobby golfer (handicap 7), man of the world and chairman of the Franz Beckenbauer Foundation, lives in Kitzbühel, Austria.
Boris Becker: Tennis Idol
He is driven by passion. He openly expresses his emotions. He is unsurpassed in providing insights into the psychological roller-coaster ride of top-class sport. Defeat and victory, triumph and tears – the tennis court is an unparalleled battlefield of emotions, and every match is a thriller. His perfomances are more exciting than the most gripping TV cliff-hanger. A wild young man. He strips German tennis of its venerable innocence. Genteel baseline drives and neat shots at the net? That’s not Boris. He’s all for attack, “serve and volley”, totally relentless, if his reach is too short he simply launches himself into a flying lunge for the ball. He clenches his fist when going for the big point, if a shot fails the racquet ends up in shreds. Boris Becker makes it to the Wimbledon final seven times, he wins three times, but there will be no repeat of that exceptional 7 July 1985 when, at just 17 years of age, he stretches his arms in exaltation towards the sky on the “sacred lawn”. “Fleeting moment, stay awhile...” He triggers a tennis boom and is celebrated like a rock star. The red-haired boy from the provinces of Baden hits the big time. And in real life as well he mixes emotion with sheer drama. Boris Becker superstar. Paparazzi and razzmatazz, a life in the fast lane. In 1999 he says goodbye to professional tennis. Boris Becker, a sporting hero forever.
Birgit Fischer: Canoe Champion
She adores this peacefulness. The poetry of the landscape. Gently gliding on the water. Preferably in the early morning when the lake mists hover over Beetzsee. The lakes of Brandenburg are her domain. Ever since her first outing in a racing kayak at six years of age. She covered tens of thousands of kilometres here, trained until exhausted. Then out into the world. The world of noise, the world of floodlights, the world of the international sporting elite. Olympic Games: Moscow 1980, Seoul 1988 – at that time still canoeing for the team from the German Democratic Republic, before the fall of the Wall – Barce-lona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004. She returns like a hunter with her trophies. She mounts the podium eight times as Olympic gold medallist. A woman in Olympus. At the vibrant games in “down under” she’s the German standard-bearer. Birgit Fischer wins 27 world championship titles. She is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the most successful woman athlete in an Olympic discipline. Again she toys with the idea of Beijing 2008; but then comes her decisive “no”. It’s final. In the future Birgit Fischer, born in 1962, only wants to paddle out of passion. Nowadays she often takes her camera along on her aquatic expeditions. She photographs “My Brandenburg”. Romantically, and often in the early morning mist. She loves this country.
Bernhard Langer: Professional Golfer
Bernhard who? When the media breaks the news in April 1985, Germans learn three things. A: There’s a professional golfer called Bernhard Langer. B: The said Bernhard Langer has just won the world’s most prestigious golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia. And C: Golf is an real sport and not, as previously assumed, a pastime for aging, somewhat anglophile snobs. But who is this Bernhard Langer? When he won the Masters Golf Tournament on the sacred turf of American professional golfers, he had just turned 28. He comes from Anhausen near Augsburg, his father was a bricklayer. A year later he makes the headlines again. Number one in the world rankings. In 1993 he wins again in Augusta. But who is Bernhard Langer? He’s seen as ambitious, highly talented and meticulous. He avoids the media circus. His ego isn’t made for the limelight. He’s a star abroad, but in Germany he’s less well-known. Nevertheless he is the pioneer of a new booming sport and the role model for over 550,000 golfers who are now swinging their wood and iron. And in 2006 Queen Elizabeth II appointed him an Honorary Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for his services to golf. A great honour for the quiet star. Congratulations.
Rosi Mittermaier: Ski Artist
She’s a sport junkie. Movement is her motto. Always on the move, always out and about, preferably in the Bavarian Alps, because that’s where she grew up and still lives today. Rosi Mittermaier, the eternal sportswoman. “Gold Rosi”. Jaunty, charming, with a great Bavarian accent. When she talks she evokes images of expansive natural landscapes with cows happily grazing against an alpine sunset. 1976 is her year. In the World Cup she wins the slalom and the Alpine combination, in the World Championships she wins three titles. She saves the climax for the Olympic Games in Innsbruck. Gold in the downhill event, gold in the slalom, silver in the giant slalom. This series of triumphs makes Rosi Mittermaier, born in 1950 in Reit im Winkl, the world’s most successful woman skier. She completes the season and finishes her career. She recently wrote a book about the healing power of sport. She has a mission. She wants to inspire couch potatoes and mobilize potential heart patients among big-city dwellers, preferably with energetic Nordic walking in the countryside. In Rosi Mittermaier’s vision of the world, exercise and sport mean healthy living and joie de vivre. She conserves the countryside, she lives simply. She upholds conservative values.
Michael Gross: Swimming Icon
He’s often visible at conferences. He can hardly be missed: Dr. phil. Michael Gross, born in 1964, 2.01 metres tall, managing partner of a consultancy for corporate communications in Frankfurt am Main. At the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, he teaches personnel management and corporate culture. Change Management and Business as a Brand are the topics that keep him on the move; he can fill an evening’s programme with eloquent talks about staff motivation and “roads to success”. He willingly includes examples from his “former” life. After all, Dr. phil. Michael Gross is the “albatross“. Three times Olympic gold medallist, five times world champion, 13 times European champion, 26 times German champion, twelve times world record holder. The finest swimmer the Federal Republic ever had. 2.13-metre total arm span – the high-flier in freestyle and butterfly. He still holds the German record for 200 metres butterfly (1:56.24 minutes), although it’s 22 years since he achieved this success. Blazing new trails, experimenting, generating unconventional ideas. That’s when the “albatross” and Dr. phil. Michael Gross are in sync, and his “two lives” go together like the two sides of a coin. In fact one of his talks is entitled “Every day an Olympic victory – the road to success”.
Steffi Graf: Tennis Wonder
Where to begin? With a summary of her grand slam victories? Wimbledon maybe? 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996. The French Open? 1987, 1988, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1999. Should we check the world rankings? She’s number one for 377 weeks – longer than anyone else; the first time was on 17 August 1987. A shy, 18-year-old girl with strawberry-blond hair from the German provinces. At press conferences she seems uncertain, usually just wants to say she wants to play “good tennis”. That’s all. But her “good tennis” has relatively little to do with the game the others play. She is a tennis prodigy, her game is extraterrestrial. Her forehand is unbeatable. In 1988 she wins all four grand slam tournaments. In the early 1990s she often plays so superbly that the outcome is almost predictable. Following a tax scandal, she publicly breaks with her dominant, overambitious father. Another Steffi Graf gradually emerges. Stefanie Graf. In 1998 she establishes the Children for Tomorrow foundation, which supports needy children in the developing world; in 2001 she marries US tennis star André Agassi and moves to Las Vegas. Even today she is regularly voted Germany’s most popular celebrity. Her German now sounds “very American”.
Michael Schumacher: Legendary Racing Driver
The Schumacher phenomenon: 250 Grand Prixs, 91 Grand Prix victories, 154 times on the podium, 68 pole positions, 1,369 world championship points, seven times Formula One world champion – the most successful driver in motorsport history, millennium world champion. The Schumacher phenomenon: he starts as a kid on a kart track near Cologne. The lad has talent. 21-year-old “Schumi” first appears on the Formula 1 circuit on 25 August 1991. Hockenheim, Monza, Silverstone... He then reigns over the motorsport elite for 15 years. A brilliant era. He becomes an icon in the cockpit of Scuderia Ferrari cars, which he starts driving in 1996. He redefines the profession of the racing driver. Playboy-like daredevilry has no place in his strategy. Precision and perfection as opposed to post-juvenile irresponsibility. His ambition pushes him to his limit; he has the fitness of a marathon runner, driving expertise, technological know-how – and a family as a counterbalance. A man who lives in the danger zone. He occasionally seems imprisoned there. Sometimes he displays another aspect of his personality. When the tsunami rages in Asia, he spontaneously donates ten million dollars to the relief effort. When his mother dies, he drives wearing a black armband, wins convincingly – and weeps. The Schumacher phenomenon: he’s recently switched to a motorbike. For fun. He’s still a speed addict.
Katarina Witt: Figure Skating Queen
When she laughs the ice melts. She’s the most successful figure skater of her time. In 1988 in Calgary she happily wins her second gold medal. Her seductively famous role as Carmen descends like a summer storm on the conventional world of figure skating. Flamenco on ice. She sees her sport as art. Her free programme promises elegance and illusion. She can revolve round her own axis at top speed and still smile sensuously. Everything is perfectly geared to this moment: make-up, body language, music, hairstyle, choreography. Her crimson costume confuses masculine emotions – Carmen will die in the fourth act. She dances on thin ice. Time magazine dubs Kati Witt “the most beautiful face of Socialism”. She’s the superstar of the GDR, a blazing sport comet in the declining “state of workers and farmers”. When the Wall falls in autumn 1989 she faces the toughest challenge of her life: the past weighs heavily on her. But Kati dances her way into the new age. Laughing. She conquers hearts in a trice; stages ice shows in America, signs contracts with Coca-Cola. World star Kati Witt. When she poses for Playboy in 1998 the edition sells out within hours around the globe. That only ever happened once before, with Marilyn Monroe. On 4 March 2008 Kati Witt, the media darling, gives her last show on ice. At 42 she bids farewell to the rink. She says it with a smile. Naturally.
Henry Maske: Gentleman Boxer
The man has time. He keeps his distance. His parasympathetic nerve holds his adrenalin in checkmate. He’s a rationalist. In the ring he acts like an engineer. Everything follows a strategic plan. In time, the measured jabs will take effect. He defeats opponent with fine precision. On 20 March 1993 Henry Maske from Treuenbrietzen in Brandenburg dons the belt of the IBF world light heavyweight champion. A new kind of champion: polite, cultivated, great looks. A gentleman – inside and outside the ring. In reunited Germany he’s the first “united German” sports star, an idol in both east and west. The “gentleman” rescues boxing from the bad corner and makes it socially acceptable. He defends the title ten times, 18 million fans root for him in front of the TV screens when “Sir Henry” puts on his boxing gloves. The final count comes on 23 November 1996. Henry Maske loses the last fight in his career to Virgil Hill. “Time to say goodbye.” Germany is in tears. Henry Maske takes on new challenges. He is involved in his Henry Maske Foundation for young offenders. But he simply cannot forget 23 November 1996. 3,748 days later he climbs back into the ring. He’s 43. He wants revenge. He defeats Virgil Hill, the world champion. The gentleman has found his peace at last. The man has time.
