Football Fever in Southwest Germany

It’s not a football café at first glance. Not even at second glance. No pennants. No screens. No football posters. Even the staff have nothing to do with football. Perhaps that's why former German national team coach Jogi Löw chose Café Melange as his regular café. At third glance, you can spot him in photographs on the wall. Löw, who was served an espresso at every interview during his time in charge, appreciates a perfect hot drink. Regulars claim that the espresso at Café Melange is the best north of the Alps. If you're lucky, you'll meet the former national coach there. When he still lived in Freiburg, he was a regular almost every day.

Among German football fans, Lake Schluchsee is called ‘Schlucksee’, which means ‘booze lake’. That’s because the German national football team stayed at the Vier Jahrezeiten Hotel while preparing for the 1982 World Cup in Spain. A smart hotel manager had convinced the German Football Association (DFB) that the altitude of the Black Forest Highlands would have a positive effect on the players’ fitness. The fact that altitude training only makes sense above an altitude of 1500 metres was apparently not known to the DFB. But there was another kind of training instead. Cab drivers earned a lot of money by taking the German players to a well-known discotheque in Lörrach every day. Moreover, unimaginable today, the players were ordinary hotel guests among many others. Only with a somewhat tougher fitness programme.

Few people have left as many traces in German football as Uli Hoeneß. He grew up in the house that is now home to ‘Joe's Getränkelädle’, a small beverage store. It used to be a butcher's shop and home of the Hoeneß family. Little Uli often helped out at the till – only when there was no football training on the shedule, of course. It's worth walking from Ulm’s city centre up to Eselsberg Hill. From there, it's not far to the Hasenkopf Viewpoint and the botanical gardens of Ulm University.

Perhaps the hills of the High Tatras were on the minds of the Polish delegation when they decided to stay at the Sonne-Post Hotel in Murrhardt during the 1974 World Cup. The hotel had been recommended by former German national coach Sepp Herberger, especially for its good accommodation and cuisine. The Poles' stay was extremely successful. The underdogs remained in the competition until the very last day. As they stayed longer than planned, the hotel manager Erika Bofinger had to cancel numerous bookings, including that of the then Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg.

Hard to believe, but true: the 2006 World Cup kicked off on Wangen's marquet square. The team from Togo had chosen the city in the Allgäu region as their team base. The West Africans were the first participating country to officially arrive at the World Cup with their entire team. The welcome on the market square was broadcast live on television. From the market square in Wangen, the message went out across the country: The World Cup has finally started! Unfortunately, Togo was also the first team to be eliminated from the tournament. However, this did not affect the good relationship between Togo and the Allgäu region: It is still maintained intensively today.