Modern Life

Sport has played an important role in everyday life for a long time. Jogging and cycling are just as much part of the city scene as youngsters on skateboards or playing street football. Inline skaters have taken to the streets, with thousands of them often taking part in events on summer evenings in cities such as Berlin and Frankfurt. More than a million Germans take the German Sports Badge each year, a test of performance in different disciplines.

Sports associations, run on a voluntary basis, make a major contribution to the quality of life in the towns and cities. They bring people together, integrate different groups of the population and offer a wide range of different sports. The biggest is the German Football Association (6.3 million members), ahead of the German Gymnastics Federation (5 million members) and the German Tennis Federation (1.8 million members). This work focuses on children and teenagers. A quarter of children under six and more than half of seven to fourteen-year-olds belong to a sports club. This is an example of grass-roots solidarity, with adult volunteers putting on a leisure activity for youngsters, as well as integrating them into society.

Sport and health policy

Health-orientated sports activities are becoming increasingly significant. Preventing illness and rehabilitation through sport have become an integral part of modern health policy. Women are particularly receptive to taking part in sport to keep fit and healthy, while men are less concerned about their physical health. Men, including older men, prefer performance sport and make up the majority of the growing number of people in all age groups taking part in competitive sports. There are likely to be more sports on offer for older people in the years ahead on account of demographic developments.

More needs to be done in the eastern Federal Länder, which had to set up sports clubs and structures for many sports disciplines when the Wall came down in 1989. While they are ahead in top-level sport, where they make up the overwhelming majority of the members of successful national teams, they often lack an adequate infrastructure for mass sport.

Funding for sport

The municipalities are the principal provider of funding for sport in Germany. They not only subsidise sports clubs, but also provide and maintain sports facilities, particularly sports fields, sports halls and swimming pools. Thus, approximately EUR 3.1 billion in municipal funding is spent on sport each year, and a further EUR 668 million comes from the Federal Länder. Under the constitution, the Federal Government is responsible for supporting top-level sport, providing it with approx. EUR 130 million. It also provides jobs in the Bundeswehr, the Federal Border Guard and customs for the best sportsmen and women. Thus, they can engage in top-level sport while pursuing a career with the concomitant social benefits at the same time – an ideal combination. They have been very successful in international events. In spite of this support, sport cannot survive without business, which, for example, gives the German Sports Aid Foundation more than EUR 10 million each year to promote top-level sportsmen and women in all disciplines. Sponsoring, on the other hand, is primarily of benefit to the disciplines that receive television coverage. Football, which has the largest TV audience, receives the most, but another beneficiary is sport for all. The sports article industry, tourism and commercial sports providers are all playing a part in developments. Sport has become a significant economic factor, generating billions in turnover and providing more than 100,000 jobs in Germany.

Sport in schools is an ongoing topic of discussion. Its impact on children’s overall personal and academic development has not been sufficiently recognised by everyone involved, including many parents. In the wake of the current debate about the German school system, attempts are being made to give this subject greater priority. Sport is a subject that can be studied at most German universities. The Federal Institute for Sport Science in Bonn coordinates academic work, and the Research and Development Institute for Sports Equipment (FES) in Berlin develops innovations on sports equipment with a view to ensuring that German Olympic athletes continue to be successful at future events. German experience is passed on internationally too, with German experts travelling to many countries and providing support for sport as part of Germany’s sports development aid programme.

Germany organises many top international sports events each year. In 2006 for example the FIFA World Cup will take place here, and modern purpose-built football arenas are being constructed in twelve cities. The mood of new departures can already be felt in many places. Hosting young sportsmen and women from around the world, building bridges between nationalities, religions and cultures in the process, the intention is to send a signal to the international family of sport. After all, sport does good around the world!