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In 1994, Germany were the reigning World Cup champions. Franz Beckenbauer had led the German team to the title four years earlier; things could scarcely have gone better in Italy: the atmosphere was harmonious and the whole team was a close-knit group in which each player stood up for the others. Four years after the triumph in Rome, the German national team is regarded by many as one of the best ever – and Beckenbauer’s statement shortly after the World Cup victory, that the German team would be “unbeatable for years to come”, is both a promise and a burden. A promise for millions of fans, a burden above all for Berti Vogts. Down-to-earth and conscientious, the new national coach stood in the shadow of his predecessor from the very start – whilst Beckenbauer was the ‘Kaiser’ and a ‘beacon of inspiration’, Vogts was the ‘terrier’, a hard worker and champion of discipline and team spirit, clinging to time-honoured ideals. Yet, like the rest of the world, football too underwent rapid change in the early 1990s: players have become global brands, self-assured, extremely wealthy and a constant presence in the increasingly tabloid-oriented media.
The first signs of discord between the manager and the squad became apparent as early as the World Cup preparations, with Vogts and his team coming under increasing scrutiny from the media and the public. Because Vogts refused to cooperate with the country’s most influential tabloid, it launched a personal attack on him and severely damaged his reputation. His promise of a title in front of 20 million ‘Wetten, dass..?’ viewers and public defamation by his predecessor did the rest, ensuring that the German team travelled to the World Cup under the greatest possible pressure – and fell apart there. An unsettled manager who, torn between freedom and discipline, loses control over his players. A team that fails to see itself as a unit and breaks down into factions. The partners of some players, who for the first time demanded a role of their own. Conflicts that reveal not only the sporting but also the social fault lines between East and West, loyalty and self-interest in reunified Germany. Until the ‘middle finger scandal’ involving Stefan Effenberg reached its climax and sparked a national debate about role models and responsibility – at a time when xenophobic riots were shaping Germany’s image. Vogts’ decision to send Effenberg home, thereby prioritising his own principles over popularity, ultimately isolated him, both within the team and in the public eye – until Germany were knocked out by Bulgaria shortly afterwards. Yet the World Cup debacle also marked the beginning of something new: just two years later, Vogts forged a new vision from the ruins of the team and led Germany – without the big stars but with a united front – to the European Championship.
Featuring exclusive interviews with, amongst others, Berti Vogts, players such as Lothar Matthäus, Stefan Effenberg, Bodo Illgner, Mario Basler and Matthias Sammer, journalists such as Reinhold Beckmann, Gaby Papenburg and Marcel Reif, as well as Bianca Illgner, who was at the centre of events at the time, "Eleven Heroes – One Nightmare" tells more than just the story of the 1994 World Cup from a German perspective. This four-part, high-gloss series is also a multi-layered portrait of a nation in transition and demonstrates once again just how much football acts as a magnifying glass for social developments: it deals with power struggles, the media and commercialisation, and the questions of loyalty, attitude and identity – and hovering over it all is the spirit of an era of upheaval in which a country must reinvent itself.
