Football with the Foe

In comparison with sports in other occupied countries, Danish sport had the most widespread collaboration with the Germans during World War II. Football with a Foe shows that the first years of the German occupation of Denmark became a “golden age” of Danish-German collaborative sports that was far more intense than any period before or since. Banners with the Nazi swastika flew side by side with the Danish flag, while German competitors gave the ‘heil’ salute accompanied by the Nazi Horst Wesselsong. However, later on, at a match against the Viennese team Admira, the Danish supporters poured scorn on the heil gestures of the guests and attacked uniformed German soldiers among the crowd. The riot at the stadium infuriated the German authorities to a degree that they had the Danish Minister of Justice dismissed. After the war, sport was again used for political purposes, now to demonstrate Denmark’s emotional integration in the Allied club, culminating in a sold-out game at IdrÃ?Â?Ã?¦tsparken on July 10, 1945 between a professional English and a select Danish team in the presence of the British chief commanding officer in Denmark, General Dewing. (In 2007, the Danish version of Football with the Foe was awarded as “the Danish history book of the year.”)