Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win. – Gary Lineker (English player after losing to Germany in the 1990 World Cup semifinal). 

Today, Germany is a world power in soccer, having won four of the 21 World Cup tournaments played. However, in 1954, it was different. This reputation had not yet been built.

At the end of World War II nine years earlier, Germany lay in ruins. Divided physically and politically by the Allies and then the Cold War, Germany was a pariah among nations. Suspended by FIFA, the world soccer federation, neither West Germany nor East Germany were allowed to participate in the 1950 World Cup, the first post-war edition of the tournament. 

West Germany, which was aligned with democratic nations of the west, began rebuilding, both physically and economically. The so-called Economic Miracle (Wirtschaftswunder) of the 1950s, aided in part by the Marshall Plan, led to vastly improved conditions in the West. 

East Germany also began to rebuild, but at a slower pace, due largely to removal of factories and technology by the USSR as well as Sovietization, the latter of which resulted in a widespread uprising by the East Germans in 1953 put down by Soviet tanks.

West Germany’s victory in the 1954 World Cup in Bern over the Magic Maygars of Hungary lifted a nation’s spirits and became a symbol of the post-war Economic Miracle. According to Franz “Der Kaiser” Beckenbauer (one of the few to win a World Cup as player, captain, and coach), “Suddenly Germany was somebody again … For anybody who grew up in the misery of the post-war years, Bern was an extraordinary inspiration. The entire country regained its self-esteem.”

The victory was “the moment the Federal Republic of Germany was truly born,” said renowned historian Joachim Fest in a Deutsche Welle feature article in 2020.

In many ways, the spiritual effects of Germany’s 1954 soccer championship can be compared to the United States’ men’s hockey team’s Miracle on Ice Olympic gold medal in 1980. 

This article will take a philatelic look at West Germany in the 1954 World Cup. Though Germany did not issue any stamps for this tournament, in later years many stamps and philatelic items commemorating the tournament, the final, the coach, and the players were issued, many of which we will see in this article.

The Tournament

The soccer World Cup was first held in 1930 in Uruguay (where the United States would finish third) and was planned as a tournament to bring together the best national teams in the world every four years to compete for a world championship, much like the Olympics for all sports. Germany’s record before World War II was spotty, though it did finish third in 1934. No World Cup was held due to the war in 1942 and 1946, and as noted earlier, Germany was not allowed to participate in 1950.

In 1954, the World Cup was held in Switzerland (Figure 1). West Germany was again permitted to participate, having rejoined FIFA in late 1950. The French-occupied Saarland, which would rejoin Germany in 1957, was also invited to compete in qualification. East Germany, which did not join FIFA until 1952, declined to participate, in part due to the 1953 uprising but in part due to organizational difficulties. East Germany would, however, later win the gold medal in soccer in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and actually beat West Germany 1-0 in the preliminary round of the 1974 World Cup (its only World Cup appearance).

Figure 1. A Swiss (Scott 350) commemorative for the 1954 World Cup.

In the 1954 qualification, West Germany was drawn with the Saar (now part of Germany) and Norway and won its group. Figure 2 shows a 2006 regional private post souvenir sheet commemorating the Saar’s national team (in white shorts) and its games vs. West Germany (in black shorts).

Figure 2. A Saarriva souvenir sheet shows the Saar-West Germany qualifying match from 1954. Sarravia is a private post provider in Germany. German postal services were privatized in 1995, allowing local, regional, and national companies to compete with the former government Deutsche Post to provide postal services.

Hungary was the favorite in 1954. The Mighty Magyars (also known as the “Golden Team”) were undefeated since 1950, having won the Olympic gold medal in 1952 and humbling the mighty English team (which had been expected to win the 1950 World Cup before losing 1-0 to the U.S. in that tournament) twice before the 1954 World Cup.

The first victory was in what was dubbed “The Match of the Century” in November 1953 at London’s Wembley Stadium (Figure 3), where England lost 6-3, its first home loss to any team outside the British Isles. England wanted revenge, and so a return match was scheduled for May 1954 in Budapest. England lost 7-1, still England’s worst loss of all time. These were so-called “friendly” games, as they were not part of a scheduled competition.

Figure 3. A 2003 Hungary (Scott 3857) souvenir sheet. At top, Puskás Stadium in Budapest; bottom, 50th anniversary of Hungary’s win over England.

At the 1954 World Cup, 16 teams were divided into four groups of four. Unranked Germany and South Korea were joined by the ranked teams Hungary and Turkey in Group 2. In an unusual format, as opposed to the traditional round robin-format, only two matches in each four-team group would be played, with the top two ranked teams vs. the two unranked teams. The top two teams in each group would advance.

Unseeded Germany easily defeated higher-ranked Turkey 4-1 in its opening match, while Hungary won 9-0 over South Korea. Match 2 would pit the Germans vs. Hungary. German coach Sepp Herberger, knowing that a loss to Hungary would cause a winnable playoff rematch with Turkey for second place in the group, rested some of his starters, and Hungary won, as expected, 8-3, though its captain and star player, Ferenc Puskás, was injured and would miss two games. Germany did indeed defeat Turkey in the playoff, 7-2, and Germany and Hungary advanced to the knockout rounds.

Germany defeated Yugoslavia 2-0 in the quarterfinals and Austria 6-1 in the semifinal, while Hungary defeated Brazil 4-2 in the quarterfinals in a very physical match and, in its semifinal, topped defending champion Uruguay, 4-2, scoring twice in overtime. This set up the championship match on July 4, 1954, at Bern’s Wankdorf Stadium. Most Hungarian and German fans would follow the match via radio, as television was not commonly available.

In the final, Hungary – already having defeated Germany in the first round – was heavily favored, but there were factors that gave Germany a chance in this game. Hungary had played two difficult matches in the knockout rounds. Puskás, Hungary’s best player, was not 100 percent fit and it was raining, often the great equalizer. The Germans called it “Fritz Walter weather,” in honor of their captain, who was known to play his best in poor weather.  

Germany also had a “secret weapon,” shoes with replaceable cleats created by Ali Dassler, founder of Adidas.

Still, it was no surprise when Hungary took the lead through a Puskás goal after 6 minutes followed by a second goal from Czibor in the 8th minute. Ahead 2-0, the Hungarians were confident. But, as German coach Sepp Herberger later said, “As long as there is still singing, the church service isn’t over.”

Max Morlock screamed at his teammates “Now let’s show them!” They did, as Morlock scored (Figure 4) in the 10th minute, which was followed by the tying goal by Helmut Rahn in the 18th.

A tense match ensued. Hungary had many chances but could not get one past Germany’s goalie, Toni Turek. In the 84th minute, German announcer Herbert Zimmerman made his famous call: “Rahn shoots! Goal! Goal! Goal! Goal! Germany lead 3-2! Call me mad, call me crazy!” A possible equalizer by Puskás in the 87th minute was deemed offside, to the frustration of the Hungarians, and did not count. 

Shortly thereafter, the referee blew the final whistle, Walter raised the Jules Rimet Trophy (the then-named World Cup Trophy), and all Germany celebrated (including East Germany, albeit quietly due to the political situation). In Hungary, demonstrations broke out, which many historians think led to the revolution of 1956, and the team had to wait in Tata, a small town in northwestern Hungary, for emotions to calm. On the other hand, the German train heading home was stopped time and time again by fans running onto the tracks to greet their champions.

Figure 4. A semipostal stamp from Germany (Scott B394) shows Max Morlock’s goal, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1954 victory (the anniversary cancel shows the goal from a different perspective).

The Coach

Sepp Herberger (1897-1977) coached Germany in 1954. 

 In many ways, Herberger is the German equivalent of Yogi Berra. His sayings – such as “After the game is before the game,” quoted at the start of the action-mystery movie “Run Lola Run” (1998) – are as much a part of German culture as Yogi’s “It ain’t over til it’s over” is a part of American culture. 

Herberger was known for selecting a team that would play well together as opposed to just the best players. He built this team with a core of players from the German champions 1 FC Kaiserslautern and then adding players to fit, sometimes leading to some unusual selections, such as Helmut Rahn, which proved to be vital to the team’s success. German National Team coaches still follow this concept.

Two German stamps have been issued in Herberger’s honor, the first for his 100th birthday in 1997 (Figure 5) and for his 125th birthday in 2022 (Figure 6), the latter illustrating and quoting another of his sayings, “Das Runde muss ins Eckige” – meaning, “the round (thing) must go in the corner.” Another of his most famous sayings, “Der Ball ist rund” (“the ball is round”), also used in German film "Run Lola Run" (1998), was used in the selvage of a series of stamps from the private post PostModern, of Dresden (Figure 7). He played from 1914 to 1930 and then was German coach, from 1936 to 1942 and West Germany coach, from 1950 to 1964, also finishing fourth in 1958 at the World Cup in Sweden.

Figure 5. A postal card commemorates the 100th anniversary of Coach Sepp Herberger’s birth. The indicia from Germany (Scott 1953) appears on a private card celebrating VfB Stuttgart’s German Cup win in 1997. Germany allows private companies to create valid postal stationery and postal cards with German stamp indicia, often for commemorations.

Figure 6. The 125th anniversary of Sepp Herberger’s birth is marked in 2022 with a commemorative (Scott 3283). Note the use at right of a unique, individual matrix code preventing reuse of the stamp and allowing tracking.

Figure 7. PostModern, another private post company, created a stamp commemorating Dynamo Dresden, with selvage offering a Herberger quote.

The Players

Fritz Walter (1920-2002). 

The captain of the West German team (Figure 8),Walter played as an attacking midfielder, and was “capped” (appeared) 61 times for Germany and West Germany, scoring 33 goals. His last match for West Germany was in the 1958 World Cup semifinals, in which he suffered a major injury, which led to his retirement from soccer in 1959. He also played 384 top league matches for his hometown club, 1 FC Kaiserslautern, with which he won the German Championship in 1951 and 1953 and finished second in 1948, 1954, and 1955. 
Walter’s brother, Ottmar, who also played with him at Kaiserslautern, was also a starter on the World Cup winning team. 

Figure 8.  An autographed numisletter (or philatelic-numismatic cover) shows a replica of the 1954 winner’s medal, honoring Fritz Walter’s 80th birthday, and is franked with a soccer ball stamp (Scott 2063).

Kaiserslautern’s stadium was named after Fritz Walter in 1985, and he was named as honorary captain of Germany in 1958. He was honored with a German stamp in 2020 on the occasion of his 100th birthday, showing him holding the Jules Rimet Trophy (Figure 9)

Figure 9. Fritz Walter’s 100th birthday noted on a 2002 stamp from Germany (Scott 3185). The  selvage states, “Honored citizen of the city of Kaiserslautern.”

Max Morlock (1925-1994), a forward. He scored the first goal for Germany in the 1954 World Cup final, which is shown on the stamp honoring the 50th anniversary of the victory in 2004 (Figure 4). He made 26 international appearances for West Germany, scoring 21 goals. He  won the German Championship in 1948 and 1961 with his hometown team 1 FC Nürnberg, where he played from 1940 through 1964. Nürnberg’s stadium was named in his honor in 2017.

Helmut Rahn (1929-2003, a wing-forward. Known as “The Boss,” his now legendary goal won the World Cup in 1954 (Figure 10). Rahn’s sometimes inconsistent play and training issues made him a surprise choice to participate in 1954 (he was not originally included in the preliminary squad), but he always rose to the occasion at the highest levels of play. His sense of humor and team spirit brought the team together. 

Figure 10. A special cancellation honors Helmut Rahn.

Rahn made 40 international appearances for West Germany, scoring 21 goals, and was the first player to score at least four goals in two different World Cups (1954 and 1958). He won the German Cup in 1953 and the German Championship in 1955 with Rot-Weiss Essen and was vice champion with 1 FC Köln in 1960 and MSV Duisburg in 1964. Sadly, problems with alcoholism hurt his career. 

Toni Turek (1919-1984). The goalie (Figure 11) played 20 times for West Germany between 1950 and 1954. His first match  came at the age of 31, making him the oldest player to debut for Germany until that time. He was the oldest player in the 1954 World Cup. He did not play in the first match vs. Hungary, as Herberger was resting him. He played more than 200 top level games. Herbert Zimmermann’s call of a Turek save vs. Hungary’s Hidegkuti in the World Cup final – “Turek, du bist ein Fußballgott” (“Toni, you are a football god”) – was immortalized on a 2018 German stamp as part of a set honoring Germany’s four World Cup championships (Figure 12).

Figure 11. A special cancellation honors Toni Turek. 

Figure 12. A private postal stationery item with the indicia of a Legendary Matches stamp (Scott B1141).

Epilogue

Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international radio network, notes, “The unlikely victory became known as the Miracle of Bern and helped heal a nation that was divided, lost and in real need of inspiration.” 

West Germany’s Wirtschaftswunder (Economic Miracle) of the 1950s took place at about the same time as the 1954 championship. West Germany soon became one of the strongest economies in the world, forever binding the two events in the German psyche.

West Germany did not issue a stamp to honor the victors — in fact, West Germany would not issue its second soccer stamp (the first was for the 1936 Olympics (Figure 13) until 1974 when the country first hosted the World Cup. But the anniversaries were often noted by special cancellations.

Figure 13. A cover from the 1936 Berlin Olympics shows Germany’s first soccer stamp (Scott B84)

One special cancellation was in 1974 for the 20th anniversary (Figure 14), here using one of the stamps from that 1974 set on a card autographed by Herberger. In 1994, the 40th anniversary was commemorated by a special cancel, using the German stamp issued for the 1994 World Cup in the U.S. (Figure 15), and finally, as noted earlier, a semipostal stamp was issued to commemorate the 50th anniversary.

Figure 14. The second soccer issue by Germany in 1974 (Scott 1148), with Sepp Herberger’s autograph and a 20th Anniversary cancel.

Figure 15. The 40th Anniversary special cancellation on a 1994 World Cup semipostal (Scott B760).

West Germany would win two more World Cups, in 1974, coached by Helmut Schön (Figure 16), who had coached the Saar in the 1954 qualifiers, and in 1990, coached by Franz Beckenbauer, who had been captain of the 1974 team. Reunified Germany  won the nation’s  fourth title in 2014. 

 Figure 16. A  private postal stationery with Helmut Schön indicia (Scott 2861).

In 2002, Germany participated in a joint issue (Figure 17) from six of the seven nations that had won the World Cup to that point: Argentina, Brazil, Germany, France, Italy, and Uruguay. The flag of the seventh team – England appears on the stamp, though Great Britain’s Royal Mail did not participate in the joint issue. 

Figure 17. Germany’s 2002 joint issue (Scott 2163) showing seven World Cup champions. The cancel is for Borussia Dortmund’s 2002 German championship.

In 2018, Germany issued a souvenir sheet (Figure 18) and individual stamps commemorating famous match commentary from the 1954, 1974, and 1990 wins, with a label for the fourth win, in 2014. Note the QR code on the souvenir sheet, which gave information about the tournament held in Russia.

Figure 18. A 2018 Legendary Matches booklet pane shows three stamps and a label for Germany’s four World Cup wins (Scott B1143a.)

What will happen as the 2022 World Cup concludes in Qatar this month? We will have to wait and see if Germany can lift the trophy for an unprecedented fifth time. Perhaps the U.S. National Team will have something to say about that. As Herberger noted: “The ball is round and the game lasts 90 minutes. Everything else is theory.”

Germany Philatelic Society

The Germany Philatelic Society (www.germanyphilatelicsocietyusa.org/wordpress/) is dedicated to the documentation, preservation, advancement and promotion of the stamps and postal history of Germany and its related areas through education, study, research and services. It is APS Affiliate AF-0048.

References

“Design Moment: Adidas football boot, 1953,” Irish Times: https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property/interiors/design-moment-adidas-football-boot-1953-1.3537473.

Garthe, M.; Schössler, H.P. Der Mythos von Bern (Rheinpfalz Verlag: 2004). p 103.

“Obituary: Helmut Rahn,” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/aug/15/guardianobituaries.football.

Speight, Janek. “The Miracle of Bern,” Deutsche Welle (March 21, 2020). https://www.dw.com/en/the-miracle-of-bern-west-germanys-run-to-1954-world-cup-win/a-52870532.

“Sepp Herberger´s 125th Birthday” German Patent and Trade Mark Office. https://www.dpma.de/english/our_office/publications/background/seppherberger/index.html.

 “World Cup stunning moments: the Miracle of Bern” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/may/06/world-cup-stunning-moments-miracle-of-bern.

The Author

Ken Gilbert is currently convention chair of the Germany Philatelic Society. He has served on its board in the past and has written for the German Postal Specialist. He is also exhibits chair for Colopex, a WSP show sponsored by the Columbus Philatelic Club, and is also a member of the Worthington Stamp Club. He grew up playing soccer in a suburb of Philadelphia and played many years as a striker for teams in eastern Pennsylvania and central Ohio. He fell in love with German soccer through a picture of a Borussia Mönchengladbach player in a German children’s magazine his high school German teacher had, as well as through Toby Charles’ PBS show of the late 1970s, Soccer Made in Germany (and actually attended a couple of games shown on that program). He collects Germany and exhibits German rural mail from the town he visited as an exchange student, Lehrte, in 1973, and, of course, soccer, as well as helping his wife, Catherine, with her elephant exhibit, 96 Elephants. Note: All translations from German to English are the author’s.

For Further Learning

Recommendations from the APRL research staff:

“German Reichstag Building and Reichstag Politics – Part 4: Divided Germany June 1945-October 1990,” by Richard Slater. German Postal Specialist, November 2013.

“Philatelic Map of Germany Divided, 1945-1963,” by Germany Philatelic Society, Philatelic Map Study Group. (Valparaiso, IN: Germany Philatelic Society, 1963). [Flat File Drawer 9 Map Room].

“Collecting Soccer Stamps – A Thematic Index,” by Bob Pateman. Gibbons Stamp Monthly October-November 1985.

Soccer: “A Comprehensive Checklist of the Soccer Stamps of the World, 1924-1980,” by Barbara W. de Violini. (Oakland, CA: Robert de Violini, 1982. [HE6183 .S67 8 D495s]. 

“Soccer World Champions of the 20th Century,” by anon. German Postal Specialist, March-April 2002.