The First German Football Film. Zoltan Korda’s Die elf Teufel and the Cultural Transgressions of the late Weimar Republic

By the close of the Golden Twenties, sport in Germany had experienced an exponential rise in popularity, both among the masses and the capitalistic elite. Though the cultural and technological progression of the 1920s was welcomed by many, a distinct fatigue and criticism emerged in the late years of the doomed German republic. The burgeoning cinematic realm facilitated the combination of the popularity of sport, and more specifically football, with pedagogical influence in a time of political upheaval and crisis, illuminating the cultural battlefield at the time. Zoltan Korda’s 1927 film Die elf Teufel elucidates these characteristics of early cinematic landscape in Weimar Germany. By examining the main characters and their interpersonal interactions, Korda’s film sets the stage not only for the fall of the young republic. In analyzing the star player Tommy’s role in the love triangle central to the plot as well as the variations of the “new woman” (‘Gretchen,’ ‘Girl,’ and ‘Garçonne’), this article demonstrates how Korda’s film not only highlights the progressively problematic cultural development at play in the Weimar Republic but also the purported victory of traditional German values over those of international modernity.