stadtaachen

Aachen’s top soccer club was more or less bust – again – and the fans, in other words pretty well everyone in Aachen, pulled together. It worked. A couple of years later the black-and-yellows of the Tivoli ground even made it to the German Premiership League – and were immediately relegated again. Remained faithful and true: what really counts is not success for its own sake but passion pure – in League Division 3 if need be.

As His crowning achievement, say the good burghers of “Oche”, the great God of Football created … Alemannia Aachen. Only those of truly evil intent would dare to postulate that He was just having a bad day. To any Öcher, feelings run high when he thinks of “his” Alemannia.

Indeed this club – whose 9,500 members make it Aachen’s biggest association – is at least every bit as much about feelings as it is about football. Tumultuous cheering or depression a-nearing, the rollercoaster history of Aachen’s footballing heroes means fans get anything but an easy ride. What they do get, though, is a truly classless society on the terraces, one where people of all walks of life mingle as equals.

Alemannia today is 'cult' and business

Alemannia is “cult” in Aachen, as they say. But “cult” doesn’t pay the bills in this modern world of professional football, so the club has re-invented itself in recent years as a “soccer business”. A new stadium was added. It remained “tightly-packed, steep and loud” – just the way Aacheners like it.

Anyway, Alemannia Aachen will never become just any old club – there are too many emotions at play for that. And even when eleven players leave the pitch with heads hung low – they’re still the team of hearts.

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