Although the Germans, like most people in the world, certainly focus more on Fußball (football), there are many other sports, they love to watch and play.
Over the years, some American sports have become very popular in Germany. Basketball is a fairly large number of fans. Hockey and volleyball are very popular.
Although the Germans know baseball and American football, none of these sports in the New World are very popular and widespread in Germany or Europe. Even if an American game show on the annual football in Berlin was an old tradition, young Germans still grow playing Fußball, football is not American. First established in 1991 (World League of American Football), NFL Europe, has finally closed its five German soccer team (and the Netherlands) in June 2007.
The undisputed master of the German amateur and professional sport is definitely football, "König Fußball" ("King of Football"). Thousands of Amateur Fußballvereine (football clubs) offer the possibility of the Germans to play football. As a spectator sport, soccer draws an average of more than 25,000 fans per game professional. Germany has won a championship, the World Cup three times (1954, 1974, 1990). Germany hosted the 2006 World Cup, but finished third that year, after France and Italy the winner.
The German Olympic Sports Confederation, as the former DSB has been known since 2006 (Deutscher Bund Olympisches Sports DOSB), has 16 national federations and sports groups affiliated. Based in Frankfurt, DOSB represents 89 000 clubs and about 27 million members (one in three Germans!). The DOSB is the biggest indicator of the sporting spirit of the Germans. Another is the abundance of sports facilities throughout Germany - playgrounds, gymnasiums, indoor and outdoor pools, and even the Olympic training facilities. The many sports clubs throughout Germany offer opportunities to play football, handball, basketball, volleyball, tennis and other sports.
