The photo captures the team spirit of one of German football’s greatest sides – but it does have a shady underbelly? Of course, we are in Nazi Germany, at a time when Adolf Hitler’s tyrannical plans for European domination were unfolding. Sporting low-neckline shirts and ridiculously over-sized shorts, they look both exhausted and exhilarated as they are strutting off the pitch at the Olympiastadion in Berlin, having just thrashed Admira Vienna 9-0 to claim their fourth domestic title. Schalke’s players are jumping around in celebration, hugging each other and bearing the biggest of grins. So when I stumbled across a team photo of Schalke, taken just after the club had won the German Championship in 1939, I was mesmerised. The black-and-white photographs leave room for interpretation, encouraging the beholder to vivify the image in their mind’s eye. I have always enjoyed delving into pictures from decades ago.
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