The word Menschenfänger, in German, roughly translates into English as ‘people-catcher’, a figure who by the strength of their personality attracts others to a shared journey and fills them with the belief that anything can be achieved.
Perhaps appropriately enough, given that the Men’s European Football Championship is approaching its business end, I first encountered the word while reading an article by a sports journalist pal about the outgoing Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp. The thrust of the piece was that while many things explained the German’s success at the club – nimble recruitment, forward-thinking owners, Klopp’s emotional intelligence and smart tactical brain – it was as his ability to get the entire organisation (and most of the city of Liverpool) to buy into his philosophy that created the culture that led to a near decade of success. Klopp was the über-Menschenfänger.
If reports are accurate, two hundred thousand Scotland fans – representing an extraordinary four percent of the entire population – are in Germany for the Euros, and it appears Germany loves them. Social media teems with videos of Germany and Scotland fans having what looks like the biggest, happiest party you could possibly imagine, and perhaps the image that best summed up the mood and the occasion’s generosity of spirit was the footage of the two Scotland fans, in the pishing rain, helping an old German guy on a zimmer frame across the square and using an umbrella to keep him dry. I mean, it would be tempting to speculate that being seen in a good light can only help the cause of self-governance, but for now I think that a happily inebriated, self-effacing army of foot-soldiers is achieving things that no diplomat or politician could ever dream of. Yes, we got a horsing on the park in the opening game but, years from now, who in Germany will remember that? Honestly, you can’t buy that kind of soft power and goodwill.
Today, exactly eight years after the Brexit vote, Scotland is, for now, back in Europe.
Because it’s never just about the football. And it got me thinking that maybe these championships are refracted and redefining the whole concept of nationalism.
It was the writer Tom Nairn who described nationalism as Janus-like. In other words, it could choose to look both backward and forward, often at the same time. That’s certainly true with a France where the far -right (and far-left) is on the rise, and yet at the same time the team’s captain and the world’s best player, Kylian Mbappe, speaks at political events where he speaks of inclusivity and urges people to reject the ugly anti-immigrant rhetoric. It feels powerful and significant, as does the presence of nations who gained their independence relatively recently, like Croatia, Ukraine, Slovakia, Czech Republic – and Georgia – population 3.7 million – whose presence shows just how far they have come from the old days of the Soviet Union.
But, as Nairn said, nationalism can look backwards too, and in an age when there is once again war in Europe, England fans singing about spitfires and German bombers whilst marching behind a union flag with the slogan “Stop the Boats” is a terrible look.
But the question facing Scotland, or any nation, is what kind of nationalism it wants. And I very get the impression that Scotland has very much decided that it has opted for a kind of civic, diverse, inclusive movement that revels in its culture and refuses to take itself too seriously. The kind of movement encapsulated by two hundred thousand people drinking Germany dry and making friends and memories for life.
These last few days have given the world a glimpse of the very best version of ourselves. And it falls on all of us, eight years after rejecting Brexit and denied the kind of democratic choice enjoyed by countries both at the football and all over the world, to ensure that this is a version of Scotland that endures long after the final whistle has blown.
But – firstly – let’s beat Hungary tonight and make a wee bit of history. Prost!
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