When the Julius Hirsch Prize was awarded, football coach Christian Streich was critical of some politicians’ statements on the subject of anti-Semitism – and talked about an extraordinary educational measure at SC Freiburg.
The coach of SC Freiburg, Christian Streich, recently revealed in an interview with the football magazine “” that he sees it as his obligation “as a public person” to point out “the dangers posed by such parties and their politicians “. In this case, this meant the right-wing extremist parties AfD and NPD. Streich is a person who is concerned with social and political issues – and who comments on them when “someone asks me for my opinion”.
In the interview he admits that it is “totally difficult” not to “take yourself too seriously when you are in public.” That’s why he only “rarely gives interviews anymore because I don’t know what else to say anymore.” Luckily for the public, Streich, 58 years old, isn’t completely keeping a low profile. After all, there is always something to say. And when asked, he answers because he can’t help it.
Matthias Brandt calls Christian Streich a “decent person”
The coach has now been awarded the Julius Hirsch Prize for this role. This is given to people who stand up for freedom, tolerance and humanity. The award was sponsored by the German Football Association, and an independent jury determines the winners. Streich was announced as this year’s winner at the beginning of November and was awarded the prize in Berlin on Monday evening. Actor Matthias Brandt, who gave the laudatory speech, called Streich a “decent person.”
Of course Streich had a lot to say. The current debate about the growing anti-Semitism in Germany concerns him: “When I hear that politicians from the so-called German center talk about imported anti-Semitism, then that is more than irresponsible, it is unbelievable,” said the Freiburg resident. “This suggests that the Muslim people who live with us simply have to leave the country. Then we would no longer have anti-Semitism. If such sayings come from the center, then you know where we are. And that is highly unacceptable and dangerous. That makes you worry.”
Streich’s unusual measure with the Habeck video
Football alone cannot help, Streich continued. Football is such a big game that it doesn’t matter whether someone is green, white or black and it doesn’t matter what language they speak, Streich continued, but: “It’s no longer enough to say we play football “Too much has happened for that. It has gone in a direction in which, 80 years after Auschwitz, you have to say: We need enlightenment, we need education. And in the right direction,” said Streich.
This led Streich to show his team Robert Habeck’s video in which the economics minister explains Germany’s relationship with Israel and the protection of Jewish fellow citizens in Germany. “The speech was so extraordinary because it organized things. In relatively simple language. And that’s important because not everyone understands every foreign word,” said Streich, who also explained missing foreign words to his players, “because not everyone is young anymore People know what the Holocaust is.”
Sources: DPA, “”.
Source: Stern
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