My personal icon? The South Stand!
ICON, the style magazine, is celebrating its 10th birthday, and to that end we have asked various authors to tell us whom they regard as iconic. In the seventh instalment of this series, Twitter talent and columnist Marie von den Benken eulogises the South Stand at Borussia Dortmund.
I do not have one icon. I have 24,560. That’s about how many people fit onto the South Stand.
Match day. The city is black and yellow. On the Rheinlanddamm: Rusty Golf’s stacked bumper to bumper, and brand new Porsches. From the car I can see a boy through the autumnal Ruhr Valley drizzle. He wears his yellow knitted jumper with pride. On its back, the number “17” and “Aubameyang” have been less than expertly embroidered on. The official kit was, presumably, too expensive. In Hamburg or Munich, he would be mocked. Here, it is a piece of identity.
On the South Stand, your bank balance is irrelevant. Dole recipients stand alongside surgeons. Different worlds harmonise. Passion unites social strata, generations, and nations. Albert Camus once said: “Everything I know about morality and the obligations of men, I owe it to football.” An observation for all eternity. I would go one step further: I have learned more about tolerance, solidarity and integration while on the South Stand than I ever did in the lecture theatre or from great works of literature.
The power of solidarity as a rudimentary building block of our society has been lost. But the people with whom we surround ourselves impress themselves on us. I could tell you all about spectacular moments of glory, or the incredible atmosphere felt on winning derbies. But perhaps that which might speak most loudly of all is a story that has nothing to do with sport. This March, BVB played against Mainz. A spectator suffered a heart attack and died. Within minutes the sad news had spread. Silence spread out from the South Stand across the entire stadium, and all placards and flags were taken down or rolled up. Eerily quiet.
Just before the end of the game, the South Stand began to sing “You’ll Never Walk Alone”. 82,000 People stood and joined in. One of the most emotional moments of my life. Next to me: My father’s best friend. A 60 year old millionaire cardiologist. A man who had achieved and seen everything. He simply stood there staring at the South Stand, tears rolling down his cheeks.
This was the first thought that came to my mind when I was asked whether I wanted to write about an icon of mine. If the world were as the South Stand, it would be a better place. For me, there is nothing more iconic than it.
Marie von den Benken is on Twitter under @Regendelfin and contributes regularly on stern.de.
The original article by the author Marie von den Benken was published in the online edition of the Style-magazine “ICON”.
The link to the original German text is: