It’s Sunday, 4th of July 1954 in Bern. Switzerland in summer, with its wonderful mountains and lakes, undestroyed by the fatal world war, is now hosting the 5th soccer world cup. A low pressure area is affecting the Bern region all the way to the Swiss capital. Heavy rainfall has been pouring down onto the soccer field at Wankdorfstadion for hours. “This is Fritz’s kind of weather”, said Josef “Sepp” Herberger, trainer of the German national team, which made it into the finals where they would face the highly favoured Hungarian national team. By Fritz, he was referring to Fritz Walter, the team‘s captain. During his war captivity, Fritz had suffered Malaria, with the paradoxical consequence that he could only reach his full potential during rainy weather. The soccer field was wet and muddy. After eight minutes, the score was 2:0 for Hungary, but Germany was able to catch up before half-time. Also, Hungary was affected by the weather. So the German equipment manager Adolf Dassler (who later founded Adidas) used the half-time break to equip the German team’s soccer shoes with extra-long studs, which were supposed to provide them a more stable footing. And it was true: While the Hungarians were more or less sliding across the field, the Germans were able to take control and Helmut Rahn scored the winning goal for Germany eight minutes before the end.

For war-torn Germany, the victory was very meaningful and Germans were proudly chanting: “We are somebody again”. A break of dawn for the new Federal Republic of Germany thanks to a soccer match, a genius idea, and the rain. Insiders now also like to talk of “Fritz-Walter-Weather” to refer to continuously intense rainfall.