Ideas for a German Football Party
Consistency. If one word sums up the German national team, it has been consistency. The last time they failed to make the Quarter Final stage of the World Cup Finals was 1950!
Not even Brazil or Argentina can match that record.
Now, the simplest way to throw a German football party is to invite your mates round, order in a crate of German beer and make a few Pretzels, and enjoy.
And there's nothing at all wrong with that! That's how many Germans will be watching the big evening matches in bars all over the country. For afternoon games, there is a German tradition -
although it's not really linked to watching football - of mid-afternoon Kaffee und Kuchen - coffee and cake. A very civilised and different way of throwing a themed football party!
For colour schemes, the German flag colours of red, black and gold would be one obvious idea, or alternatively try the black and white of their traditional football strip.
German Party Decorations
Decorate yourself and your room with German shirts, flags and scarves (see links, right),
or
search Kitbag.com for German Football Kitg(512634)a(1759159))
.
If you're serving food, search for red, yellow and black table covers, napkins, plates, cups and
cutlery on our
Football Party Decorations Page
For bunting, flags, balloons and more
German Party Decorations Ideas,
visit our
European Football Decorations Page
As for colour schemes, in addition to the above ideas, anything else you can find in red, yellow, black and white will help create the right atmosphere.
Food for a German Football Party
Germans are perhaps best known for their meat dishes, especially pork based recipes. As well as big pork roasts, different regional types of sausages - such as the Nürnberger Bratwurst -
are very popular. It is customary in most parts of Germany to eat these sausages with mustard and chips. OK, nothing unusual in that. But the Germans like chips with
mayonnaise. Now that sounds a bit odd to us Brits, but having chips with salt and vinegar on sounds odd
to the Germans, so give it a go - you might enjoy it! Getting a selection of German sausages, a jar of German mustard, a huge bowlful of chips, and some German beer is as good a place as any to start for a German themed party. There are countless regional sausages, but the
main types to look out for are:
- Blutwurst - "blood sausage", rather like English black pudding
- Bockwurst
- often known incorrectly outside Germany as the "Frankfurter". Made from finely ground veal or beef, and cooked in boiling water
- Genuine Frankfurter - not the American frankfurter - is made from lean pork and a little salted bacon fat, and is cooked in boiling water
- Bratwurst - a pale sausage made of finely minced veal and/or pork and onions, which is usually grilled or fried.
- Wienerwurst - made with beef and pork flavoured with coriander and garlic
- Weißwurst - white sausage - is a local delicacy of Bavaria, made from veal, bacon and parsley, cooked and served in a pot of hot (but not boiling) water.
There are many traditions surrounding the Weißwurst; please see our Bayern Munich page for more details.
If you have a good local delicatessen, they may well stock a selection of German sausages, but many supermarkets are now expending their ranges too.
German Recipes
Pretzels
Bavarian Schweinsbraten - Roast Pork
Bavarian Potato Dumplings (Kartoffelknödel)
German Meatballs
German Red Cabbage (Rotkohl)
Rheinischer Sauerbraten
- a roasted joint of beef marinated in red wine vinegar and spices
Drink for a German Football Party
Germany as a whole - and the Bavarian region in particular - is known throughout the world for its beer. There are apparently in the region of 4,000 brands of beer produced in Bavaria alone, but we would not recommend trying to sample them all in one day,
even during Bavaria's famous
Oktoberfest. As well as many famous lager-type (
helles) beers, Germany also produces excellent darker beers and
Weißbier
. We suggest you seek out a few different ones and have a tasting session!
Germany also produces a fair amount of wine - mostly white.
Search online for German wines at Tesco.com.
