Making a Difference with Soccer

 

Hans Stienen, president of the Deutscher Sports Club, can be found most of the time, sitting in his living room watching the European Soccer.  On the surface he looks like nothing more than a man who loves soccer and loves the German team. But if you dig deeper you will know that soccer is not only his love but what got him involved with the club he will eventually lead today.

Stienen was born in Cologne, German and grew up around the sport of soccer. 

“Soccer is the biggest sport in Europe. It’s like football in America,” Steinen said.  He added that “there is a big difference between the structure and organization between European and American sports franchises. In Europe, clubs are tied to the city and they stay forever. You really become a fan of the club and of the team.”

In Germany, Stienen was not only a fan but an active participant. 

“I played a lot of soccer in high school, in the military, and on amateur teams,” said Steinen. He first arrived in America during his childhood and when he became an adult, joined the US Army in civil services. During his career in civil services he was sent back to Germany to work and then, at age 31, he was transferred to Fort Lee, an army base in Petersburg. “By the time I got here I was at the age where soccer players normally retire,” he added.

Even though he was on the verge of retirement from the sport, he still was looking to play soccer and met up with Americans who happened to play soccer for the Deutscher Sports Club, which at the time, was a soccer club in Richmond, Virginia.  That is how Stienen became a member and has been in the club since 1974.

“While in the club I found the Central Virginia Soccer Association in 1975, which is the organization that manages adult soccer in Central Richmond,” Steinen said. “I also coached our soccer team for seven years, and we won a number of titles in the premier division. We won cup competitions and summer leagues. We had very good teams.”

He has now been the president for ten years and has met and worked with a lot of people.  He has also participated in a number of events that the club organizes each year, which include annual parties, picnics, and fasching dances, which is the German form of Mardi Gras.

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Soccer is the biggest and most popular sport in Germany.  Ask any German about the sport and you will feel the sense of pride they have in it and the importance of the sport to them and their country.  This sport also provides a way to connect with others who may come from different backgrounds and cultures. This is what the Deutscher Sports Club is all about.

Erich Albus organizes these games which used to draw people from different ages, cultures, and genders to play in them.  As the years have gone by the number of players has decreased but that hasn’t stopped him even at age 83.  Club members Hans Makjo and Will Simmons are also regular participants in these games and like Albus, won’t let age stop them from playing the game they love.

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“He held the sports club together. He is extremely dedicated and hard working. I admire him,” said Helga Pearson, Deutscher Sport Club’s press secretary. She has worked on the board with Stienen for three years.

“Hans is very interesting. A little larger than life.  He is a hospitable, thoroughly likeable person and is vastly important to all things German in the Richmond-Petersburg-Colonial Heights area,” stated Russell Boraas, who is the president of the other German social club in Richmond.
As Stienen leads into new ventures such as the celebration of the 400-year anniversary of German immigration in Jamestown or the Oktoberfest, some say that one of the main things that have been forgotten, recently, is soccer. 

Allan S. Mills, Vice President and former president of the club, said that even though Stienen is important to the club “he has done nothing to field a soccer team in the CVSA (Central Virginia Soccer Association) like we used to do.”  Because of this, Mills and another former President, Erich Albus, have tried to keep the team’s presence in the club alive by playing pick-up games in Dorey Park on Sundays with other club members.

In Stienen’s defense, he states that the reason why they don’t have a soccer team or program currently is because they are looking for someone to coach it.  According to Mills, Stienen doesn’t participate in the pick up games because “of his prior 4-way heart bypass surgery.

Even though this has kept him off the field, the fact that soccer introduced Stienen to this club in America and provided the means for him to meet and work with a number of people can’t be disputed.  Soccer is what Stienen loves and through that he is continuing to help Richmond’s German community.

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Facts about Germany

 

Richmond is one of the most diverse cities in Virginia.  However, one thing that may go unnoticed is how many different European cultures are present. One of the main European cultures that reside in Richmond is German.  According to city-data.com 4% of Richmond’s citizens were born in Germany and out of 5% of Richmond’s population claims to have German ancestors.  These statistics are just a small part of the fact that Germans have played a major role in Richmond and in the state of Virginia.

It has been proven that people from the German area were among the first to arrive in Jamestown and also were helpful in starting the colony.  They contributing in many ways including glasswork and the sawmill business.  Today the Germans are represented by two organizations, Deutscher Sports Club and Gesangverein Virginia, both who have rich histories.  All this and more proves that there is more cultural diversity in Richmond than some may realize.

German area were among the first to arrive in Virginia.  In 1608 they were aboard the vessel Mary and Margaret which was captained by Christopher Newport.  The group that came onto the ship was made up of five glassmakers and three house builders and they were recruited to work by Virginia Company of London.  The Virginia Company of London also wanted them to live in the New World and work to help build up the colony.  However, within the year, their glasswork business failed and they returned to Germany.

In 1620 German sawmill workers arrived in Virginia hoping to build a sawmill company.  They tried to occupy the lands that were first controlled by the Native Americans due to the lands being near the James River which was good for powering the sawmills.  They also tried to recruit workers in order to help with the building of the sawmills.  But this time they were also unsuccessful due to having all of the German workers die but one within seven months.  They died either from starvation or disease.  The only German survivor sailed back to his homeland.

The first Germans to actually come to Virginia to settle in 1742 and they were miners.  There were 42 of them and they settled in Central Virginia.  They were followed by 100 more settlers who were sold as indentured servants to Governor Alexander Spottswood in Spotsylvania County in Northern Virginia.  A third and smaller group of Germans came in 1721 and settled at the Little Fork in Culpeper County in Northern Virginia.  This began the rush of German immigrants into Virginia.

The first organization that is held in Richmond, Gesangverein Virginia, was founded as a men’s singing society by German immigrants in 1852.  Today it is a men’s social organization, which promotes good German and American relations and knowledge of Germany and other German language countries, German culture and language.  Members of this organization include German-born residents, residents of that have German ancestry, and Americans who just want to learn and/or enjoy the German culture.  The club meets regularly on the second Wednesday of every month at the North Chamberlayne Civic Association Center at 8:00pm. For the members that arrive earlier at 7:30pm, the club offers German educational classes taught by one of the members.  The meetings include beer, food, singing and discussion of events and trips they may plan to Germany.

The second German society in Richmond, called Deutscher Sport Club, was founded in the 1960s.  They were originally supposed to be a soccer club in Richmond but grew into a social club.  Their purpose is to provide a teach Virginia of the German culture through German events that they hold throughout the year.  There are also plans to restart the soccer program that they once had.

(Reported in July 2008)