Playing for FC St. Pauli in the early 1960s, Guy Kokou Acolatse was the first Black professional footballer to play in Germany. In the documentary Schwarze Adler [Black eagles], the Togolese former international humorously talks about his experiences of racism both on and off the pitch. Beverly Ranger, one of the first female professional footballers in the Federal Republic of Germany, has a similar story to tell; the Jamaican athlete reflects on a racist attack that a live sports presenter committed against her. The film’s other central figures are also Black women and men who have been on Germany’s national football teams over the decades, wearing the jersey with the eagle on the chest—from Erwin Kostedde, the first Black man to become a national player in the mid-1970s, to Jean-Manuel Mbom, who has played in various junior German Football Association selection teams since 2015.

The film’s scope also includes the stories of Anthony Baffoe and Otto Addo, who have not worn the eagle but were born in Germany and played for the Ghanaian national team. Schwarze Adler combines interviews with all these footballers with historical archive material, documenting (Afro-)German football history and racism from first-hand perspectives.


This screening takes place in the frame of Take the Knee.