Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank watched from the sidelines during a recent football game as Matt Ryan and Julio Jones were nowhere to be found and not a single touchdown was scored. Blank was on hand for a very special football game — or soccer, as we Yanks would say — that commemorated an extraordinary Christmas story.
Volunteers for Atlanta’s British Consulate took on expat counterparts recruited by Atlanta’s German Consulate in a match at Emory University marking the 100th anniversary of what’s known to history as the Christmas Truce.
“We’re here to celebrate a historic event that represents the best of humankind, when supposed enemies reached out to each other in the spirit of the holiday season through the international game of soccer,” said Blank, who awarded a silver trophy to the winning British team. He is bringing Major League Soccer to Atlanta in 2017.
The event paid tribute to an act of humanity that arose from one of history’s bleakest chapters. Just before Christmas 1914, at the close of World War I’s first year and after months of unexpectedly brutal fighting, British and German soldiers faced each other in opposite trenches across the bombed-out, barbed-wired and corpse-strewn “no-man’s land.”
Spontaneously, German troops began singing "Silent Night" ("Stille Nacht") and British soldiers responded. Brave men on both sides scaled the trenches and ventured out. Soon, thousands of sworn enemies were greeting each other, exchanging cigarettes and coffee and posing for photos.
Impromptu soccer matches broke out between the British and the Germans in several spots on the Western Front. The cease-fire lasted for days before fighting resumed, but for a brief time, the spirit of Christmas conquered the spirit of war.
"In the carnage and abysmal violence, these supposed enemies met in friendly competition," said Thomas Wulfing, German deputy consul general in Atlanta. He managed the German team, and Atlanta's British consul general, Jeremy Pilmore-Bedford, managed his country's team.
After trailing 1-0 at the half, the British team rallied to win the First World War Centenary Cup, 4-1.
"Normally we don't tend to beat Germany in soccer, so we've definitely got to make the most of this," Team Great Britain's Darren Eales said.
Wulfing saluted the friendly game’s message of peace and harmony.
“In Europe, we have achieved a lot since (the war),” Wulfing said. “We are now the closest friends imaginable.”
Editor’s note: Today’s guest Buzz columnist is AJC Senior Business Editor Charles Gay.
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