Sönke Wortmann’s film is above all the story of a family that has to find its way back together after the war – and, alongside it, of the West German team on its way to the 1954 World Cup title. The soccer storyline illustrates the Team Principle of Direction: a group becomes a team only through a shared goal – and the goal holds only if it ranks above each person’s own role.
The dots mill about in confusion until a golden target appears. Then they all line up and move toward it as an arrow.
Team principle #2
Team Principle of Direction: A group becomes a team only through a shared goal – and the goal holds only if it ranks above each person’s own role.
4 min read5 sectionsSituationConnection to the principle
Contents
Essen, 1954. The miner Richard Lubanski comes home after more than twelve years as a prisoner of war in the Soviet Union. His youngest son, Matthias, is eleven and has never seen him. At the same time, national coach Sepp Herberger is assembling Germany’s national team for the World Cup in Switzerland. Sönke Wortmann’s “The Miracle of Bern” opened in German cinemas on October 16, 2003. An honest note up front: the film is, for the most part, a family drama. Anyone expecting a film about team leadership will find it in only one of its three storylines. An example of the Team Principle of Direction.
A soccer field from above: eleven dots stand in formation, and a gold passing sequence runs through them into the goal – “The Miracle of Bern.”
01
A Family Without a Shared Direction
Situation
The Lubanskis have learned to live without their father. His wife, Christa, runs a pub. The elder son, Bruno, leans toward communism. The daughter, Ingrid, goes out with British soldiers. Matthias has found himself a substitute father: the soccer player Helmut Rahn, his idol. Richard cannot find his way back into this family. He is harsh and withdrawn. Bruno secretly leaves for Berlin. Matthias wants to run away. Only then does his father begin to talk about the war.
Connection to the team principle
A family is not a work team, and the film doesn’t claim otherwise. Still, there is a parallel. Richard comes back and claims his old role as head of the family. He never asks where the family has been heading in the meantime. As long as his role ranks above what they share, the family keeps falling apart. The turning point comes when he opens up. That is an interpretation – at this point, the film’s theme is homecoming and reconciliation, not clarity of goals.
02
Rahn and His Place on the Team
Situation
In the second storyline, Sepp Herberger gathers the squad at the end of May 1954. Helmut Rahn is annoyed that he isn’t a regular starter and clashes with the coach.
Connection to the team principle
This is the clearest link. The Team Principle of Direction says: a shared goal holds only if it ranks above each person’s own role. Rahn wants to play. Herberger has to field a lineup that can win the tournament. A place on the team belongs to the team, not to the player. The film shows this conflict but doesn’t explore it in depth – it remains a side thread.
03
An 8–3 Defeat in the Group Stage
Situation
For the group-stage match against the favorites, Hungary, Herberger fields a team of reserves. It loses 8–3.
Connection to the team principle
A coach who loses a match by that margin looks bad. Anyone who looks only at the single match sees a humiliation. Anyone who looks at the whole tournament can see a decision in favor of the bigger goal: saving strength for the games that count. The reserve players, too, accept their place. They carry a defeat that will stay attached to their names.
04
Bern, July 4, 1954
Situation
Richard travels with Matthias to the final in Bern. Germany goes 2–0 down against Hungary and wins 3–2. Helmut Rahn scores the winner six minutes before the end. The film also tells of Adidas founder Adolf Dassler’s screw-in studs and of the rain during the final, known as “Fritz Walter weather” after the team’s captain. A third storyline follows the Munich sports reporter Paul Ackermann and his wife, Annette, to the World Cup.
Connection to the team principle
In the final, the storylines converge. The player who struggled with his role decides the match. For the first time, father and son have a shared goal: getting to Bern in time. In miniature, this shows what a goal can do. It gives two people who could not talk to each other a shared direction.
05
What the Film Doesn’t Show
Situation
Among other honors, the film won the Audience Award at Locarno in 2003 and, at the 2004 German Film Awards, the Film Award in Silver and the Audience Award. The Lubanskis are fictional. Sepp Herberger, Helmut Rahn and Fritz Walter are historical figures.
Connection to the team principle
The film doesn’t show how Sepp Herberger develops the goal with his players, how he clarifies roles or how he resolves conflicts. The team is the backdrop to a family story. Anyone who wants to use the film in work with teams should know this. It offers images and conversation starters, not a case study. And it is a feature film: what it tells about Herberger and Rahn is not automatically history.
Key takeaways
Key Lessons
01
When you return to a team or join one for the first time, start by asking where it is heading. Claim your role after that.
02
Tell your people clearly: lineups serve the goal, not the individual. Explain your decision.
03
Be prepared to accept a single defeat if it serves the bigger goal – and own it.
04
Keep even the person who struggles with their role on the team. They might decide the final.
05
When relationships have hardened, look for a small shared goal. Sometimes it is a trip to Bern.
Summary
“The Miracle of Bern” is above all the story of a family after the war. The film shows the Team Principle of Direction in a side storyline: in a player who wants his place, in a coach who puts the tournament above the single match, and in a team that comes back from 2–0 down to win the final 3–2. The Lubanski family mirrors this on a small scale. The film is not a lesson in team leadership. It is a good occasion to talk about one question: What, for us, ranks above our own roles?
