The Miracle of Bern (2003)

The Miracle of Bern (German: Das Wunder von Bern) is a 2003 film by Sönke Wortmann, which tells the story of a German family (particularly of a young boy and his depressed ex-POW father) and the unexpected West German miracle victory in the 1954 World Cup Final in Bern, Switzerland.

The film can be regarded as a portrait of post-war Germany. With over 6 million cinema visitors, it is one of Germany's best-selling films. Among those attending the première were Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, Peer Steinbrück, Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia, and Otto Schily, Federal Minister of the Interior (a position whose holder is also informally known as Minister for Sports).

Since November 2014, Hamburg's new musical theatre Theater an der Elbe is home to a successful musical production of the same name.

Synopsis

Richard, a coal miner from Essen, returns after eleven years of being a Soviet prisoner of war in Siberia. In the meantime, his wife, two sons, and one daughter have reached a minimum standard of living without him. When he is unexpectedly repatriated in 1954, he has severe problems in reintegrating himself with his family and country. His wife is running a small business, his elder son has become a Communist challenging his father's ideals of the Nazi time, his daughter flirts with his former enemies, British soldiers, and his 11-year-old son Matthias, who never knew his father, admires a local football hero instead, Helmut Rahn of Rot-Weiß Essen.

Actors