We take a look at the history of the two countries' footy scenes, with some of the stories featuring them on WFN over the years. In Part 2, we look back at some of the stories out of Germany back since the founding of this news site.
2004: In the year our site was founded, the German footy scene had consisted of only two clubs (Frankfurt and Munich) for almost a decade, but growth was starting with new clubs springing up in Hamburg, Düsseldorf and Berlin and a national championship being held. Germany hosted the Central European championships, finishing third behind Belgium and Spain.
2005: The Frankfurt Redbacks received the "Medal of Honour" from their home city, as recognition for winning the 2004 German championships. A five-team national league season saw. Germany was looking like a new growth area with plenty of potential.
A story probably worth a separate mention was a long discussion with German footy pioneer Malte Schudlich, including some of the reasons why the Germans at that point were not planning on heading to the International Cup anytime soon.
Germany - potential powerhouse of European footy?
2008: The Stuttgart Emus were founded, bringing footy to the south-west of the country. On the international front, the Germans played a small-field test against France. Germany finished third at the EU Cup, held in Prague.
2009: Germany hosted the Finland Icebreakers for an international clash in Cologne, with the Eagles emerging victorious by 37 points. They also held a 10-a-side match against the Czech Lions in Mitteleschenbach near Nürnberg. In the AFLG, the Rheinland Lions made it three premierships in a row.
2010: With the first full-field European Championships being held in Denmark and southern Sweden, the Germans headed north. The Germans battled hard, but lost to Ireland and Sweden, then to Croatia (the Knights' first ever international victory). Some face was salvaged with a win over Finland in the 7th place playoff.
2011: The Germans travelled to Paris to take on the Coqs in France's first 18-a-side international. The Germans were 64-point victors on the day. In 2012 Kate O'Halloran came onboard with WFN to write another article on the history of footy in Germany.
2013: We saw some first steps taken in creating a metro league in the Stuttgart area, the Baden-Württemberg AFL. The German national team came up against Denmark, but were soundly defeated. They regained some pride by defeating France in Berlin later in the year, but in the European Championships ended up finishing in 6th (last) place, losing the 5th place playoff to Croatia.
On the domestic level, the Hamburg Dockers broke through for their first German premiership.
2014 and 2015 saw consolidation in Germany. Clubs from Ludwigsburg, Freiberg and Dresden joined the competition, with the game slowly spreading to new cities. Hamburg again took out the premiership in 2015.
2016: The Munich Roos regained the title of German premiers, soundly defeating Berlin in the Grand Final. Germany travelled to the European Championships, having its best performance to date - defeating Sweden in the playoff for 3rd.
2017: As I said in the timeline of Croatia's development - here we are!! Germany's track record stretches back decades, so it's maybe surprising we haven't seen them at an IC until now.