By Elliott West
“When you first go to a country the knowledge and appreciation isn’t there, and people burst into rapturous applause for the break-off shot. But even by the end of the match they weren’t doing that any more – there was a quick learning curve”.
Steve Davis
Introduction
The love for snooker in Germany can be traced all the way back to the boom of the game in the 1980s. However, it was a slow burner. In an era when snooker was hot property, the star of the moment, Steve Davis travelled to Germany to appear on a Johnathan Ross-style chat show filmed at a club called Greens where he did some trick shots live on television. Walking out to rapturous applause, Davis did his thing but strangely by the end of the appearance, there was a deathly silence in the studio. This was going to be a hard nut to crack, in a country that initially didn’t have the appreciation for snooker and couldn’t understand how players like Steve Davis could make a living out of it.
Paul Hunter
Aside from Eurosport and the fantastic work Rolf Kalb has done in educating the German nation through commentary and literature, the real flag-bearer of popularity has to be the late Paul Hunter. Thomas Cesal, the head of German snooker promoters Dragonstars, lured Paul over with Matthew Stevens for a pro-am event in 2004 and thanks to its popularity, the Paul Hunter Classic was born out of this three years later. A fitting tribute to the three-times Masters champion who sadly passed away from cancer, aged 27 in 2006.
On the Rise
Prior to the foundation of the Paul Hunter Classic, Germany had previously hosted the German Open, a ranking event on three previous occasions in the 1990s, including one year where it was staged in a British army barracks sports hall in Osnabruck, near the Dutch border. However, it wasn’t until the creation of the German Masters in 2011, thanks to the efforts of the dearly missed Brandon Parker that snooker found a firm home at the Tempodrom in Berlin, usually a music and concert venue and a building that was designed to take the appearance of a circus tent.
The Players
Sadly Germany hasn’t been able to produce any snooker champions over the years but has had a few that have made the main tour. These include Patrick Einsle, Sasha Lippe, Lasse Munstermann and currently Lukas Kleckers. Lucas, a national champion does pop up from time to time in events but hasn’t really made a lasting impression outside his country. Perhaps still a small fish in a big pond, Kleckers still has the potential to grow the game in his homeland but it won’t be an easy task.
The State of Play
Even to this day, snooker remains a fringe sport in Germany. With few snooker clubs and practice facilities across the country, its popularity is based solely on its fans. To go beyond this barrier, it needs a snooker contender and only with that and large amounts of investment and sponsorship will the actual game start to produce green shoots in this country. It is safe to say that snooker is no longer a foreign commodity in Germany and the fans do know the majority of the players that compete on the main tour and flock in their droves to Berlin to watch the German Masters when it is staged there every year.
However, to get to the next level and have a successful player, Germany has to stump up the cash and time needed to produce a player from the grassroots. There probably is a Boris Becker or Steffi Graff in German snooker and like the death of snooker in Canada, they have to be discovered before this chrysalis can hatch. No game can survive without leading players and Germany has the potential to do so, growing snooker as a sports’ commodity across Europe as a result.
