Intangible cultural property: Lions worth protecting

Created: 12/26/2022, 2:30 p.m

By: Uli Kellner

Radiant brand: The logo of the TSV 1860 shines even in Giesingen winter and beyond.

© Imago

Comment: What does the TSV 1860 have to do with the brewing trade?

A lot, says sports editor Uli Kellner, who sees a valuable cultural asset in the Giesinger Löwen.

Inveterate lions have always known: their TSV 1860 is not an ordinary club, but either "Munich's great love" (fan article slogan), "the hottest club in the world" (ultra singing) - or quite simply: a collection of lovable people who have the equally endearing quality of being extremely frugal.

For 56 years now, the only championship ever won has been celebrated, a dilapidated stadium that doesn't even have its own stadium is venerated with cult worship, and when the professionals playing in the 3rd league again just miss promotion: yes, mei!

Celebrating fourth place, on the roof of a low-rise restaurant, with bottled beer and fans in the curve, wherever.

"Once a lion, always a lion!" Yes, there is something to the unwritten paragraph 1 of the association's statutes.

Lovable people with an equally lovable quality...

Against this background, the 24,000 members were hardly surprised when it was announced shortly before Christmas that the proud TSV had just been declared an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO.

The lions a cultural asset as worthy of protection as the German brewing trade and bread baking?

Anyone who has only read the Christmas letter from the Presidency in passing could get this impression.

It literally says that the “sports club culture oriented towards the common good” made it onto the list, but who would embody it better than the lively TSV Munich from 1860, which has already survived so much, even the emergency sale of half the football KGaA.

The presidium headed by Robert Reisinger writes: “Being included in the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage is an honor for all of us.

Many people in the departments and among our sponsors lend a hand with the lions every day and as a matter of course.

They are not Internet mouth heroes, but as members in real life weave unselfishly the green-gold and white-blue web that connects and holds our association together.”

The lions can celebrate even when there's nothing to celebrate

Anyone who has ever experienced a general meeting in a beer cellar (in the past) or the pitch-dark Zenith Hall (modern times) will confirm this.

You argue with fervor - and then you sit next to each other in the standing room, beer in hand, scarf around your neck - singing the legendary "comradeship", as the club's anthem says.

Brazil has Capoeira, Ivory Coast has Zaouli dance, the lions can party, even if there's usually nothing to celebrate.

This is how immaterial culture made in Giesing works.

Definitely worth protecting – but never dead anyway.