The historically Jewish club TuS Makkabi Berlin will play against VfL Wolfsburg in the first round in the The DFB-Pokal, the German national cup in soccer, 90 years after the first club was targeted by the Nazis and the second was made possible by Hitler. The match will take place in August.
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Makkabi has recently become the first Jewish club to qualify for the first round of the DFB Cup after it secured the title of the Berlin State Cup, a first for the club. VfL Wolfsburg was formed originally as a sports club for the workers of car manufacturer Volkswagen in the city of Wolfsburg. Volkswagen was originally founded by Adolf Hitler in 1933.
TuS Makkabi Berlin is said to have emerged from the historically Jewish Bar-Kochba Berlin club. That club was formed following Zionist thinker Max Nordau following his speech at Second Zionist Congress, in which he coined the phrase "Muscular Judaism (Muskeljudentum)". Bar-Kochba Berlin was active in 14 cities across Germany.
Despite its historic roots, the current iteration of the club as TuS Makkabi Berlin is not defined by ethnicity. One of its stars is a son of Turkish migrants, although a significant part of the management is still composed of members of the Jewish community, as are the majority of the players.
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