Germany's shift to the right has left its mark on the country's national game, causing all kinds of ructions.

Many German football clubs and fan groups have held demonstrations against the far right over the past year, both in the stadiums on match days and in the streets of their cities. Several major clubs from Germany's top two leagues, including Werder Bremen, VfL Bochum, FSV Mainz 05, 1. FC Köln, and Hannover 96, have called on their supporters to oppose right-wing extremism.

The sustained success of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) appears to have sharpened attention leading up to the federal election on February 23: At a recent home game at St. Pauli, a Hamburg-based club with a strong anti-fascist tradition, fans made their feelings known by chanting: "The whole of Hamburg hates the AfD!"

They also marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27 by holding up a banner that read: "Those who fight against Nazis can't rely on the state."

But this outpouring of political sentiment is far from universal — and, for some politically engaged football fans, if anything the overall trend among fans in recent years has been to shy away from overt displays of political allegiance.

"I'd like them to have more courage," said Rico Noack, chairman of Gesellschaftsspiele ("social games"), an organization of football fans that helps promote an inclusive society. Too often, he said, he has seen "fan groups negotiate among themselves, decide something is 'too political,' then they settle on the smallest possible consensus, or they don't say........

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