G In the West, in the border region with the Netherlands and Belgium, one does not always treat the German language nicely, but at least creatively. And people invent very fitting, otherwise completely unknown words: Jahrende, for example (pronounced Jahren-de, with a short e). Jahrende is the intensified form of Jahre(n) and describes, whenever a mere “decades-long” would seem inappropriately short, a truly interminably long period.
Schalke’s last championship, for example, was Jahrende ago. That was 1958, a year that hardly anyone who is still breathing today witnessed. Back then there was no Bundesliga and no women’s football, no colorful sneakers, no Internet, and probably not even the .
Only Schalke, Schalke was always there. In 1963 the club was allowed to play in the very first Bundesliga season, in a time when the Federal Republic was still black-and-white, because, of course, color television had not yet been introduced until 1967.
The people of the region worked hard. And they died hard, from blasting detonations and rockfalls, silicosis, and alcohol. Schalke did not always bring them joy. And even today’s fans had little reason to cheer, if one subtracts trivial successes such as the brazen cup victory against the wonderful MSV Duisburg in 2011.
And now the championship
But now, now it’s over with the Jahrende-long desolation, because Schalke is once again in the top flight and will, of course, soon be champions—indeed, serial champions! For they deserve it, the ugliest and also poorest city in Germany and the region, and above all the fans. Celebrating the rise back up as massively and enduringly (and with far fewer antisemitic outbursts) than the revolutionary May Day in Berlin was celebrated, well, that is something you have to pull off.
However, joining in the celebration is not so easy. Yes, there they are again, the so-called Knappen, but it’s a bit as if you meet the once-cool crush from class 8a after Jahrenden. Exactly, the one who once reacted so wonderfully casually and arrogantly to the impositions of the teaching staff. And who had an exciting penchant for petty crime.
The bad behavior of back then didn’t do him any good, after all, he later married into a car dealership, which is good, because he still repeats the same lines as before, which perhaps with a bit of luck nobody there knows yet. And then you look at him in his stylishly worn, one or two sizes too small leather jacket and hear him say ‘for the record’ and you just move on.
Not to Schalke, which is still completely elated, celebrating and conjuring the good old days. And in doing so forgets that it may take only a little longer until the next relegation if it can’t find a car dealership to marry, and that until promotion again Jahrende could pass.
