Bundesletter is back!

Here's what's coming next

Ay up, we all doing?

It’s been over two months since we last sent a newsletter. There’s a few reasons behind that, but I won’t be overindulgent. Here’s a summary:

• September ended up being my busiest month as a freelancer. I was travelling back and forth to the UK to host podcasts, interviewing nomadic goalkeepers and inspiring public servants for MUNDIAL. Halfway through that month I started burning out, and I couldn’t pull myself out of it for ages. It was tough.

• Losing momentum in this game is brutal. When you’re churning out piece after piece, recording podcasts and just doing the damn thing, it becomes second nature. Starting again takes another level of effort.

• On some level, I think the disappointment of failing to get ‘Die 56’ off the ground as a viable commercial project made me feel a bit embarrassed. After asking people to pay for my work, and getting nowhere near my goal, I was smarting. My desire to do more dwindled.

All that said, I’m sending this email as a way of giving myself a much needed kick up the arse.

There are still many of you who subscribed during our hiatus, and for that I’m grateful. As a ways of reintroducing the newsletter, allow me a little time to pitch.

Bundesletter will be back with weekly articles covering the history, culture and stories affecting the modern German football fan. So far we’ve covered stories as varied as role of football in the Third Reich, the impact of a fanzine on St. Pauli’s club culture and the simple pleasure of watching the Euros outside a Späti.

We’ll be putting out a monthly podcast featuring an expert on the German game. So far we’ve had guests like Derek Rae, Seb Stafford-Bloor and Uli Hesse.

Tomorrow, I’ll be sharing my experience of attending the nationwide fan protest in Leipzig a few weeks ago. As a primer on the issues those supporters were marching against, I can recommend the brilliant Kit Holden’s latest piece on his newsletter ‘Played in Germany’.

So that’s the update. See you all again tomorrow morning. Bis später!