- When the Scotland hockey team was invited to play against West Germany in Berlin in September 1961, it was just weeks after the Berlin Wall had been constructed. Many feared the world was on the verge of war. In Cold War Hockey, four women from the Scotland team recall playing hockey and politics as they came face to face with the shocking reality of the Berlin Crisis. With aggression and war once again on the agenda in Europe, two of the team, Jenna and Valerie, revisit the city for the first time in sixty years, understanding the significance of the trip to their lives, and to the history of the Cold War.—Margot McCuaig
- When the Scotland hockey team was invited to play against West Germany in Berlin in September 1961, it was just weeks after the Berlin Wall had been constructed. Many feared the world was on the verge of war. In Cold War Hockey, four women from the Scotland team recall playing hockey and politics as they came face to face with the shocking reality of the Berlin Crisis. With aggression and war once again on the agenda in Europe, two of the team, Jenna and Valerie, revisit the city for the first time in sixty years, understanding the significance of the trip to their lives, and to the history of the Cold War.
In August 1961, the city of Berlin was physically and ideologically divided when the German Democratic Republic began building a concrete wall, separating West Berlin from East Germany. It would soon symbolise the so-called Iron Curtain. Many feared that the country was on the verge of war. Just weeks after construction began, before many truly understood the magnitude of the danger that was evolving, a group of 12 Scottish international hockey players travelled from Edinburgh to Hanover en-route to West Berlin.
The Scotland team met up with the West German hockey team in Hanover on the 28th of September, ahead of the international match they were scheduled to play at the Olympic Hockey stadium in West Berlin on the 30th of September. From Hanover, both teams journeyed together by bus to Berlin, importantly demonstrating to the outside world, and the population of West Berlin, that the travel corridors to the city were accessible. When they reached Checkpoint Charlie, the access point to West Berlin, they were held on the bus at gunpoint. Politically naïve about the developing situation, it was a trip that had a profound influence on the players. When armed soldiers boarded the team bus the players were forced to watch in silence as their manager, Kate Weatherhead, was removed and interrogated.
Eventually, they entered West Berlin, and after being paraded in front of Soviet tanks at Brandenburg Gate, they were able to begin preparations to play hockey. Sixty years after the match in Berlin, Cold War Hockey is the first person account of four surviving players of the Scotland team who travelled to Berlin. Kit Smith, Alix Jamieson, Valerie Sinclair and Jenna Allan look back on their experience, putting into context their shock at discovering they were playing hockey at a critical period in the Cold War. In addition, Jenna and Valerie return to Berlin for the first time since 1961. They visit Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate and the Olympic Hockey stadium and while in Germany reveal that in a political speech before the game they were told that their visit had played a part in keeping world peace.
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