INSIDE THE FANZINE: BLICK ÜBER DEN LAHMANNHÜGEL

MM: What did you want to say with the title?

TB: The Lahmannhuegel is the place in our stadium from which we support our team. The view over the Lahmannhuegel is the view over our own club or stadium into the (football) world.

MM: Which team and which stadium?

TB: The team is SV Arminia Hannover playing Oberliga Niedersachsen which is the fifth level in Germany and we play our home matches in the Rudolf-Kalweit-Stadion in Hannover.

MM: How did it all start? Is it only your project or are there more people around you in the magazine?

TB: We started the first issue in January 2012 but the idea doing something like a fanzine is two or three years older. Normally we have four to six people writing for the "Blick über den Lahmannhügel" (View over the Lahmannhuegel). But it could happen that someone who do not write regulary for the zine has done a great tour and provides us with some interesting details.

MM: How many issues of the Lahmannhuegel were published during those 8 years and approximately how many football matches are processed in 1 issue.

TB: We publish two fanzines a year (January and July). So from the beginning in January 2012 until July 2020 there are 18 issues. At the moment we are working on issue 19 that should be published in January 2021. The number of match reports differs also a lot. The last issue only had 27 of them because of COVID-19. The other ones have match reports from over 50 up to 130 from 6 up to 14-15 countries. So approximately 80 to 90 match reports per fanzine.

MM: Why is Lahmannhugel special? I am curious on your opinion?

TB: I don't know if we are special. Maybe you have to ask our readers. :-) You won't find many match reports from the Bundesliga in our fanzine for example. From Germany there are more reports from lower league matches. I personally am not really interested in the German Bundesliga and I prefer to go to an amateur game. So maybe some kind of special because we mostly visit Non League games?!

MM: When you started the fanzine how many pieces were printed for example of the 1. issue and how many are you planning to print of the 19.?

TB: We started with 100 copies for the 1. issue which were far too few. The next issues had 250 copies and now we are printing 150 which seems to be just ok at the moment.

MM: In Germany there are many groundhopping zines so the competition must be big. Do you view it as a competition or as an opportunity to get to know other fanzine publishers? Maybe you can even exchange your zines with each other.

TB: I don't think that there's a competition or something like that. But if you publish a fanzine and support a club from the Bundesliga for example you'll have more people that might be interested in your stories. Of course there are fanzines like Droehnbuetel or Grober Schnitzer that have about 1.000 copies and some other ones with even more. And yes, sometimes it is really interesting to get into touch with other fanzine publishers and of course there are some with whom we exchange our magazines.

MM: What is your most exotic experience since you are travelling around as one of the authors of Lahmannhugel?

TB: That's not an easy question to answer. Maybe just a match on a Sunday morning in an old school stadium? Maybe one of the Belgrade derbies? Maybe staying nearly four weeks in South Africa for the African Cup of Nations? I think I'm not able to name a special exotic experience. Especially since other trips like the one for the Asian Cup in Qatar or to Singapore took place long before the first issue of the Lahmannhuegel.

MM: Have you ever had any misadvantures while travelling?

TB: Not in the sense of negative experiences with fans of participating clubs. If yes, then problems with canceled or postponed games ...

MM: What inspires you when groundhopping? How do you choose your games?

TB: Depending on the duration of my trip, I usually choose one or more "main games" and build the rest of the tour around them. The main game can then be an interesting game like a derby or an interesting stadium. I find the trips themselves inspiring, as well as meeting locals, which is something you don't have with package tours. Because who goes to the games of an amateur club?

MM: What is your mean of travel?

TB: Of course, that depends a little on the destination. Very often, however, I travel by car or plane, rather less by train or bus. But that has to do with the fact that you are much more flexible with the car.

MM: How can you combine groundhopping with work or family life? Because we are talking about a huge amount of travelling.

TB: This is indeed an interesting question. In the past we sat in the car with several people on a Friday after work, watched a football game somewhere on Friday evening, drove to the Atlantic coast to watch football in Le Havre on Saturday night and were in Hamburg on Sunday to support our club there. Then you'll have to drive 1,000 kilometers in the night. Tours like that happen occasionally. Otherwise, I mainly use holidays and weekends for groundhopping tours and somehow try to schedule everything with work and family. And I'm not travelling as much as in the past as I'm also getting older.

MM: I am sure there are a lot of interesting stories you have from your travels. If you had to choose one, which would be that? Can you share it with us?

TB: There are of course one or two interesting stories. For me personally, the four weeks in South Africa were definitely interesting. It was often said on site: be careful here, be careful there. In the end, however, the people were all friendly and interesting. Nowhere was it really dangerous, apart from pickpockets. And it's - especially inland - a completely different culture than ours.