LesArt.Stadion: Kathrin Längert und Torsten Körner in den Kabinen von Borussia Dortmund

In the organizer's words:

Twice 45 minutes of the finest soccer literature

Home booth
Kathrin Längert
We deserve more

In this book, former professional footballer Kathrin Längert recounts her experiences in the world of soccer, which are exemplary of a society that continues to systematically devalue and marginalize its female athletes - sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously. To this day, women do not receive the recognition they deserve for their achievements and their stories are not told.

The author wants to change this. Based on her experiences as a player and coach, she not only criticizes the status quo, but also reflects on it: What measures would be necessary for women in soccer to finally get the structures they deserve and have been denied for decades.

"Kathrin Längert's story is the story of generations of women playing soccer. An important text." (Katja Kraus)
"Kathrin Längert's courage and passion are an incentive for us all. And this book will certainly enrich the discussion about equal rights in soccer in the long term." (Turid Knaak)

Kathrin Längert shows what a fairer, united soccer world should look like and how women's soccer could succeed in developing further without repeating the mistakes of men's soccer.

Guest booth
Torsten Körner
We were heroines - How women conquered soccer

In "We were heroines", Torsten Körner takes us on a journey back in time to the early years of the Federal Republic of Germany and unfolds the fascinating and sometimes almost unbelievable story of the beginnings of women's soccer. He tells of women who - influenced by the "Miracle of Bern" - played unofficial international matches in the 1950s, of pioneering women who defied the ban on women's soccer, of the first female goal scorer of the month and brings us closer to the women who played the first officially recognized international match in 1982.

King soccer rules the world, and the king has always been a man. For decades, the rule was: women belonged at the stove, not on the sports field. In hardly any other sport did men defend their territory as relentlessly as in soccer. Until 1970, women's soccer was officially banned in the Federal Republic of Germany. But courageous female pioneers refused to be deterred and played anyway. They stood up to narrow-minded authorities and conquered soccer pitches, even when they were chased away, pelted with stones and insulted.

Kathrin Längert (born in 1987) was still in kindergarten when she defended a goal for the first time and felt the euphoria when she managed to save a so-called unstoppable goal. This was followed by 15 years as a goalkeeper in competitive sport, 12 of them in professional soccer, which was only allowed to be called that because of the amount of training, not because of the pay. She won the UEFA Women's Cup (now the Champions League) with FCR Duisburg, the DFB Cup with Duisburg and FC Bayern and the Swedish championship twice with FC Rosengård.

Torsten Körner is a writer, documentary filmmaker, journalist and television critic. He wrote the highly acclaimed SPIEGEL bestseller biographies about Heinz Rühmann, Franz Beckenbauer and Götz George and was a juror for the Grimme and German Television Awards for several years. He is also active as a director, including of "Angela Merkel - The Unexpected", "Three Days in September" (nominated for the German Television Award 2018) and "The Unbending" (awarded the Guild Film Prize for Best Documentary). The sequel "Guten Morgen, ihr Schönen" was released in the fall of 2024. Most recently, Torsten Körner published "In der Männer-Republik" and "Kanzlerin am Döner-Stand" with Kiepenheuer & Witsch.