Archie Rhind-Tutt will be well known to avid followers of German football, both for his pitch side reporting for ESPN's Bundesliga coverage, and his regular appearances on the Guardian Football Weekly. 

He joined us on the latest episode of The Bundesletter Podcast to talk on football in his adopted home of Köln, how it felt to be in the Westfalenstadion as Dortmund threw away the title in 2023, and what it's like to interview Pep Guardiola. 

Here’s everything we covered:

• How Archie came to live and work in Germany (1:30)
• Köln as a football city (4:30)
• Archie’s decision to support Fortuna Köln, rather than FC (7:45)
• The highlights of Archie’s career covering the Bundesliga (9:45)
• The experience of watching Dortmund throw away the title in 2023 (12:45)
• What it’s like to interview Pep Guardiola (16:00)
• Working in a second language (19:00)
• Edin Terzic’s critiques of Archie’s jazzy jackets (21:00)
• What makes German football special to Archie (23:30)
• When Archie and I bumped into each other at Glastonbury Festival (31:00)
• Archie’s feelings on Euro 2024 (34:00)
• The differing attitudes to the national team in England and Germany (38:00)
• Archie’s book recommendation (39:30)

About The Bundesletter Podcast

The Bundesletter Podcast is an interview programme featuring the expert insight of observer of German football and its culture.

We'll hear from journalists, historians, analysts and fans of fußball on their experiences of following and learning the game.

This series is a companion to the Bundesletter, a weekly newsletter written, edited and published by Tom Ritchie, a journalist based in Berlin.

You can subscribe to the newsletter here: bundesletter.substack.com.

Kenny Legg is a different type of guest for us here at the Bundesletter Podcast. His day job involves supporting British businesses find partnerships and success in the German market, but he's as fervent a football fan as our other guests. 

His writing has appeared in publications like Mundial and Halb Vier. Interested in the culture of German football of all levels, he is a proud football nerd with a particular penchant for collecting memorabilia found at Germany's many weekend fleamarkets. A Fortuna Dusseldorf fan with an affinity for Tennis Borussia Berlin, his observations in this podcast speak to a fan with an eye for the Bundesliga and beyond. 

Here's what we covered: 

• Kenny's role with the UK Government's Department for Business and Trade (1:30)
• The differences and similarities in English and German football fandom (5:30)
• His football writing career (9:15) 
• His support of Fortuna Dusseldorf (13:30)
• Dusseldorf as a football city (19:00)
• The success, and possible problems with, Fortuna fur Alle, the club's scheme to provide free access to football (26:00)
• The unique charm of Tennis Borussia Berlin and their low-tech scoreboard (32:00)
• Kenny's football memorabilia addiction and the role of the fleamarket in German culture (37:45)
• His rarest football shirt finds (42:00)
• The gossip flying around the Bayern Munich changing room in 1996/7, as told in Lothar Matthaus' diary (45:00)
• His recommendation for readers wanting to learn more about football in East Germany (48:30)

Kenny's viral tweet from Euro 2024: https://x.com/legg_kenny/status/1803495961538302315 

Kenny's instagram: https://www.instagram.com/legg_kenny/ 

About The Bundesletter Podcast

The Bundesletter Podcast is an interview programme featuring the expert insight of observer of German football and its culture.

We'll hear from journalists, historians, analysts and fans of fußball on their experiences of following and learning the game.

This series is a companion to the Bundesletter, a weekly newsletter written, edited and published by Tom Ritchie, a journalist based in Berlin.

You can subscribe to the newsletter here: bundesletter.substack.com.

Uli Hesse is an authority on German football. Writing in both his native tongue and English, he is a prolific author and journalist. Through his long career, he has contributed to titles such as FourFourTwo and When Saturday Comes, and he is now a staff writer at 11Freunde.

His book Tor! is widely regarded as the defintive English language history of German football. FourFourTwo listed Tor! as the sixth best football book in history. 

In this conversation we cover: 

• Uli's career (3:00)
• Writing in both English and German (4:30)
• The difference in writing books versus journalism (7:45)
• The plaudits Tor! has received since its first publication in 2002 (9:30)
• The influence of American sportswriting on Uli's style (11:45)
• Common misconceptions of German football from an English audience (16:00)
• Why Germany held on to amateurism in sport, and the influence anti-commercialisation has on football in the country today (21:45) 
• The benefits and drawbacks to the 50+1 rule (29:00)
• Whether German fans are more critical of their national team and its stars than other footballing nations (32:00)
• Which German National Team is the best, or the most significant (39:30)
• The last ten years of German football (43:15)
• Writing histories of Germany's two biggest clubs: Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund (48:30)
• The legend of the 'Yellow Wall' and the atmosphere at Westfalenstadion (52:00)

About The Bundesletter Podcast

The Bundesletter Podcast is an interview programme featuring the expert insight of observer of German football and its culture.

We'll hear from journalists, historians, analysts and fans of fußball on their experiences of following and learning the game.

This series is a companion to the Bundesletter, a weekly newsletter written, edited and published by Tom Ritchie, a journalist based in Berlin.

You can subscribe to the newsletter here: bundesletter.substack.com.

Fascinated by German football from a young age, Kit Holden has carved a unique career since he's moved to Berlin.

A freelance journalist writing in both German and English for titles such as Der Tagesspiegel and The Athletic, Holden has recently published two outstanding books.

Scheisse! We're Going Up, tells the story of Union Berlin through the stories of Unioner dating back to the days of the DDR. Played In Germany, published in June of this year, explores the football history and cultures of the host cities of Euro 2024. 

In this conversation we cover: 

• Kit's origins in German football, and moving to Berlin (4:45)
• How Berlin has changed during Kit's time in the city (7:03)
• Whether Kit's relationship with Union has changed the more he covers the team professionally (10:38)
• The difference in writing for a native German audience, and English-speaking titles (15:48)
• The process of writing Scheisse! (18:13)
• Perceptions of Union in English speaking countries (24:13)
• The matchday experience at the Alte Fösterei (30:44)
• The diversity of fan cultures in Germany (35:45)
• Why Bavarian culture has become a byword for German culture in other parts of the world (39:10)
• Leipzig's role in the foundation of German football (42:36)
• The unease many people in Germany feel around nationalism and football (48:23)
• The role of football clubs in fighting the emerging far right presence in the East of Germany (53:22)

Buy Scheisse! We're Going Up! here: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/scheisse-we-re-going-up-the-unexpected-rise-of-berlin-s-rebel-football-club-kit-holden/6698522

Buy Played in Germany here: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/played-in-germany-a-footballing-journey-through-a-nation-s-soul-kit-holden/7592294

Podcast cover designed by Graeme Sapsed. Need graphic design support, reach out to Graeme on his LinkedIn account https://www.linkedin.com/in/graemesapsed/ 

About The Bundesletter Podcast

The Bundesletter Podcast is an interview programme featuring the expert insight of observer of German football and its culture.

We'll hear from journalists, historians, analysts and fans of fußball on their experiences of following and learning the game.

This series is a companion to the Bundesletter, a weekly newsletter written, edited and published by Tom Ritchie, a journalist based in Berlin.

You can subscribe to the newsletter here: bundesletter.substack.com.

Jacob Sweetman is a writer, a drummer, and a keen observer of football in the Haupstadt. 

Now the lead for FC Union Berlin's english communications, Jacob has been writing about fußball and Berlin for almost two decades, since moving to the city in 2007. 

In the 2010s, he edited and published No Dice Magazine, a fanzine that covered the many football clubs in Berlin. In his role with Union, he manages the club's english Twitter feed, writes match reports, and produces video interviews with key figures at the Alte Försterei. 

In this wide ranging conversation, Jacob sahres his thoughts on: 

4:30 — Moving to Berlin
6:30 — His time editing and publishing No Dice Magazine
10:30 — Berlin's repuation, or lack thereof, as a football city
12:00 — The welcoming nature of Union's fans 
14:00 — The diverse nature of clubs and their fanbases in Berlin
18:30 — The figures that best exemplify the city's football culture and history
21:15 — The history of Union and Hertha's friendship, and subsequent rivalry
25:45 — Union's position as the people's club under the DDR, and their animosity towards BFC Dynamo
30:00 — His fandom of Union
39:00 — His hopes for the season ahead
40:30 — The best books for understanding German football

About The Bundesletter Podcast

The Bundesletter Podcast is an interview programme featuring the expert insight of observer of German football and its culture.

We'll hear from journalists, historians, analysts and fans of fußball on their experiences of following and learning the game.

This series is a companion to the Bundesletter, a weekly newsletter written, edited and published by Tom Ritchie, a journalist based in Berlin.

You can subscribe to the newsletter here: bundesletter.substack.com.