Robert Enke Remembered – Photo, Shoot Special

Just over a week ago I was in Berlin. There chiefly to witness a moment of history, namely the celebrations to commemorate 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, I also made my way to the awe-inspiring Olympiastadion to see a struggling Hertha Berlin lose 1-0 at home to FC Köln. Whilst out there I was planning to write an in-depth piece on the state of German football right now, or on the grim prospect of one of Europe’s great capitals having no team playing in the country’s top division.

Then the news filtered through about Robert Enke.

News about Enke’s tragic suicide hit the entire nation like a punch in the gut. People were left devastated and saddened that a man who had fought all his professional life to establish himself as Germany’s number one keeper would take his own life just when it appeared he had finally achieved his goal. But, as this story exemplifies in the most distressing of ways, football is not everything and satisfying a career ambition is sometimes not enough.

Enke’s problems were well-documented; the long-term illness and eventual passing away of his daughter from a heart condition at the age of two was a crushing weight to bear for both Robert and his wife, and pressures of a life in the spotlight had already dragged Enke’s state of mind into an unenviable trough of despair and depression. Enke’s father has since spoken publicly about the depression his son suffered from an early age.

“He did not have faith in himself. He was trapped within his own ambition,” Dirk Enke, a sports psychologist, told the German media after Robert’s suicide. “He was always very close to [seeking psychiatric treatment at a care institute], to being admitted, but then he would always say ‘if I went into a psychiatric clinic, then that would be the end of football for me’,” revealed his father. “That is the only thing I am good at and enjoy doing.”

Ultimately what Enke enjoyed doing became a millstone around his neck that would eventually prove too much for him to bear. Following the death of his biological daughter he and wife Teresa adopted, but Enke worried that the adoption would be annulled by the authorities if his depression became public knowledge. “He thought there was no hope of a recovery on the horizon for him,” his wife told a press conference. Trapped, Enke unfortunately chose what he could see as the only way out.

An aspect Robert Enke found most difficult about life in the spotlight was the constant weight of expectations, the fear of letting down the people around him, teammates and supporters alike. Enke’s spells at FC Barcelona and Fenerbahce were brief and unhappy memories because any mistakes were vilified by a brutal press corps and amplified to an unforgiving public.

If there is perhaps one thing we can learn from this, I think, it is the importance of remembering what football really is – a game, to be shared and enjoyed. As journalists, writers, supporters and observers we all have a moral responsibility to treat the main protagonists of this game with an element of dignity and respect, keeping in mind the fact they, like us, are human beings prone to the same doubts, fears and grievances as anybody else.

To my mind, one of Robert Enke’s most telling quotes is the following, to German magazine 11 Freunde: “When speaking with the press, I always have two opinions. My personal feelings, and those which I serve to the public.” It portrays a man trapped in a bubble – wary and reluctant to air his real feelings to a cynical press and unsympathetic wider football world that loves you when things are going well but hisses, boos and spits you to one side at the first signs of struggle.

In this, a Photo, Shoot special, we look at some of the images captured around the time of Enke’s passing as people gathered to pay their respects:

The scene at Eilvese station, Neustadt, where Enke’s body was found: (click photos to enlarge)

In Hannover: (click photos to enlarge)

The wider football community also came together to remember Robert Enke:

A moving memorial service for Enke at Hannover’s AWD-Arena:

And highlights of Robert Enke’s last game before his death, a 2-2 draw against Hamburger SV.

Robert Enke, 24th August 1977 – 10th November 2009.

Photo credits: markunti, claudia z, Lasse Frei, hansiong, 112pix and goekce. nartekk on Flickr. Photos 1-3 courtesy of Christian Elsner – Neue Presse.

German Bundesliga, German Football, Germany, Hannover 96, Photoshoot, Robert Enke