'World Cup Fans' is a special SBS News series running in the lead up to the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. It looks at the 32 qualifying countries through the eyes of their fans in Australia.
Defending World Cup champions Germany will be the team to beat at this year's FIFA World Cup in Russia.
If the number one ranked side can make it all the way, they will become only the third nation to win back to back World Cups.
Brazil won both the 1958 and 1962 tournaments, while Italy claimed the title in 1934 and 1938.
Here in Australia, there’s certainly no doubting the confidence of the German fans.
"They will win there's no doubt about that," Gunter Schramm told SBS News.
"Who is going to stop them?"
German fans are full of confidence heading into the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. Source: Adrian Arciuli
If he is right, Germany would equal Brazil’s record for the most World Cups won, with five apiece.
Shared history
SBS News met a group of German expats at the Concordia Club, a German club and restaurant in Tempe, Sydney that opened in 1883.
Club president Karl Hinz Fusting said German migrants have exchanged stories there for more than a century. Many arrived in Australia following the Second World War.
"There are many heartbreaking stories," Mr Fusting said.
"Many of the Germans that came after the war, they all came from what is now Poland, Russia and those areas."
"They all had some horrible stories to tell because they were refugees."
84-year-old Rosemarie Scheidel is looking forward to supporting Germany at the 2018 FIFA World Cup Source: Adrian Arciuli
Rosemarie Scheidel spoke of the challenges she faced fitting into 1950s Australia, when she began working in a laboratory with her father.
"Some of them had never seen any Germans," the 84-year-old said. She said some told her they were “scared” of the Germans’ arrival.
"I said … 'Do I look different? No, you just look like us' … that's how they accepted me."
A nation divided
Germany was split into two separate countries in 1949. Five years later, West Germany lifted the World Cup for the first time.
Mr Schramm was living in Hamburg at the time.
"You couldn't hear a train going or a car going or nothing at all, everybody was in the pub or listening to the TV," he said.
West Germany's next triumph came on home soil in 1974. It lifted the trophy for a third time at Italia 90 before the country was reunified later that year.
At the last World Cup, Germany thrashed host nation Brazil 7-1 in the semi-finals, before edging past Argentina in the final. Ms Scheidel wonders whether another nation deserves to win the tournament in Russia.
"I don't know that we shouldn't give somebody else a turn," she said.
Germany kicks off its 2018 FIFA World Cup campaign against Mexico on the 18 June.
The 2018 FIFA World Cup begins 15 June. SBS will broadcast the biggest games, including the opening match, semi-finals and final, live, free and in HD.
