A celebration for a legend: the Deckarm Festival
As well as hosting the European Handball Championship at home, in January 2024 the world of German handball is also celebrating the ‘big birthday’ of a truly special handball player: our exceptional handball player Joachim Deckarm is turning an impressive seventy on 19 January 2024.
So what better reason to celebrate with his friends in ‘his’ hall in his native city of Saarbrücken? On 25 January, Saarbrücken will be hosting a very special event: the Deckarm Festival to mark the seventieth birthday of a Saarland handball legend. This event, organised as a tribute to the former handball star and Saarland stalwart in the Joachim-Deckarm-Halle that bears his name, promises a day brimming with handball action and emotions.
The festival press conference took place on 11 January at URSAPHARM Arzneimittel GmbH’s facility: ‘Blacky’ Christian Schwarzer, 2007 handball world champion and the current youth coordinator and trainer for Handball-Verband Saar e.V., and Christoph Schacht, vice president of Handball-Verband Saar e.V., presented the programme alongside URSAPHARM’s head of corporate communications Boris Röder.
The festival will offer an entire day showcasing handball – with school activities in the morning, youth exhibition games in the afternoon, and the evening highlight of a show match between the Saarland All Stars and the Handball All Stars to round off this day dedicated to Joachim Deckarm.
The Saar All Stars will feature such names as Andrej Lavrov, Jerome Müller, Yves Kunkel, Daniel Fontaine, coach Philipp Kessler, Dirk Mathis and Steffen Ecker. The Handball All Stars players will include handball greats such as Christian Schwarzer, Markus Baur and Henning Fritz, headed up by legendary coach Heiner Brand and Michael Biegler.
Joachim Deckarm is a true Saarland handball legend. He began his sporting career at his home club TV Malstatt. He won countless titles with VfL Gummersbach and played a major role in their 1978 world championship win. Despite a tragic accident that ended his career, he has never given up and has won various awards for his remarkable life story. Joachim Deckarm is a role model and a symbol of courage and perseverance. As things stand, Deckarm (who loves in Gummersbach) is looking forward to returning to Saarland for the festival, and will receive an award from the mayor of Saarbrücken at city hall the day before. We are looking forward to celebrating this special day with lots of fans and supporters of this handball legend at the Joachim-Deckarm-Halle in Saarbrücken, and to being part of this unique event. Further information about the event and its activities can be found on this page, on our social media channels and from the Handball-Verband Saar.