Most German children join a local football club when they are very young, usually around five or six. They train once or twice a week and play matches at the weekend. Clubs aren't just for the very best players - they are for everyone. A village club might have teams for every age, from tiny kids to grandparents.
Germany's top professional league is called the Bundesliga. It has some of the biggest clubs in Europe. Stadiums are often packed with tens of thousands of fans, all singing and waving scarves. One famous wall of fans in the city of Dortmund holds 25,000 people standing up - the biggest standing area at any football stadium in the world.
Germany has won the men's FIFA World Cup four times - in 1954, 1974, 1990 and 2014. They are also strong in women's football, having won the Women's World Cup twice. National team games in big tournaments bring whole streets together. Cars drive past with German flags out of the windows; cafes set up TVs on the pavement.
But you don't have to be on the national team to love football here. Kicking a ball in the park, having a kickabout after school, joining the local team on a Saturday morning - that is what most of German football really is. Fields, parks and school yards all over the country are full of children playing every weekend.