Published by the city of Eichstätt, West Germany in December 1966, this book, entitled simply Spiel Ohne Grenzen (the German name for the games), is the earliest book about the series that we've been able to track down.

The book focuses upon the exploits of the team from the West German city of Eichstätt, who were successful in the 1966 competiton and ended up as Jeux Sans Frontières Champions for that series.

The book was written by Rudolf Leuchtmann with the help of Otmar Buchberger, Konrad Held and Josef Morczinek. Buchberger and Morczinek were both competitors in the competition and turned out for Eichstätt in all three 1966 competitions in which they featured (Heat 6, the 2nd Semi Final and the International Final).

It took the form of an annual-sized (240mm x 165mm) paperback publication, with the pages threaded together with cotton in the old style of bookbinding. Spiel Ohne Grenzen runs to 78 pages plus covers (the front cover is shown to the right), and that number includes thirty pages of photographs from 1966 JSF competitions featuring the Eichstätt team.

The Spiel Ohne Grenzen book is prefaced with an introduction by Hans Hutter, the Oberbürgermeister (Mayor) of Eichstätt. Its content comprised information about how the city of Eichstätt was selected by ARD-WDR Television to participate in the competition, the organisational schedule which commenced in February 1966 and the preparations made by the town, the team and individual team members for their participation in Jeux Sans Frontières 1966. After this section (which covered chapters one to five), the remaining eleven chapters discussed and recorded information for of each of the three matches in which Eichstätt competed. These chapters went into detail about the competitions concerned, the games played and the questions asked in the Game of Questions. In addition to the descriptions of the games, there were also illustrations to help explain them. There were also caricatures of presenters, such as the one of Camillo Felgen seen here, which depicts the manner of the West German presenter's entrance into the arena at the 1966 International Final.

The book is a rare collector's piece that would grace the collection of any fan of Jeux Sans Frontières.

by Alan Hayes
with thanks to Christos Moustakas and Thomas Kreidl