Moving service

Robert Enke's death has sparked a public outpouring of grief in Germany. Sunday's memorial service was held at Hanover's football stadium with some 40,000 fans, players and officials bidding farewell to the Germany goalkeeper who died earlier this week.

The 32-year-old Hannover 96 player committed suicide on Tuesday by throwing himself in front of an oncoming train.

His widow, Teresa, went on national television a day later to say her husband had been suffering from depression for six years but that he had not wanted it to become known.

Football is not everything

The president of the German football association Theo Zwanziger said at the memorial service that the best way to remember the goalkeeper would be to recognize the fact that football should never be everything.

"I think that Enke would have called on the fans to show more humanity and more civil courage, they should stand up to oppose the taboos that still exist in our professional sport," Zwanziger said.

"Do not simply look at what sport seems to be. Think of what makes up a person, of weaknesses and doubts," he added.

Paying tribute to the goalkeeper, the president of Enke's club Martin Kind said: "His way of dealing with fans won him many admirers. He was not a star who thought he was better than others. He was one of them and he saved us on many occasions."

Support and compassion for Enke's widow

The State Premier of Lower Saxony, Christian Wulff, paid tribute to Enke's widow Teresa.

"What you had to suffer we can only imagine. The applause you received here today shows that we are with you," Wulff said as the widow received a standing ovation.

The service, which was televised live by several German television networks, was attended many of Germany's top sports personalities and politicians.

Enke was laid to rest in a private funeral service later on Sunday in the cemetery outside Hanover, where his two-year-old daughter, who died in 2006 of a rare heart condition, is also buried.

rb/dpa/AP

Editor: Rick Demarest