One day during last year’s football World Cup, I found the street where I used to live in Berlin. In my memory, it was a dull-brown place where nobody ever spoke to anyone. Coming back 15 years later, it took me a while to be sure it was the same street. Flags were flying on every house – German flags made in China, but also flags of many other nations – and children were playing everywhere even though Germans had supposedly stopped having them. The World Cup seemed to have made the country happy.

Now, a year to the day after one of the biggest media events in history began, there seems to be lots of evidence to show this was true. Possibly no World Cup ever did more for its hosts. Here are three effects the tournament had on Germany.