Players, coaches, referees: These Berliners and Brandenburgers have left their mark on World Cup history
Players, coaches, referees
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These Berliners and Brandenburgers have left their mark on World Cup history
Sat 26.11.22 | 6:00 p.m. | Of
While the football stars in Qatar are trying to play their way into the history books, these five Berliners and Brandenburgers have already made it. Some as winners, others as losers. By Fabian Friedmann, Lisa Surkamp-Eler and Lukas Witte
Sepp Herber
The later world champion coach Josef “Sepp” Herberger was born in Mannheim, but in the mid-1920s the then 29-year-old moved to Berlin to start his sports studies there.
From then on he played for Tennis Borussia am Eichkamp, although Hertha BSC also courted Herberger’s services. With Herberger’s help, Borussia wanted to stand up to their long-time rivals Hertha BSC, but Hertha proved too strong and eventually won the German championship in 1930, the year in which Sepp Herberger ended his active career and became coach of Tennis Borussia. A plaque in the Mommsen Stadium still commemorates the TeBe player and coach Herberger.
In 1932 Herberger achieved what he had always been denied as a player: he won the Berlin city championship with TeBe in the finals against Minerva 93 Berlin, which had previously surprisingly knocked out Hertha BSC.
In the summer of the same year he left Berlin and became the coach of the West German Game Association, until he finally became the assistant coach of the national team under his former foster father Otto Nerz, whom he inherited as “Reichstrainer” after a brief power struggle in 1936.
His first world championship in 1938 was disappointing. In Paris, his team lost in the first round against Switzerland with a 2:4.
After the war, Sepp Herberger was entrusted with building up the national team, making him West Germany’s first national coach. In addition, he took over the training at several clubs at short notice, including Eintracht Frankfurt, VfR Mannheim, Stuttgarter Kickers and above all at 1. FC Kaiserslautern. Led by his favorite FCK student, Fritz Walter, Germany surprisingly became world champion in 1954. Herberger remained national coach until 1964.
Thomas Haessler
Without him, Germany would not have become world champion in 1990. Thomas Häßler started playing football at Meteor 06 before moving to 1.FC Köln via the Reinickendorfer Füchse station, where he matured into a Bundesliga and national player. “Icke” Häßler scored his important goal on November 15, 1989. It was 1-1 against Wales until just after half-time, when Pierre Littbarski crossed from the left and Welsh defender Andy Melville extended the ball to Häßler, who took the ball directly celebrated 2:1 for Germany.
After the final whistle, the pressure dropped from the entire team and Häßler, the hero of the day, prophesied in the team bus: “I will hardly score such an important goal in my career.” The then 24-year-old experienced the World Cup final in Rome in the starting XI and he was one of the Berliners who were soon able to call themselves soccer world champions.
After the World Cup triumph, Hässler played for AS Roma, Karlsruher SC, Borussia Dortmund, 1860 Munich and Austria Salzburg. After his active career, he returns to Berlin and works as a coach at Club Italia and since 2019 at BFC Preussen.
In August 2022, it became known that Hässler was suffering from a previously unexplained illness associated with neck pain, tinnitus and memory loss. As a result, he had to stop his activity as a coach until further notice.
Erich Haemann
Erich Hamann made a name for himself in the East German Oberliga, where he made almost 175 appearances for FC Vorwarts in Berlin and later in Frankfurt (Oder). The defender was only allowed to wear the jersey of the GDR national team three times – and still had a large part in a piece of German-German sports history at a World Cup.
In 1974 he met his neighbors from the Federal Republic with the GDR selection in the group phase in Hamburg. It was the first senior international match played between the DFB team and the East German team, which had qualified for a World Cup for the first time.
In the 78th minute, Hamann, who had come on as a substitute, played the decisive pass to Jürgen Sparwasser, who scored the famous 1-0 winner for the outsider. “50 percent of the goal belongs to Erich Hamann,” said the winning goal scorer later about his teammate’s cross. The GDR went into the second round of the World Cup as the first in their group, but were then unable to win and were eliminated.
After his football career, Hamann worked as a coach for various teams in Brandenburg and actually made an international appearance again. In 2011 he took over as coach of the U21 national team from Vietnam, which he gave up again after a year without success.
Erich “Ete” Bier
Erich “Ete” Beer, who has been with Hertha for many years, must have had very bad memories of his last international match for the DFB selection. Because this should go down in German football history as the “disgrace of Cordoba”.
In the last match of the intermediate round of the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, Beer lost 2-3 with the DFB-Elf against Austria and thus missed the entry into the final round. The Austrians were already eliminated before the game and had not won an official international match against Germany for 47 years.
A draw would have been enough for the reigning world champions to at least qualify for third place, but in the 87th minute Austrian striker Hans Krankl shattered Germany’s dreams with a 3-2 winner.
What went down in history as a disgrace in Germany was celebrated by the neighbors in the south as the greatest victory of all time. “Ete” Beer then ended his national team career after his first and only World Cup participation and a total of 24 international matches.
Siegfried cherries
The teacher and psychologist Siegfried Kirschen from Frankfurt (Oder) also left his mark at the World Cup – albeit in a different capacity. As a referee for the East German football association, he was present at the World Cup finals in Mexico in 1986 and in Italy in 1990. Kirschen led a total of four parties, and he was also used five times as linesman. He was in action at more World Cup games than any other German referee.
After his career as a referee, he was elected founding president of the Brandenburg state football association in 1990 and held this office for a total of 28 years before being replaced by the current president, Jens Kaden. He was also referee coach in the Bundesliga and international referee observer.
Broadcast: rbb UM6, November 26, 2022, 6 p.m