Bernhard Klodt

Bernhard Klodt
Personnel
birthday	October 26, 1926
place of birth	Gelsenkirchen ,  German Empire
date of death	May 23, 1996
Place of death	Garmisch-Partenkirchen ,  Germany
size	172 cm
position	Storm
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1943-1948	FC Schalke 04
1948-1950	STV Horst-Emscher	53 0(18)
1950-1963	FC Schalke 04	306 (121)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1950-1959	Germany	19 00(3)
1 Only league games are given.

Bernhard "Berni" Klodt (born October 26, 1926 in Gelsenkirchen - Bismarck ; † May 23, 1996 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen ) was a German football player who won the German football championship with FC Schalke 04 in 1958 and the national football team in 1954 won the world championship.

career

Associations, 1940 to 1962

Bernhard Klodt grew up as the youngest of five brothers in the Gelsenkirchen district of Bismarck. In 1940, stepbrother Hans Klodt brought 14-year-old "Berni" Klodt, who had completed a commercial apprenticeship after school, to the youth department of the "Royal Blues". Due to the war, the versatile offensive player made his debut on March 14, 1943 in the Schalke Gauligaelf with a 10-1 win against VfL Bochum. In the Gauliga Westfalen the young player was involved in the title wins in 1943 and 1944 before VfL Altenbögge . On May 30th, the young player played for the first time in the final round of the German soccer championship. Schalke lost 1: 4 goals at Holstein Kiel. Brother Hans guarded the gate, Heinz Flotho and "Berni" stormed on the wings against the Holstein-Elf, which was prominently occupied by Kurt Krüger , Franz Linken and Ottmar Walter . After the Second World War he played two rounds with Schalke 04 from 1945 to 1947 in the Landesliga Westfalen. In 1946 the championship was won in front of Westfalia Herne and in 1947 in front of STV Horst-Emscher . When the West German Football Association started playing the West German Football League for the 1947/48 season , Klodt stormed alongside the ex-national players Ernst Kuzorra and Fritz Szepan . He played all 24 rounds and scored eight goals, Schalke finished sixth. On the first day of the debut round of the league he formed on September 14, 1947 together with Szepan, Herbert Burdenski , Kuzorra and Paul Winkler the attack of the "Knappen" -Elf, which played 2-2 at Hamborn 07 2-2. The next two rounds, 1948 to 1950, he then stormed the local competition STV Horst-Emscher, which had won third place in the first year of the league.

With the team from the Fürstenberg Stadium , he finished third and fourth - Schalke ranked twelfth and sixth respectively - and made it to the finals in 1950 with the "Emscher Hussars". In his first year with the Black and Blue he won both derbies against his home club Schalke 04. In the first half of the season with 4: 2 and in the second half of the season in front of 30,000 spectators with 4: 1 goals. In the 1950 finals, Klodt met with center forward Alfred Kelbassa on the champions of southern Germany, on SpVgg Fürth . In Worms, he stormed the right wing and brought his team 1-0 in the 17th minute in the 17th minute, but in the end the Franks prevailed with 3-2 goals. In the two rounds "Berni" Klodt completed 53 league games for Horst-Emscher and scored 18 goals. During his activity in the "Emscher Hussars" he stormed on May 8, 1949 in the regional selection of West Germany in Bremen against North Germany, took from 14 to 19 November 1949 in Duisburg on the first post-war course of the national football team under Sepp Herberger part and completed another game for West Germany in Cologne against North Germany on May 14, 1950. For round 1950/51 he returned to his parent club Schalke 04.

The returnee experienced in 1951 at the side of striker Hans Kleina the title win in the Oberliga West and in 1952 the runner-up. In the finals, however, Schalke did not play a role, in 1952 they even lost 8-2 at Hamburger SV. In the DFB Cup , Klodt and his teammates drew attention by entering the final on May 21, 1955 in Braunschweig against Karlsruher SC. With coach Eduard Frühwirth and the new strike partner Willi Koslowski , the attacker, who had taken over from Hermann Eppenhoff as captain in 1955, won the runner-up in 1956 and thus made it back to the finals. Here, the new Schalke team confirmed their performance growth and finished second in Group I behind the finalist Karlsruher SC, tied for second place. In the year of the 1958 Soccer World Cup in Sweden, Klodt celebrated the Western Championship with his teammates with one point ahead of 1. FC Köln - 27 round games with 15 goals by the captain - and in the final round with 16: 1 goals and 6: 0 points against Karlsruher SC, Eintracht Braunschweig and Tennis Borussia Berlin, the entry into the final on May 18 in Hanover against Hamburger SV. In the final, Berni Klodt and Co. played themselves in a real frenzy and left the completely overwhelmed North German in front of 81,000 spectators in the bulging Lower Saxony stadium no chance. The outstanding Klodt opened the scoring after just four minutes with a brilliant header, hit the 2-0 after just under half an hour and sent Manfred Kreuz on his way to the 3-0 final score ten minutes before the end.

In the 1958/59 season, the seven games stood out with three goals in the European Cup of the national champions against KB Copenhagen, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Atlético Madrid , whereas the league did not go according to plan for the seven-time German champions. At the age of 35, the senior moved into the finals again in 1962 as West German runner-up with coach Georg Gawliczek . "Berni" Klodt completed his last league game on matchday 30, April 7, 1962, in a 5-3 home win against Borussia Dortmund with fellow attackers Horst Assmy , Werner Ipta , Willi Koslowski and Waldemar Gerhardt . After a total of 383 games and 147 goals, he said goodbye to the Oberliga West. But it was only on the last day of the final round - May 5th at 1. FC Nürnberg - that "Berni" Klodt ended his playing career. From 1943 to 1962 he had played 25 finals and scored eleven goals. Klodt was officially adopted on June 12, 1963 with a friendly against the Bulgarian national team, where he succeeded in the 1-0 winner. Later he was seen for many years in the jersey of the celebrity team of the West German Broadcasting Corporation at various sports press festivals and charity events.

Matthias Kropp describes the player Klodt in the following words:

“ Right and left winger, playmaker, goal scorer and team captain of the championship eleven from 1958, all in one person. "

successes

• West German champion 1951 and 1958
• German champion 1958

Honors

The Federal President honored his athletic achievements with the award of the Silver Laurel Leaf , FC Schalke 04 awarded him the Ring of Honor.

National soccer team, 1950 to 1959

"Berni" Klodt had already been a member of the squad for the first post-war course of the national soccer team in November 1949 , stormed on November 12, 1950 in Frankfurt at the representative match between West Germany and South Germany and ten days later, on November 22, belonged to the national coaching team Sepp Herberger for the first post-war international match against Switzerland in Stuttgart. In front of 115,000 spectators, together with Max Morlock , Ottmar Walter, Fritz Balogh and Richard Herrmann, he formed the attack of the DFB-Elf, who won 1-0 goals. Before the final nomination to the group of 22 World Cup players on June 3, 1954 for the World Cup in Switzerland, the Schalke attacker faced several WFV selection games, DFB test games, and a B international match on April 29 in Offenburg Switzerland and five other appearances in the senior national team on the program. Competitors on the right wing position were in particular Felix Gerritzen and Helmut Rahn . At the World Cup tournament, Klodt was used in two successful preliminary round matches against Turkey (1 goal). In the other games of the tournament, national coach Herberger decided on the individualist and goalscorer Helmut Rahn on the right wing. With his two tournament games and his fair, comradely behavior in the further course of the World Cup, Bernhard Klodt made a significant contribution to the success of the DFB team.

Before the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, the captain of the "Royal Blues" with Hans Cieslarczyk , Engelbert Kraus , Richard Kreß , Bernhard Steffen , Heinz Vollmar and Erwin Waldner had serious competition on the wing positions. "Berni" Klodt improved in the course of the top division season 1957/58 but again in top form. He contributed in 27 league games with 15 goals to winning the West title and in May 1958 to winning the German championship. Herberger took the outstanding player personality of the seven-time champions to the World Cup in Sweden and used him in the two preliminary rounds against Czechoslovakia and Northern Ireland on June 11th and 15th. Both group games ended 2-2 and Klodt stormed the left wing. His international career ended with his 19th international match against Poland on May 20, 1959 in Hamburg.

successes

• World Champion : 1954
• Fourth in the world championship : 1958

Professional

Klodt was the landlord at Schalker Markt for eleven years before he became sales manager for a large brewery group in the Ruhr area. The popular footballer lived in Gelsenkirchen- Ückendorf .

death

After a heart attack and a stroke, he had been paralyzed on his right side since 1990 and had to use a wheelchair. He spent the last years of his life in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where he died in May 1996.

literature

• Lorenz Knieriem, Hardy Grüne : Player Lexicon 1890 - 1963 . In: Encyclopedia of German League Football . tape 8 . AGON, Kassel 2006, ISBN 3-89784-148-7 .
• Jürgen Bitter : Germany's national soccer player: the lexicon . SVB Sportverlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-328-00749-0 .
• Harald Landefeld, Achim Nöllenheidt (ed.): Helmut, tell me dat Tor ... New stories and portraits from the Oberliga West 1947–1963. Klartext, Essen 1993, ISBN 3-88474-043-1 .
• Matthias Kropp: Triumphs in the European Cup. All games of the German clubs since 1955 (= "AGON Sportverlag statistics." Volume 20). AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 1996, ISBN 3-928562-75-4 .
• Matthias Kropp: Schalke in numbers . AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2002, ISBN 3-89784-194-0 .
• Matthias Kropp: Germany's big soccer teams, part 1: Schalke 04 . Kasseler Sportverlag, Kassel 1992, ISBN 3-928562-18-5 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hardy Grüne, 100 Years of German Championship, Die Werkstatt publishing house, 2003, p. 316.
2. ^ Matthias Kropp, Germany's great football teams, part 1: Schalke 04, p. 22.

References

• Germany at the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland
• Germany at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden