Max Appis

Max Appis (born February 9, 1926 in Fürth ; † October 24, 2003 ibid) was a German soccer player who, as an active member of SpVgg Fürth, played 302 games in the South Football League from 1947 to 1961 and scored 98 goals.

career

Youth and World War II, 1937 to 1948

Max Appis grew up in Fürth. His father Ludwig was already a well-known player at the Ronhof. From July 1937 he hunted the leather cloverleaf in his youth. His future teammate in the major league, Richard Gottinger , was already his comrade and playmate in his youth. Due to his great technique, the penalty and free kick specialty that became apparent at an early stage, his shooting power and, last but not least, the existing playmaker qualities, he was already used in the league team of the three-time German champions in 1914, 1926 and 1929 at the age of 16. The Green-Whites from Middle Franconia played in the Gauliga Nordbayern and the young talent made his debut on October 4, 1942 in a 6-0 away win at Viktoria Aschaffenburg . However, his hopeful career was interrupted in 1943 when he was drafted into the Wehrmacht . In 1944 he was taken prisoner and was interned in England for three and a half years. He returned to Fürth in the spring of 1948 and immediately rejoined his old club. In 13 association games he was still able to play for the "clover leaf" in the 1947/48 series, he scored six goals, but as the 15th, the game association rose in the summer of 1948 from the Oberliga Süd.

Return and league until 1961

In the next decade he was the undisputed thinker and leader of the Fürth game and became a legend thanks to his outstanding quality of player-making. The stay in the Bavarian regional league in 1948/49 lasted only one round, in the promotion round Fürth dominated with 11: 1 points against the competition CSC 03 Kassel , 1. FC Pforzheim and FV Zuffenhausen and immediately returned to the Oberliga Süd back. The high after the ascent also continued in the former first class in the south. The league returnees surprisingly won the South German championship in 1949/50 , relegating VfB Stuttgart to second place with a five point lead. The league champions of the previous year, Kickers Offenbach , and the German champions 1949, VfR Mannheim followed in the places. Led by the outstanding playmaker Max Appis on half left, the championship attack with right winger Horst Hoffmann , half right Otto Brenzke , center forward Horst Schade and left winger Hans Nöth with his 77 hits shot forever in the Fürth Oberliga annals. The top scorer in the South led Schade with 21 and Brenzke with 20 goals in Hoffman contributed 13 goals and playmaker Appis brought it to eight goals in winning the league title round. In the final round of the German championship , Appis and colleagues failed in the semi-finals on June 11, 1950 against the southern vice VfB Stuttgart. The Swabians then also prevailed in the final with 2-1 goals against the third third from Offenbach.

Before that, however, the playmaker from Fürth and his club colleagues Schade and Nöth had played in the regional cup on March 19, 1950 - in 1949/50 the contract players from the first-class West German leagues and the regional representatives from the eastern zone - with Bavaria against the Palatinate ( Rudi Fischer , Werner Baßler , Werner Kohlmeyer , Werner Liebrich , Georg Gawliczek , Ottmar Walter , Karl Blankenberger ; Fritz Walter was absent due to injury) in the Stuttgart Neckar Stadium in front of 89,000 spectators in the final with 2-0 goals (twice a shame). Appis contributed two goals to the 6: 2 semi-final success on January 22, 1950 in Munich against Lower Saxony ( Hans Haferkamp , Fritz Apel , Adolf Vetter , Walter Schemel , Ernst-Otto Meyer , Karl-Heinz Gehmlich ).

To defend the title in 1950/51 only two points were missing . The Franconian local rival 1. FC Nürnberg relegated Fürth to second place. Appis had played a brilliant round and scored 18 goals. In the group games for the German championship , the team of coach Helmut Schneider could not prevail against the competition from Kaiserslautern, Schalke and St. Pauli. The Fürth playmaker scored three goals in five games. When goal scorer Horst Schade switched to the “Club” in the summer of 1953, this had a negative impact on the hit rate of the “Kleeblattelf”. Despite the good teammates Hans Bauer , Herbert Erhardt , Richard Gottinger and Karl Mai , Appis could not qualify with the game association in the next few years of the league for the finals of the German championship. The highlight was still the derbies against Nuremberg. The thoroughbred technician achieved a particularly brilliant act on September 30, 1956 in a 7-2 derby win in the Zabo.

The 35-year-old played his last league game on April 30, 1961 in his home town of Ronhof in a 1-1 draw against Karlsruher SC . In total, he has played over 600 games for the green-whites. In addition, there are representative games for Bavaria and southern Germany, such as the game on March 18, 1951 in Duisburg with southern against western Germany, when a combination of Fürth and Nuremberg players represented southern Germany in the 4-0 win. Appis acted as usual on the half left and scored a hit.

Player-coach and death

For round 1961/62 he exercised the post of player- coach at Kickers Würzburg , before he was in the same function at TSV Burgfarnbach from 1962 to 1965.

After Max Appis died on October 24, 2003, the 2nd Bundesliga match between Greuther Fürth and Wacker Burghausen began on November 2, 2003 with a minute's silence, and Vice-President Edgar Burkart then gave a short speech in honor of the deceased.

literature

• Lorenz Knieriem, Hardy Greens : Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 8: Player Lexicon 1890–1963 . Agon-Sportverlag, Kassel 2006, ISBN 3-89784-148-7 .
• Werner Skrentny (Ed.): When Morlock still met the moonlight. The history of the Oberliga Süd 1945–1963 . Klartext-Verlag, Essen 1993, ISBN 3-88474-055-5 .

Web links

• Biography on greuther-fürth.de