Angelo Knorr (chemist)

Angelo Knorr (born February 14, 1882 in Munich , † August 2, 1932 in Greppin ) was a German chemist , football official and the fourth president of FC Bayern Munich .

Live and act

Knorr was born in Munich on February 14, 1882, the son of the businessman Franz Knorr and the grandson of the banker Ludwig Knorr . Raised a Catholic, he first attended the local Maximilians grammar school , then the Ludwig grammar school , which he left in July 1901 with the school leaving certificate. He completed his chemistry studies at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, which he began in autumn 1901, with the dissertation chinoids and partially chinoid compounds in November 1909 and received his doctorate summa cum laude . His supervisors were Wilhelm Schlenk (1879–1943) and Adolf von Baeyer (1835–1917).

Because of his homosexual inclinations, Knorr often traveled to Italy, where, unlike Germany , homosexuality had no longer been a criminal offense since 1889. One of his affairs in Munich was his undoing in 1913. A young prostitute from the scene at Munich Central Station, who was picked up by the police on September 8, 1913, had betrayed him during interrogation. Knorr was arrested in his second home in Starnberg at the end of September 1913. He evidently resigned from his position as President of FC Bayern Munich with immediate effect before his arrest - when he heard about the police investigations. He was released on payment of a deposit of 100,000 Reichsmarks. He then went to a sanatorium in Kreuzlingen , where an expert report initiated by him certified that he was incapable of guilt. The difficult private situation becomes clear here: the father left the family early, the mother died by suicide. The renowned Munich psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin , commissioned by the Munich public prosecutor in July 1914 to issue a second expert opinion, came to the same conclusion: Knorr had found himself in a condition for the offense on which it was doubtful whether he was able to " to exercise a free determination of will ”, which is why the criteria of Section 51 RStGB (incapacity) apply. On August 28, 1914, the 3rd criminal chamber at the regional court ruled that the proceedings had been discontinued.

Eventually he joined the army as a war volunteer , but was soon released. He first went to his uncle Ludwig Knorr (1859–1921) in Jena and then worked as a chemist at IG Farben in Wolfen (Saxony-Anhalt). In order to create a “normal” middle-class atmosphere, he employed Hedwig Bollnow as a housekeeper. He married her in 1917, a step that a doctor friend had advised him to take. Possibly it was also a “supply marriage” to protect the woman. After Berlin changed, he was initially in the nitrite Fabrik AG in Koepenick , then at Agfa in Treptow , where he rose to the middle management.

In 1932 he moved to the Wolfen film factory founded by Agfa in 1909 . Despite considerable success in the field of research and numerous inventions and patents, a severe depression had set in with him . He died of a stroke at his workplace in Wolfen in 1932 at the age of 50. His wife then moved to Berlin.

Commitment to football

Knorr discovered his passion for sport in his youth. He played lawn tennis and was a member of the Munich Sport Club . During his studies he had been involved with the members, who largely came from upper-class circles. He contributed to the fact that FC Bayern Munich was incorporated into the Münchner SC in 1906. On September 4, 1907, Knorr became the fourth president of FC Bayern Munich . He was instrumental in making the club more professional by signing international players. So he committed the Austrian goalkeeper Karl Pekarna for substantial payments for the 1910/11 season . For the 1911/12 season , the English coach Charles Griffith was even committed by the Karlsruhe FV .

Knorr has thus made a significant contribution to the professionalization of FC Bayern Munich. He put the focus on sporting success and also organized games against English clubs such as Middlesbrough and Tottenham Hotspur . His successor as President of FC Bayern Munich was - due to the male hustlers affair - Kurt Landauer , with whom he had previously worked for a long time and who continued the internationalization.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Portrait on Abendzeitung-muenchen .de
2. ↑ End of the line at the main train station , interview with Anton Löffelmeier in the Süddeutsche Zeitung on September 22, 2017
3. ↑ ^{a b} Message from archivist Antonöffelmeier dated December 17, 2017

literature

• Dirk Kämper: Kurt Landauer. The man who invented FC Bayern. Zurich 2014.
• Antonöffelmeier: The Angelo Knorr case - how the persecution of homosexuals 100 years ago drove a chairman of FC Bayern Munich out of office and reputation , in: Oberbayerisches Archiv, Volume 138 , Munich 2014, pp. 159–177.
• Gerhard Fischer: terminus at the main station. Arrested, desperate, forgotten: the historian and author Antonöffelmeier has researched the history of the gay FC Bayern president Angelo Knorr, who laid the foundation for the later success of today's record champions during his tenure. An interview in Süddeutsche Zeitung vol. 73. No. 219 of September 22, 2017. Page R 6 (supplement).

Publications

• Quinoid and partially quinoid compounds. Dissertation . Munich 1909.