August Gottschalk

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the German teacher and politician see August Gottschalk (Politiker) .

August Gottschalk
Personnel
birthday	December 14, 1921
place of birth	Essen ,  German Empire
date of death	November 27, 2014
Place of death	Essen,  Germany
position	Storm
Juniors
Years	station
0000-1938	Prussia food
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1938-1939	Prussia food
1939-1945	Red and white food
1945-1946	Prussia food
1946-1955	Red and white food
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
1955-1957	SV Borbeck 93/09
	BV Altenessen 06
1 Only league games are given.

August Gottschalk (born December 14, 1921 in Essen ; † November 27, 2014 there ) was a German football player . As a captain with Rot-Weiss Essen, the offensive player won the DFB Cup in 1953 and the German football championship in 1955 .

Career

Before the Oberliga West, until 1948

August Gottschalk, who was born in the Altenessen district, learned to play football at Prussia Essen . He came from a family actively involved in weightlifting and, in addition to his talent for soccer, had a handsome figure. At the age of 17 he moved to Rot-Weiss Essen at the instigation of Georg Melches and was associated with the club throughout his career from 1939 to 1955. He played 172 league games in which he scored 96 goals. With a special permit, Gottschalk was allowed to play in the first team straight away and thus already gained playing experience in the Gauliga Niederrhein in the first years of the Second World War . He was also able to show his skills in the games for the Tschammer Cup in 1940 and 1941 and thus attracted the attention of Reich trainer Sepp Herberger . The young striker from Essen belonged to Herberger's inspection courses in the winter of 1939/40 and from March 17 to 21, 1941 in Berlin . Course colleagues included players such as Hans Biallas , Hermann Eppenhoff , Reinhold Fanz sen., Georg Lechner , Herbert Burdenski , Gerhard Graf , Paul Matzkowski , Hans Fiederer , Gunther Baumann , Karl Barufka , Willi Arlt and Heinz Krückeberg . In 1941 Gottschalk was drafted into the Wehrmacht , was taken prisoner and, after his return, started working again with his old club SC Preußen 02 Essen. With Prussia, he reached first place in the finals of the district master of the Ruhr district (Groß-Essen) and became city master in 1946. In the final round of the Lower Rhine, Gottschalk and his colleagues from SC Preußen lost the semifinals 0: 1 after extra time against the later Lower Rhine champions Rot-Weiß Oberhausen.

RWE Patriarch Melches then brought him back to Hafenstrasse. In the Landesliga Niederrhein Group 2, Rot-Weiss prevailed in the 1947/48 season in the decider for the group victory against the tied VfB Hilden 03 with 2-1 and forced in the promotion round to the Oberliga West against the competitors Duisburger SpV and TuRa 86 Essen the climb. The attacking leader, who at that time still acted as a center forward with a strong shot and header in the World Cup system , played a decisive role in enabling RWE to achieve the targeted promotion.

Oberliga West, 1948 to 1955

With a 1-0 home win against Preußen Münster, Gottschalk and colleagues started in the league on September 19, 1948. At the end of the round, the “Melches” team adorned itself behind Borussia Dortmund with the laurel of the runner-up in 1948/49. Gottschalk had scored 14 goals in 20 league games. On May 29, 1949, the Red-Whites contested in Braunschweig against the north vice FC St. Pauli in the qualifying game for participation in the German championship. The team around Karl Miller , Walter Dzur , Hans Appel and Alfred Boller prevailed against the team from Bergeborbeck with 4-1 goals. At the end of the round, on June 18, 1949, RWE opened the long series of international games with a friendly against Wacker Vienna. In the fourth league year, 1951/52, Gottschalk won the West German championship with Rot-Weiss Essen for the first time, but failed in the final round of the German championship at what would later be the title holder, VfB Stuttgart . In the western league, the outstanding attacking trio with Helmut Rahn (29-20), Gottschalk (27-19) and Bernhard Termath (29-20) set the tone. In the first year of goalkeeper Fritz Herkenrath and attacker Franz Islacker on Hafenstrasse, 1952/53, the men around captain Gottschalk took third place in the Oberliga West; the "game designer" and "Spiritus Rector" of the Red-Whites, who has long since ceased to be the top priority, had nevertheless scored 18 goals in 27 league games under coach Karl Hohmann (RWE: 1949–1954). After successes over Jahn Regensburg, VfL Osnabrück, Hamburger SV and Waldhof Mannheim, the team from Hafenstrasse won the DFB Cup on May 1, 1953 in Düsseldorf with a 2-1 final victory over Alemannia Aachen. In his sixth year in the league, 1953/54, captain Gottschalk led his team to the runner-up; However, due to the World Cup in Switzerland, only a reduced final round of the German championship was played and the western runner-up could not take part. To compensate, Georg Melches had planned a nine-week trip to South and North America for RWE. The adventure began on April 23, 1954, and on June 22, 1954, the Red-Whites returned to Essen after stays in Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and a two-week stay in the USA.

The 32-year-old veteran went into the 1954/55 season with his teammates under the new coach Fritz Szepan . With an outstanding first round balance of 27: 3 points - the three minus points resulted from three draws against Leverkusen, Aachen and Düsseldorf - the basis for a well-played western championship was laid. On May 1, the Red-Whites ended the league round with a 1-1 draw at Schalke 04, on May 15 they opened the group stage in the final round of the German championship with a 4-0 home win against TuS Bremerhaven 93. With The men around conductor Gottschalk drew 10: 2 points in the final on June 26, 1955 in Hanover against 1. FC Kaiserslautern. The "Red Devils" with the four world champions from the tournament days in Switzerland - Werner Kohlmeyer , Werner Liebrich , Horst Eckel and Fritz Walter ; Center forward Ottmar Walter was absent due to injury - in their ranks, had been traded as favorites and also took a 1-0 lead. The Bergeborbeck team got the game under control "under their outstanding conductor August Gottschalk", equalized and led 3-1 goals at halftime. After the Lauterer chase to make it 3: 3, a goal from Franz Islacker in the 85th minute of the game decided in favor of RW Essen. German champion in 1955 was Rot-Weiss Essen.

Then August Gottschalk ended his career. As a congenial partner of “Macher” and “Patriarch” Georg Melches in the background, he had contributed significantly to the red and white successes on the field. Within the team, he was the undisputed leader even before Helmut Rahn ; he had been the conductor and figure of integration of the red and white eleven. Initially in the position of the beefy center forward , later from the withdrawn position of the conductor, he was with Rahn the offensive creative center of the Essenes in the early 1950s and was considered an extended arm of the coach. The legendary radio reporter Kurt Brumme described the footballer Gottschalk in the following words: “From the rookie of the football spring days, he has developed into a strategist, to the superior striker of his team, which he soon left his mark on with his personality. Unfortunately, this gifted striker has always been denied one goal: to lead the German soccer storm as a national player. "

In the 1955/56 season, Gottschalk led SV Borbeck from the Lower Rhine regional league to promotion to the association league as a player- coach . On June 28, 1957, he finally said goodbye to active football.

Even after his career, August Gottschalk stayed in Essen and became the trainer of BV Altenessen . At the same time, he ran an inn on Germaniaplatz in Essen. From 1967 he worked as a representative for a brewery. He became honorary captain of Rot-Weiss Essen. Most recently he lived in a retirement home.

Selection games

In the heyday of the representative games, after the Second World War, Gottschalk registered three appearances in the west selection and north-west selection against north and south Germany on April 4 and May 19, 1948 and on May 8, 1949.

literature

• Georg Schrepper, Uwe Wick: “… RWE again and again!” The story of Rot-Weiss-Essen. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-89533-467-7 .
• Hardy Grüne , Lorenz Knieriem: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 8: Player Lexicon 1890–1963. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2006, ISBN 3-89784-148-7 .
• Hartmut Hering (Ed.): In the land of a thousand derbies. The football history of the Ruhr area . Publishing house Die Werkstatt. Göttingen 2002. ISBN 3-89533-372-7 .

Web links

• August Gottschalk in the database of weltfussball.de
• August Gottschalk at DFR-nrw.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ RWE master captain August Gottschalk is dead , November 27, 2014, Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung .
2. ↑ RW Essen: Legend August Gottschalk passed away , November 28, 2014, Media Sportservice West .
3. ↑ Schrepper, Wick: "... always RWE!" , P. 89.
4. ↑ Schrepper, Wick: "... always RWE!" , P. 89.
5. ^ Raphael Keppel : Germany's international soccer games. Documentation from 1908–1989. Sport- und Spielverlag, Hürth 1989, ISBN 3-9802172-4-8 , p. 148.
6. ↑ Hardy Greens : Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 1: From the Crown Prince to the Bundesliga. 1890 to 1963. German championship, Gauliga, Oberliga. Numbers, pictures, stories. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 1996, ISBN 3-928562-85-1 , p. 271.
7. ↑ Schrepper, Wick: "... always RWE!" , P. 84.
8. ↑ Schrepper, Wick: "... always RWE!" , P. 86.
9. ↑ Schrepper, Wick: "... always RWE!" , P. 90.
10. ↑ Ralf Piorr (ed.): The pot is round. The lexicon of Revier football: The clubs . Klartext Verlag. Essen 2006. ISBN 3-89861-356-9 . P. 33.
11. ^ Raphael Keppel: Germany's international soccer games. Documentation from 1908–1989. Sport- und Spielverlag, Hürth 1989, ISBN 3-9802172-4-8 , pp. 176-177.