Bernhard Ernst (commentator)

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Bernhard Ernst (born July 8, 1899 in Münster , † October 19, 1957 in Cologne ) was a German sports journalist and sports commentator for the Northwest German Broadcasting Corporation (NWDR).

Life

At the age of 17 Ernst was active as a track and field athlete, later he played tennis, hockey, fistball and batball. From 1920 he worked as a sports journalist. In 1922 he was at the University of Münster on the subject of "Sports Press and Sports Reporting . With special consideration of West Germany ”. Due to the occupation of the Rhineland after the First World War, Münster was selected as the provisional location for the radio station, which went on air on October 10, 1924 from its studio on the premises of the Stadtwerke on Albersloher Weg and which Ernst responded to the “West German Funkstunde “, the forerunner of the WDR , followed.

Ernst was a commentator on the first live broadcast of a soccer game on German radio. This was broadcast on November 1, 1925, when the two Westphalian clubs Preußen Münster and Arminia Bielefeld faced each other after the kick-off at around 2.30 p.m. as part of the German soccer championship . Ernst's commentary was right behind one of the football goals. A hockey goal with wire mesh was used to protect and secure the microphone. Ultimately, however, the microphone could not be used at all, as there were transmission problems on the cable route that had been laid especially for this transmission from the sports field to the radio house on Albersloher Weg. Instead, the reporting line, which was originally held for the technical staff, was used as a transmission channel, so that Ernst, instead of using a microphone, broadcast the game, which ended with a 5-0 away win for the guests, on the phone, which lasted almost two hours commented. Ernst later recalled that day with the words: "So I started my first football report a little late, with a very strange feeling and with an unusual voice strength that was necessary for technical reasons." After the game it was found that " Somewhere in the bowels of the infancy telecommunications network, a conscientious and ignorant postal technician came across the new, unprecedented transmission circuit that he could not explain. So he quickly fixed the supposed faulty circuit. "

The first radio broadcast of an international match was planned for April 18, 1926. Germany and the Netherlands faced each other in the Düsseldorf Rheinstadion . Ernst had again positioned himself with his microphone behind one of the soccer goals to comment on the game from there. However, when the stadium, which was already filled with 60,000 spectators, was stormed by over 10,000 visitors who had no tickets, most of whom could only be found inside the stadium in the immediate vicinity of the field, Ernst made his way to the stands a second commentator's seat was set up. Although the game kicked off more than an hour late, Ernst only reached the commentator's seat 30 minutes after kick-off and found that a postal inspector was professionally commenting on the game in his absence. Decades later, Ernst commented on this incident with the words: "What the hand of a post official did to the radio on November 1, 1925, was amply made up for here in Düsseldorf by the mouth of a postal colleague."

At the end of 1926 the broadcasting location was relocated to Cologne. Ernst stayed at the station as head of the news and sports department. In the period after the Second World War , Ernst also worked for television and commented, among other things, on the television broadcast of the 1954 World Cup final between Germany and Hungary , the so-called “ Miracle of Bern ”. Today only the comment of the radio reporter Herbert Zimmermann can be remembered, as there were far more radio receivers than television receivers in the 1950s and the broadcast could not be recorded for technical reasons. The pictures were subsequently set to music with Zimmermann's radio commentary. In the years and decades that followed, the final was always associated with Zimmermann's voice ( goal, goal, goal, goal - the game is over, the game is over, over !! ).

After Ernst's death, the city of Münster named a street near his place of work on Albersloher Weg after him.

literature

  • Around the microphone . Lengerich (Westf.): Bischof & Klein, [1948].

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Ulrich Heitger: The voice of Bern . Westfälische Nachrichten , October 29, 2010, accessed on November 1, 2015.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Andreas Wittner: Forgotten radio pioneer: The man who brought the football radio . Spiegel-Online -Portal one day , December 23, 2008, accessed on November 1, 2015.
  3. ↑ All national team games in 1926 . Website of the German Football Association , accessed on November 28, 2013.
  4. ^ Bernhard-Ernst-Strasse . Münster Wiki, accessed on November 1, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Ernst, Bernhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sports journalist and sports commentator
DATE OF BIRTH July 8, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Muenster
DATE OF DEATH October 19, 1957
Place of death Cologne