Eduard Frühwirth

Edmund "Edi" Frühwirth (born November 17, 1908 in Vienna ; † February 23, 1973 ) was an Austrian football player and coach . As a coach, he managed to win the Austrian championship and the Austrian cup with FK Austria Wien ; in Germany he won the German soccer championship with FC Schalke 04 in the 1958 soccer world championship. Edi Frühwirth also coached the Austrian national soccer team for four years .

Career history

In Austria

As a player, Edi Frühwirth achieved only modest goals, unlike later on the coaching bench. He started with the first division team Rapid Vienna ; for the Hütteldorfer he completed only one game as a runner on December 11, 1927 against the Wiener Sportclub , which the green-whites won 5-2. In the years that followed he played for the Vienna AC in 1930 and 1931 , then for FS Elektra Vienna until 1934 and for FC Libertas Vienna from 1934 to 1936 , without celebrating any major successes. In 1936 Edi Frühwirth finally switched to Floridsdorfer AC , where he began his coaching career after his last season as a player in 1940.

Edi Frühwirth was one of the first in Austria to develop precise daily training plans. When he later became the coach of Vienna Austria, he gave each player a slip of paper with precise instructions. Frühwirth was often ridiculed for these practices, but his success proved him right. Frühwirth was an advocate of precise cover work, expansive play and, above all, great stamina. As a coach, he was something of a “revolutionary” in football Austria and predicted the downfall of the “Viennese School”, which was geared towards the all-out offensive, after the end of the war - a way of looking at things for which he was told by his coaching colleagues in Austria in the late 1940s was scolded. When he switched to the World Cup system for the first time in 1952 at his club SC Wacker Wien , which he coached from 1947 to 1954, and converted two wingers into defenders, he was referred to in Austria as the grave digger of football and especially of the "Vienna School". The abandonment of an offensive middle runner in favor of a defensive stopper and thus the focus of the defensive was very difficult for the old fans of the "Scheiberlspiel" from the 1920s . Since he had already worked for the ÖFB for six months in 1948 , he and Hans Pesser and Josef Molzer were offered the position of assistant coach to support the Austrian national coach Walter Nausch for the duration of the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland . Reaching third place for the eleven against defending champions Uruguay was also registered in the country of the new world champions. "Edi" Frühwirth was the coach of the "Knappen" in 1954/55, he took over FC Schalke 04 in the Oberliga West .

FC Schalke 04

In the first round in Schalke, Frühwirth moved into the DFB Cup final on May 21, 1955 in Braunschweig against Karlsruher SC , and he finished fifth in the league. In the second season he qualified for the finals with "Royal Blue". The team from Frühwirth did not reach the final only because of the poorer goal quotient . In the third season his team was also at the top in the west. The successful introduction of the players Borutta, Siebert, Koslowski, Karnhof, Kördel, Kreuz and Soya into the regular formation should then pay off decisively in the fourth year of his meticulous coaching activity. First succeeded in winning the title in the Oberliga West in the round 1957/58. In the final round, Bernhard Klodt's team distanced the competition from Braunschweig, Berlin (TeBe) and Karlsruhe with 16: 1 goals and 6: 0 points. Even in the final of the German Football Championship on May 18, 1958 in Hanover, Hamburger SV could not stop the Frühwirth protégés. The championship was won with 3-0 goals. "Berni" Klodt, the swift and tricky winger, paved the way for Schalke's clear success that day. "It took us a long time to have a top team again," explained Berni Klodt. “Everything went like clockwork against Hamburg. At 22.5 years of age, our team was still very young on average. But it was also very hard, could really reach. That was certainly no longer the style of the old Schalke champions, our strengths were in other areas ” . The "spinning", the playfulness in the highest perfection, that the Schalker team under coach Frühwirth had clearly moved away from. Sober, purposeful football, based on exact cover work and a solid physical condition, was now the trend and also led to success. But that was not the essential part of Frühwirth's work in Schalke. Harald Landefeld reports in his book on Oberliga West (1993) about the Viennese's working style as follows:

“Frühwirth's successes grew out of his human warmth as well as out of his football skills. He was the first one I met who had the "conversations" with his players, which only came into fashion much later. He grabbed his boys and talked to them, not even about football, but more about private matters. He asked and researched with psychological skill. In addition, as the coach of the contract players, he set about taking care of the 18-year-olds of the A-youth and taking on the talents there. Everything taken for granted today, but revolutionary back then! So the players soon went through fire for the man who understood their worries so well. "

After winning the championship, however, things did not continue as desired. Injuries (Helmut Laszig, Helmut Sadlowski ), departures (Hans Krämer) and the integration of newcomers ( Hans Nowak , Heinz Hornig, Manfred Berz, Karl Loweg) could not be easily absorbed by the coach, in the league you had to come in 11th place content. That was not enough for the old Schalke fans. The good performance in the European Cup against KB Copenhagen, Wolverhampton Wanderers (with the famous record national player Billy Wright ) and Atlético Madrid could not calm the mood at the Schalke market either. “We have eaten Wiener Schnitzel long enough,” Ernst Kuzorra is said to have said, and “Edi” Frühwirth was fired.

Karlsruher SC

After the disappointing 9th place in the 1958/59 round in the Oberliga Süd , the leadership of the defending champion Karlsruher SC drew consequences, coach Ludwig Janda was dismissed, as the new coach Frühwirth committed. The older players Bauis , Hesse, Roth and Traub were replaced by Horst Szymaniak , Friedl Späth and Reinhold Wischnowsky. Bernhard Termath , the old national player of Rot-Weiss Essen , was withdrawn to the middle position and formed the showpiece of the new team of "Edi" Frühwirth with the outside runners Heinz Ruppenstein and Szymaniak.

KSC took the title in the south with 45:15 points, Offenbach and Eintracht Frankfurt followed by a distance. In the final round of the German championship, the Baden players gambled away their chance of making it into the final against the Saarland outsider Borussia Neunkirchen . They lost three points against Borussia, from which Hamburger SV benefited and moved into the final against 1. FC Köln and then won the German championship 3-2 in 1960. KSC had against the men around Uwe Seeler and Klaus Stürmer got three points, the format for participation in the finals was certainly in the blue from the wildlife park; the unconditional will to win in the two games against Neunkirchen was not sufficiently present. Even after this round, players with Berni Termath, Rudi Fischer and Ernst Kunkel ended their careers. The newcomers were put on goalkeeper Manfred Paul von Ulm 46 and stopper Willi Rihm from SV Mörsch in southern Baden. The season confirmed the coach's good work with third place, but it was the year of 1. FC Nürnberg . This won the title in the south and also the DFB championship trophy . Since the KSC lost the DFB Cup final on October 5, 1960 in Düsseldorf against Borussia Mönchengladbach 2: 3, the course of the 1960/61 season was negatively overshadowed by the non-entry into the final round and the lost cup final. On the other hand, reaching third place in the south and getting into the cup in the final was not registered positively.

When in the third round 1961/62 there was actually a sporting step backwards with the 9th place, the KSC ended the further cooperation with Eduard Frühwirth and committed Kurt Sommerlatt to the round 1962/63. The work of the former Rapid Wien player can also be seen as successful in Karlsruhe. The restructuring of the team that he had to carry out in Baden during the three years must be taken into account. The farewell to the cup winners of 1955 and 1956 (Bauis, Beck, Hesse, Fischer, Kunkel, Roth, Termath and Traub) and the move from Horst Szymaniak to Italy in 1961 was simply not possible without a loss of performance. Frühwirth had worked successfully and left a team at KSC with which the realignment could be continued.

Back in Austria

Then "Edi" went back to Vienna: Austria signed the former Rapid player in 1962 as a new coach. In fact, he was able to meet expectations immediately. FK Austria Wien won the championship and the cup in 1963. After finishing second in 1964, he accepted the association's offer and was coach of the Austrian national team from November 20, 1964 to January 13, 1967. With the ÖFB selection, however, he experienced a disaster in qualifying for the 1966 World Cup in England. In Europe Group 6, Austria had to deal with Hungary and the GDR.

After four games the Austria team had 1: 6 goals and 1: 7 points on their account and were thus bottom of the table. Regular players in the World Cup qualifiers were goalkeepers Fraydl (2) and Szanwald (2), runners Sturmberger (4) and Koller (3) as well as the two strikers Buzek and Viehbock, each with three appearances. There was no longer any question of participating in the World Cup. With that, the mission of coach Frühwirth had failed. But you have to take into account the blatant weakness of the Austrian clubs in these years. In the Europa Cup competitions from 1963 to 1966, the last round was two at the latest - regardless of whether it was Austria, Rapid, Admira, Linzer ASK, Grazer AK or Wiener Neustadt.

From 1967 to 1969 Frühwirth trained again in Germany. He took over SC Viktoria Köln in the Regionalliga West. Frühwirth did not achieve top positions, but a statement by the former player and later president of the successor club Preußen Köln, Winnie Pütz, about himself is significant: “An absolute senior psychologist who was incredibly good at motivating young people. That was the trainer for whom I was in bed from Thursday at nine o'clock. "

After his return he was still in charge of the Austrian amateur national team and in the spring of 1970 he took over the coaching position at the first division club SV Wattens . After Wattens entered a syndicate with FC Wacker Innsbruck in 1971 , Frühwirth became the team's technical director.

obituary

On February 23, 1973, he drove his car into a parked truck in a snowstorm on the autobahn between Munich and Salzburg. "Edi" Frühwirth was dead on the spot.

successes

• 1954 third in the soccer world championship with the national team of Austria
• 1958 German champion with Schalke 04
• 1960 South German champion with the Karlsruher SC
• 1963 Austrian champion and cup winner with Austria Wien
• 1955 and 1960 in the DFB Cup final
• 1964 Austria; Runner-up in 1964 and in the cup final with Austria Wien

ÖFB international matches under team boss Eduard Frühwirth

Legend

• H = home game
• A = away game
• * = Play on a neutral place
• - = no official international match
• n / a = after extension
• WM = World Championship
• EM = European Championship
• green background color = victory of Austria
• yellow background color = tie
• red background color = defeat

First term of office (5 international matches) under team boss Eduard Frühwirth

No.	date	Result	opponent		venue	occasion	comment
206	04/18/1948	3: 1	Switzerland	H	Vienna
207	05/02/1948	3: 2	Hungary	H	Vienna	European Cup 1948–1953
208	05/30/1948	1-0	Turkey	A.	Istanbul ( TUR )		First international match against Turkey 100th win in an international match
209	07/11/1948	2: 3	Sweden	A.	Stockholm ( SWE )
210	08/02/1948	0: 3	Sweden	*	London ( ENG )	Olympia 1948 round of 16

Second term (15 international matches) under team boss Eduard Frühwirth

No.	date	Result	opponent		venue	occasion	comment
328	March 24, 1965	2: 1	France	A.	Paris ( FRA )
329	04/25/1965	1: 1	German Democratic Republic	H	Vienna	1966 World Cup qualification	First international match against the GDR
330	May 16, 1965	0-0	Soviet Union	A.	Moscow ( URS )
331	06/13/1965	0: 1	Hungary	H	Vienna	1966 World Cup qualification
332	09/05/1965	0: 3	Hungary	A.	Budapest ( HUN )	1966 World Cup qualification
333	10/09/1965	1: 4	Germany	A.	Stuttgart ( GER )
334	10/20/1965	3: 2	England	A.	London ( ENG )		"Wembley-Toni" Toni Fritsch scored two goals
335	10/31/1965	0: 1	German Democratic Republic	A.	Leipzig ( GDR )	1966 World Cup qualification	As third in the group, Austria missed the leap to the World Cup finals
336	04/24/1966	0: 1	Soviet Union	H	Vienna
337	05/22/1966	1-0	Ireland	H	Vienna
338	06/18/1966	0: 1	Italy	A.	Milan ( ITA )
339	September 18, 1966	2: 1	Netherlands	H	Vienna
340	10/02/1966	0-0	Finland	A.	Helsinki ( FIN )	EM 1968 qualification
341	05.10.1966	1: 4	Sweden	A.	Stockholm ( SWE )
342	10/30/1966	1: 3	Hungary	A.	Budapest ( HUN )

swell

• Jürgen Bitter : Germany's football. The lexicon . Sportverlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-328-00857-8 .
• 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 Weinrich, Hardy Greens : Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 6: German Cup history since 1935. Pictures, statistics, stories, constellations. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2000, ISBN 3-89784-146-0 .
• Hans Dieter Baroth : Boys, Heaven is yours! The history of the Oberliga West 1947–1963. Klartext, Essen 1988, ISBN 3-88474-332-5 .
• 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 .
• Jürgen Bitter: The master makers. Wero Press, Pfaffenweiler 2004, ISBN 3-937588-02-7 .
• Karl Heinz Schwind: Stories from a football century . Ueberreuter, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-8000-3512-X .