Erich Gleixner

Erich "top" Gleixner (born April 1, 1920 in Burgstädt / Saxony, † January 22, 1962 in Osnabrück ) was a German football player . As a member of the German amateur national team , he took part in the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki.

career

societies

During the Second World War Gleixner was one of the pillars of BC Hartha in the Gauliga Sachsen . At the side of national player Erich Hänel , he played with the small town club near Chemnitz in the top class at the time. As a result of the Second World War, the football talent, like so many other members of his age (same year: Fritz Walter ), lost his best years as an athlete. After the war, he played for a short time in his native Burgstädt in 1945/46. He finally came to VfL Osnabrück via SG Hartha in 1947. Together with Karl-Heinz Gehmlich (222 orienteering games from 1947 to 1956) he was persuaded to make this change by coach Kurt Schmidt (the first coach of VfL Osnabrück after the Second World War in the new Oberliga Nord).

VfL Osnabrück: 1947 to 1956

Erich Gleixner played his first league game for VfL Osnabrück on May 11, 1947 for the championship of the Oberliga Niedersachsen-Nord (this is what the first division after the Second World War was called; it was launched by a "community of interests of north German football") decisive game at Werder Bremen . The Hanseatic League won 4: 3 goals and then also took the title of Lower Saxony champion. Gleixner became a regular in Osnabrück, his position was mostly that of the left winger, and scored eight goals in his first league season. Together with Karl-Heinz Gehmlich, the outstanding technician dominated VfL's midfield game. In the 1948/49 round, the team from Bremer Brücke was one point behind the tied Hamburger SV and FC St. Pauli in third place in the final table. For weeks, the team around striker Adolf Vetter had topped the table. With the two consecutive defeats against St. Pauli (February 27, 1949) and Hamburger SV (March 6, 1949), each without a goal of their own, the championship decision was missed in the 12th season with 31:13 points. After the 2: 3 home defeat against Arminia Hannover on April 3, 1949, St. Pauli and HSV passed VfL on the home straight. Erich Gleixner had played all 22 games and contributed five goals.

With the beginning of the contract player time (320 DM per month was possible for the players) in the 1949/50 season, the ex-Kieler Herbert Widmayer was coach in Osnabrück. After a weak start, so the coach even put on his soccer boots for a game, third place was taken and thus made it into the finals of the German championship in 1950. Gleixner was in 27 games with three goals. “Adi” Vetter won the top scorer's crown in the Oberliga Nord for the third time . In the preliminary round, the team with the runner row Gehmlich, Friedel "Schimmel" Meyer and Gleixner met on May 21, 1950 in the Müngersdorfer Stadion in Cologne on VfB Stuttgart . After an early 1-0 lead by Vetter in the fifth minute of the game, Baitinger decided the game for coach Georg Wurzer's team in the 83rd minute with the 2-1 winning goal . The southern Germans brought the German championship to Stuttgart on June 25 with a 2-1 win against Offenbacher Kickers .

The round 1951/52

Erich Gleixner experienced the most successful round in the game year 1951/52. First he won the runner-up with VfL in the Oberliga Nord. In the association round, he played mostly in the runner row together with Gehmlich and stopper Walter Komorowski 27 league appearances. He experienced the change of coach from Rudolf Prokoph to Harry Hemmo in February 1952 by the new President Friedel Schwarze. The former Reichsbund sports teacher and coach of the "Gartlager Elf" (Lower Saxony champions 1939 and 1940), Walter Hollstein, was in charge of supervision . In the final round of the German soccer championship in 1952, VfL faced VfB Stuttgart, RW Essen and Tennis Borussia Berlin. For the first two home games on April 27 and May 11, 60,000 spectators flocked to the Bremer Brücke. Together with Gehmlich and Hans Haferkamp , the technician from left midfield provided the goal- scoring "Ötti" Meyer and "Adi" Vetter with templates. Due to the three defeats in the away games, they missed the entry into the final. Stuttgart won the final against 1. FC Saarbrücken on June 22nd. Personally, the appointment to the newly formed amateur national team in 1952 was the third highlight for Erich Gleixner.

Three days after the 3-2 home win in the final against RW Essen, he played in the amateur national team's debut game on May 14, 1952 in Düsseldorf against Great Britain. With Kurt Sommerlatt and Herbert Jäger he formed the runner row in the 2-1 victory. At the Olympic Games in Finland he was used on July 20 against Egypt and on July 29 against Yugoslavia. The fourth place achieved in the Olympic tournament was extremely positive due to the unequal conditions (“state amateurs” from the Eastern Bloc competed with the current senior national team).

End of his playing career at VfL Osnabrück in 1956

On June 24, 1956, Erich Gleixner and Hannes Haferkamp were officially bid farewell to VfL's 2-0 victory against SpVgg Fürth at the Bremer Brücke. From 1947 to 1956 he had completed 210 point games with 25 goals in the Oberliga Nord. The 36-year-old then initially strengthened the VfL amateurs and, together with Hannes Haferkamp, ​​helped this team advance to the association league. Most recently, in 1958/59 he wore the Eintracht Osnabrück jersey 13 times in the amateur league . Gleixner later worked as a trainer at BV Quakenbrück .

Selection games / honors

Erich Gleixner wore the jersey of Lower Saxony 20 times and was in the selection of Northern Germany six times. With the north he played two representative games on October 17, 1948 in Nuremberg against southern Germany and on May 14, 1950 in Cologne against western Germany. In Northern Germany's 4-3 victory in Cologne, the entire run of VfL Osnabrück played with Gleixner, Meyer and Haferkamp. He was awarded the Silver Badge of Honor by the Lower Saxony Football Association.

Private

Together with his wife Maria Gleixner, he opened a sports store in Osnabrück, which the widow continued to run after his untimely death.

literature

• Jürgen Bitter : Germany's football. The lexicon . Sportverlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-328-00857-8 .
• Hardy Grüne , Lorenz Knieriem: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 8: Player Lexicon 1890–1963. Agon-Sportverlag, Kassel 2006, ISBN 3-89784-148-7 .
• Jens Reimer Prüß (Ed.): Bung bottle with flat pass cork. The history of the Oberliga Nord 1947–1963. Klartext, Essen 1991, ISBN 3-88474-463-1 .
• Jürgen Bitter: Purple and white. The football history of VfL Osnabrück , Osnabrück 1991.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ sports-reference.com: Erich Gleixner , accessed on January 4, 2018