Erich Wittig

Erich Wittig (born July 12, 1926 ) is a former German soccer player. For Tennis Borussia Berlin he completed 71 round matches in the Berlin City League from 1950 to 1953 and scored one goal. The defensive player was part of the successful Tennis Borussia eleven, which won the championship title three times in a row in Berlin from 1950 to 1952 and he wore the purple and white dress of the "Veilchen" in the following 13 final rounds of the German football championship on the field.

career

Pankow, until 1949

“Pongo” Wittig started his high-class career in the senior sector after the end of World War II in northern Berlin with the SG Pankow-Nord team . In the 1946/47 season he and his teammates won the second division in Berlin's second division and thus rose to the 1947/48 round of the then all-Berlin city league. With a good defense, Wittig and Pankow landed eighth in 1948 and seventh in 1949. The SG Charlottenburg (Tennis-Borussia Berlin) had reached the runner-up in 1948/49 behind Wilmersdorf (Berliner SV 92) and became the new club of the left wing runner from the 1949/50 season.

Tennis Borussia Berlin, 1949 to 1953

Tennis-Borussia, the team of trainer Fritz Maurischat , started the round with 14: 0 points. When in October 1949, in addition to Wittig, Horst Schmutzler from Plauen , another dangerous attacker, came to the "Veilchen", the way to the championship was mapped out with 35: 9 points. With the regular formation around goalkeeper Karl-Heinz Steinbeck , the defenders Kurt Manthey and Kurt Podratz , the runner row with Heinz Warstat , Rudolf Junik and Erich Wittig, as well as the attack with Hans Berndt (17 goals), Gerhard Haberstroh , Gerhard Graf (11 goals) , Werner Fiedler and Horst Schmutzler, TeBe prevailed with three points ahead of Union Oberschöneweide and Berliner SV 92 with the same number of points. Like Podratz and Schmutzler, Wittig had played 16 league games. His previous club from Pankow finished the round in eighth place. On May 21, 1950 Tennis-Borussia in Munich lost the preliminary round game for the German championship with 1: 3 goals against Kickers Offenbach. Wittig got to know the offensive power of OFC strikers Horst Buhtz and Gerhard Kaufhold . On June 14th, the Berlin champions prevailed 2-0 against SC Union 06 Berlin in the semifinals of the Berlin Cup. On June 21, the final was lost in extra time with 1: 2 against Wacker 04 Berlin. As usual, Wittig was in the left wing position in both games.

Already in the first half of the season, on September 18, 1949, Wittig was in the selection of Berlin in the regional cup game against Bavaria. The later cup winner Bavaria prevailed 3-0 in front of 70,000 spectators in the Olympic Stadium. In the second half of the season, on March 26, 1950, he was again used as the left wing runner in the game of the Berlin selection against Saxony in a 2-0 win.

With the team from the Charlottenburg district, Wittig defended the West Berlin championship in 1950/51 in the first year under contract player conditions in a season of 14 with five points ahead of SC Union 06 Berlin. In 26 point games - Wittig had been active in 22 games - TeBe only lost the opening game with 0-2 goals at Viktoria 89 and clearly scored the most goals with 84 goals. The Berlin top scorer was won by Paul Salisch with 29 goals from vice-champions Union 06, ahead of the two tennis players Hans Berndt (27) and Horst Schmutzler with 26 goals. In the final round, the only win in the first round match against Preußen Münster was 3-2. In the not really understandable 2: 8 home defeat after a 2: 1 half-time lead on the last game day, June 10, 1951, through which Münster reached the final against 1. FC Nürnberg with equal points, Wittig had it as the left wing runner at that time practiced World Cup system mostly had to do with the Prussian playmaker Alfred Preißler . Wittig was used in all six group games against Münster, Nuremberg and Hamburger SV.

In his third round in 1951/52 he was able to defend his title again, again ahead of SC Union 06 and thus the title hat-trick. The championship-winning game on April 6, 1952 between TeBe and Union 06 was attended by 75,000 fans; the "Veilchen" won 4-2. Wittig had played 26 league games for the championship team. Tennis Borussia started the final round with a 4-2 away win against West Champion Rot-Weiss Essen. The Berlin defense had proven itself against the strong Essen attackers such as Helmut Rahn , August Gottschalk and Bernhard Termath . Also in the 1-1 home draw on May 25th against the eventual German champions VfB Stuttgart in front of 90,000 spectators in the Olympic Stadium, the defense of Tennis Borussia was with Karl-Heinz Steinbeck (goalkeeper), Rudolf Deinert , Kurt Podratz, Heinz Hausmann , Heinz Warstat and Erich Wittig guarantor of the tie.

In the first half of the season, the use in the city ​​selection at the home game against London stood out. A crowd of 80,000 Berlin wrestling with Kurt Birkner (goalkeeper), defenders Richard Strehlow and Kurt Podratz, the runners Rudolf Krüger, Herbert Stelter and Erich Wittig, and the attackers Paul Lemm , Horst Schmutzler, Gerhard Graf, Fritz Wilde and Horst Kollmannsperger the English Pros around Ron Greenwood , Cliff Holton , Eddie Baily , Bill Nicholson and Jimmy Hill a 1-1 draw.

In total, “Pongo” Wittig has played 13 final rounds of the German championship for the “Veilchen”.

The fourth championship success did not succeed in the 1952/53 series; TeBe came in third and Wittig had scored a goal in 23 league appearances. He completed his last league game on April 19, 1953 in a 1-0 home win against Viktoria 89. In the summer of 1953, after 71 city league appearances for Tennis-Borussia, he ended his higher-class career.

successes

• Champion in the Berlin City League: 1950, 1951, 1952

literature

• Hardy Grüne , Lorenz Knieriem: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 8: Player Lexicon 1890–1963. Agon-Sportverlag, Kassel 2006, ISBN 3-89784-148-7 .
• Wolfgang Hartwig, Günter Weise, Helmut Tietze: 100 years of football in Berlin . Sports publishing house Berlin. 1997. ISBN 3-328-00734-2 .
• Klaus Querengässer: The German football championship. Part 2: 1948–1963 (= Agon-Sportverlag statistics. Vol. 29). Agon-Sportverlag, Kassel 1997, ISBN 3-89609-107-7 .