Erwin Hoffmann

Erwin Hoffmann (born October 28, 1940 ; † September 9, 2009 ) was a German football player and coach. The offensive player won the championship in the Regional Football League West with Alemannia Aachen in 1967 , prevailed with his teammates in the promotion round and rose to the Bundesliga , where he was runner- up with Aachen in the 1968/69 round . From 1967 to 1970 the midfielder with playmaker qualities played 83 Bundesliga games and scored nine goals.

career

Lübeck and Ulm, until 1965

In the 1960/61 season, the young half-striker Erwin Hoffmann played on Travemünder Allee, with the blue-white-red eagle bearers of Phoenix Lübeck , in the amateur league Schleswig-Holstein and won the runner-up with his teammates. He signed a contract with TSG Ulm in 1846 for the 1961/62 round and moved to the 2nd League South. His new team-mate, Wolfgang Fahrian , the goalkeeper of the Ulm "Spatzen", played his way into the national team during the season and Ulm returned as runner-up behind Hessen Kassel in the soccer Oberliga Süd . In the last year of the old first class of the league, 1962/63 , the league returnee landed safely eighth place with Fahrian, Dieter Praxl , Manfred Ruoff , Helmut Siebert and Erwin Hoffmann, who scored nine goals in 17 missions. Due to the newly installed Bundesliga for the 1963/64 round, Ulm and Hoffmann went back to the second division, now in the Regional Football League South . After 38 round games - the first regional round with 20 clubs was held in the south - Ulm came back to eighth place at the end of the round. Despite the goalkeeper of the World Cup days in Chile, Fahrian, the Ulm defense conceded 74 goals and was therefore unable to intervene in the fight at the top of the table despite the good offensive by Hoffmann, Praxl, Siebert and Gerold Stocker . Outstanding were the two games won against FC Bayern Munich. In the home game on December 15, 1963, Hoffmann and colleagues sat 3: 2 and in the second half of the season on May 17, 1964 in Munich, with 6: 4 goals against those with Sepp Maier , Herbert Erhardt , Karl Borutta , Rainer Ohlhauser , Dieter Brenninger , Dieter Koulmann and Werner Ipta prominently occupied Bavaria.

Weakened by the departures of Wolfgang Fahrian and Helmut Siebert, Ulm collapsed in the second year of the Regionalliga in 1964/65 and was relegated to the amateur camp as 18th. Erwin Hoffmann had scored 22 goals in 65 games for Ulm in the two regional league seasons and signed a new contract with Alemannia Aachen in the regional football league West for the 1965/66 season.

Aachen, 1965 to 1972

Aachen had won the title once in the two years of the Regionalliga (1964) and in 1965 reached the runner-up behind Borussia Mönchengladbach, but failed in each of the promotion rounds. The goal of Alemannia was promotion to the Bundesliga. The penalty specialist, equipped with a feel for the combined game, plus a calm and calm midfielder, made his debut in Aachen on the first match day, August 15, 1965, in the 3-0 home win against Eintracht Duisburg in the starting line-up of the Black and Yellows. With the attack line-up Heinz-Gerd Klostermann , Alfred Glenski , Hoffmann, Manfred Otta and Karl-Heinz Sell , coach Oswald Pfau started the third attempt. In 30 games, the newcomer from Ulm scored 16 goals for Aachen, with 97 goals Alemannia had the most successful attack, but Fortuna Düsseldorf and Rot-Weiss Essen prevailed at the top of the table and the Tivoli team only came third . The home balance of 31: 3 points was first class, but the 20:14 away points prevented entry into the promotion round. The 3-1 defeat on May 15, 1966 at the immediate competitor for second place, RW Essen, was of decisive importance. With a two-point lead - Essen (53:15), Aachen (51:17) - the team moved from Hafenstrasse into the promotion round and then into the Bundesliga.

In his second year in Aachen, 1966/67, the change of coach under President Leoführung in January 1967 from Hennes Hoffmann to Michael Pfeiffer brought about the decisive boost. After the 1: 2 defeat at Preußen Münster on March 5, the men around Jupp Martinelli and Erwin Hoffmann did not lose a game and won with 48:20 points, just over Schwarz-Weiß Essen (47:21) and the tied teams from Bielefeld and Bochum, each with 45:23 points, won the championship and thus moved back into the promotion round. Aachen prevailed there with 12: 4 points - two points ahead - before Kickers Offenbach and moved into the Bundesliga. Hoffmann advanced to the switch station of the Tivoli-Elf in the promotion season and came to 34 missions with four goals. In the DFB Cup too , Aachen's competition was only over in the semi-finals after a 3-1 defeat at Hamburger SV on May 6, 1967.

Alemannia started in the Bundesliga in 1967/68 with 0: 4 points and came on September 2, 1967 with two Martinelli goals to the first double point win, when in the domestic Tivoli the Karlsruher SC in the 88th minute of the game the decisive goal to 2: 1- Had to accept success. Hoffmann (32-4) together with Jupp Martinelli (33-3), Herbert Gronen (32-2), Erwin Hermandung (31-4) and Karl-Heinz Bechmann (31-3) formed the permanent staff of the team from coach Pfeiffer, who could take eleventh place at the end of the round. From June 14th to July 6th, Hoffmann was a member of the Aachen delegation, which carried out a multi-week trip to South America.

Before the second Bundesliga series in 1968/69, there was an expectant mood in Aachen for a good placement for Alemannia in the Bundesliga , fueled by the newcomers Roger Claessen , Ion Ionescu , Hans-Josef Kapellmann , Werner Tenbruck and Werner Scholz . The initial win on August 17, 1968 with 4-1 goals against defending champion 1. FC Nürnberg did the rest. From the sixth day of the preliminary round, however, a series of defeats of 0:10 points followed and Hoffmann, who was now on the libero position, was in 14th place with his teammates with 8:12 points. With the second round balance of 22:12 points, the black and yellow conquered the runner-up with 38:30 points at the end of the round behind the sovereign champions FC Bayern Munich. On the final day, June 7, 1969, second place was defended with a 1-0 away win at Hertha BSC. Hoffmann had played in 30 games and contributed three goals to the greatest success of Alemannia Aachen.

In the world championship year 1969/70 the runner-up went with the new coach Georg Stollenwerk and the unchanged squad of players from the successful previous year. New additions were not made. The start was negative with 0: 6 points and the ex-national player Stollenwerk was dismissed after the 16th match day, December 12, 1969, in 17th place with 11:21 points. His successor was Willibert Weth , who had already stood in as the successor to Oswald Pfau in the 1965/66 season. However, captain and sweeper Erwin Hoffmann missed almost the entire second half of the season due to meniscus surgery - he could only play the last four point games - and Aachen was relegated to the regional league. He played his last Bundesliga game on matchday 34, May 3, 1970, in the final 3-2 home win against MSV Duisburg.

The aftermath of his injury ended after the regional league game on January 17, 1971 at Bonner SC, the continuation of his playing career at Alemannia Aachen. In the eighth minute of the game, Hoffmann was substituted in Bonn due to another injury and could not play a game for the Tivoli team after that. From 1965 to 1971 he played 66 games with 21 goals in the Regionalliga and 83 games in the Bundesliga with nine goals for the Black and Yellows.

Looking back, Hoffmann names his outstanding events during his active time at Alemannia Achen in Franz Creutz's book:

“ In addition to the highlights like promotion to the Bundesliga and runner-up, I fondly remember the cup game against Karlsruher SC on Carnival Saturday in 1967. In the first half I managed a flawless hat trick, and that's not the only reason why the 30,000 spectators enthusiastically shouted 'Oche alaaf' three times. "

In the 1972/73 round he tried again to continue his playing career at RFC Raeren in Belgium, but in 1973 he was the player-coach at SC Aachen 10 and then became a youth coach at Alemannia.

Son Dino played at Alemannia from 1997 to 1999 in the Regionalliga West / Südwest.

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 .
• Werner Skrentny (Ed.): When Morlock still met the moonlight. The history of the Oberliga Süd 1945–1963. Klartext, Essen 1993, ISBN 3-88474-055-5 .
• Franz Creutz (Ed.): Games you will never forget! Alemannia in the 60s. Meyer & Meyer. Aachen 1996. ISBN 3-89124-373-1
• Matthias Weinrich: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 3: 35 years of the Bundesliga. Part 1. The founding years 1963–1975. Stories, pictures, constellations, tables. AGON-Sportverlag, Kassel 1998, ISBN 3-89784-132-0 .
• Ulrich Homann (Hrsg.): Hellfire on Ascension. The history of the promotion rounds to the Bundesliga 1963–1974. Klartext, Essen 1990, ISBN 3-88474-346-5 .

Web links

• Alemannia Aachen player archive

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Franz Creutz (ed.): Games that you will never forget! P. 115