Erwin Nytz

Erwin Günther Nytz , later Edward Piotr Nyc (born May 24, 1914 in Katowice , Upper Silesia , German Empire , now Poland ; † May 1, 1988 in Piekary Śląskie , Katowice Voivodeship ), was a Polish football player .

Career as a football player

Interwar period

As a teenager, Nytz joined the Pogoń Katowice Association. In 1935 he was called up for military service in the capital Warsaw , where he formally served in an air defense unit, but in fact mainly played as a center runner for the strongest capital club Polonia Warsaw, which is subordinate to the military . Even after the end of his military service, he remained loyal to the association and officially worked for a state bank.

Due to the decree enforced by the Katowice voivod Michał Grażyński for the Polonization of family names, it was written from 1936 "Nyc".

In 1937 he played his first international match for Poland in a 3-1 victory over Denmark . In 1938 he took part in the World Cup in France; the Polish team lost there in their only game to the Brazilians 5-6 after extra time. Three months later he was in the Polish team, which lost 4-1 to the German hosts in Chemnitz . In the 1-1 draw against Switzerland , Nytz played his eleventh and last international match for Poland on June 4, 1939.

Second World War

At the beginning of the Second World War , his Warsaw city apartment was bombed out in an attack by the German Air Force . At the same time, as a Polish conscript , Nytz fell into German captivity , but was released after a few days. Nytz returned to Upper Silesia, the eastern part of which had meanwhile been reconnected to the German Empire . Like all other former Polish national football players from Upper Silesia, he also signed the German People's List .

The Katowice NSDAP district leader Georg Joschke assigned him to 1. FC Kattowitz with the two other Polish selection players Ewald Dytko and Ernst Willimowski . Joschke himself ran the club of the German minority in Poland in the 1930s.

In June 1940, Nytz took part in Katowice in the first selection course for players from Upper Silesia held by Reich trainer Sepp Herberger . At that time, the kicker saw him as a future stopper for the German national team . Nytz ran several times for the selection of the Gauliga Oberschlesien , which was supervised by Kurt Otto , the former coach of FC Schalke 04 and the Polish national team.

Nytz was drafted in September 1940 to the German Air Force and first came on the air base of Fürstenwalde on the river Spree used. During this time he continued to play football in the ranks of the Luftwaffe SV Fürstenwalde . In 1942 his unit was relocated to the occupied Polish capital, Warsaw. There Nytz completed some games in the German district league and was appointed to the selection of the Gauliga Generalgouvernement , which took part in the Reichsbund Cup. Several players from his former club Polonia later reported that Nytz had made contact with some former clubmates during his time in Warsaw, although this was strictly forbidden for members of the Wehrmacht. He even took part in private Polish celebrations in Wehrmacht uniform, to which he regularly brought large quantities of food. He also did not hide his rejection of National Socialism .

Later Nytz was transferred to the Markersdorf air base in Lower Austria , where he was used for the local air force sports club. But after a few months he was ordered back to Fürstenwalde. In April 1944 he was assigned from there to Herberger's last course in Upper Silesia. At the end of the war he was taken prisoner by the British .

post war period

After the end of the war, Nytz returned to Katowice in the summer of 1945, where he rejoined his former club Pogoń Katowice. Like other Upper Silesian top players, Nytz had to justify himself before the communist-controlled Urząd Bezpieczeństwa (UB) security office for his appearances in German clubs. He stated that at the beginning of the war he had consulted with the former Polish national coach Józef Kałuża , who saw it as a way of avoiding reprisals by the German occupiers.

Nytz said he had been threatened twice with admission to a concentration camp if he didn't play for 1. FC Katowitz. Polonia players from Warsaw testified for him; not only did he help materially during the war, but also procured weapons for the Polish underground army, Armia Krajowa .

These statements helped him so that the investigation was terminated. But he was no longer allowed to travel abroad; the Polish authorities also forbade the football association from appointing him to the district selection or even to the national team. After the "decree of November 10, 1945 on the change and definition of first and last names" Nytz had to give up his "non-Polish sounding" first name. From now on he was officially called "Edward Piotr Nyc".

After finishing his active career, he tried in the fifties without much success at several Upper Silesian clubs as a coach, including at AKS Chorzów .

literature

• Thomas Urban : Sport as an instrument of national politics. The connection of East Upper Silesia to the “Greater German Reich” in 1939 , in: The “Gleichschaltung” of football in National Socialist Germany. Edited by Markwart Herzog . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2016, pp. 304, 307, 311-312.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Gazeta Wyborcza , Kattowitz edition, December 27, 2003, p. 12.
2. ↑ Dzieje Śląska w XX w. w świetle badań młodych historyków z Polski, Czech i Niemiec. Pod red. K. Ruchniewicza. Wrocław 1998, pp. 114–123, translates the history of Silesia in the 20th century in the research of young academics from Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany.
3. ↑ The big games: The emergence of a legend ( German ) In: fifa.com . Archived from the original on April 4, 2012. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 22, 2012. 
4. ↑ Górnoślązacy w polskiej i niemieckiej reprezentacji narodowej w piłce nożnej - wczoraj i dziś. Sport i polityka na Górnym Śląsku w XX wieku. Gliwice / Opole 2006, p. 27 (translated Oberschlesier in the German and Polish national football team - yesterday and today. Sport and politics in Oberschlesien in the 20th century. ).
5. ^ Kattowitzer Zeitung, November 23, 1939, p. 10.
6. ↑ Kattowitzer Zeitung , June 25, 1940, p. 6.
7. ↑ Der Kicker , July 30, 1940, p. 22.
8. ↑ Der Kicker , January 30, 1940, p. 6.
9. ^ Deutsche Dienststelle , GZ II C2 - 111014/209, p. 2.
10. ↑ ^{a b} Warschauer Zeitung , January 4, 1944, p. 6.
11. ^ Stolica, January 31, 1960, p. 15.
12. ↑ Der Kicker - Fußball , May 2, 1944, p. 8.
13. ↑ Polonia Warszawa: Historia: Lata 1939-1944 ( Polish ) In: wielkapolonia.pl . Archived from the original on September 21, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 22, 2012. 
14. ↑ ^{a b} Andrzej Gowarzewski : 75 lat PZPN. Księga jubileuszowa. Kattowitz 1994, p. 53f. (Translated to 75 years of PZPN . Anniversary edition. ).
15. ↑ Decree z dnia 10 listopada o zmianie i ustaleniu imion i nazwisk , Dz.URP, no.56, poz.310, 1945; see: Matthias Kneip: The German language in Upper Silesia . Dortmund 1999, pp. 169-171.
16. ↑ Wojciech Krzystanek / Dariusz Lesnikowski: Ludzie, Wydarzenia, emoje. 100 lat AKS Chorzów. Chorzów 2010, p. 45.