Fritz Unkel

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Fritz "Papa" Unkel (born August 28, 1865 in Schalke ; † November 4, 1944 there ) was a functional German sport and the 1st club president of FC Schalke 04 .

Life

Fritz Unkel, a supporter of the gymnastics movement , was chairman of the gymnastics club Schalke 1877 from March 17, 1912 to 1915 and the gymnastics and sports club Schalke 1877 from July 25, 1919 to January 24, 1924 , before leaving these clubs in the course of a " clean Divorce ”on January 24, 1924, FC Schalke 04 emerged. Unkel became its 1st President. On July 24, 1919 had on a proposal Unkels the gymnastics club Schalke in 1877 and the football club Westfalia Schalke for gymnastics and sports club Schalke in 1877 combined.

Unkel's father Wilhelm was one of the first operators of the Consolidation colliery ; he died in 1870 while sinking shaft 3. Fritz Unkel initially worked as a coal trader. He then became a material manager at the Consolidation colliery. This position was regarded as a “printing post”, ie as an influential position through which one came into contact with leading people in a plant. The colliery provided FC Schalke 04 with material and manpower on favorable terms. After 1924 it was Unkel's main concern to give the football club professional structures. He set up a finance commission with Willi Nier as chairman and arranged for an office to be set up in 1928 above the club restaurant "Haus Thiemeyer" on Schalker Markt. In 1927 he was heavily involved in building his own stadium with a capacity of around 40,000. Unkel is considered to be one of the main initiators of the agreement that the Zeche Consolidation gave the club the grounds for the stadium for a small lease fee of 99 years. Members of the club wanted to name the new stadium after him ("Fritz-Unkel-Kampfbahn"), but Unkel refused and referred to the popular orientation of the Royal Blues, and so the decision was made to use the name Kampfbahn Glückauf ; later it was renamed Glückauf-Kampfbahn .

In his association, "Papa Unkel" was seen as a fatherly figure of integration . His motto “You have to be eleven friends if you want to win!” , Which he borrowed from the football coach Richard Girulatis , shaped Schalke's club life well into the 1940s. In the scandal surrounding FC Schalke 04 for violating amateur behavior , Unkel was not charged by the West German Game Association (WSV) . After the WSV had imposed a player ban as a sanction in 1930, Unkel campaigned for the first team not to join the professional players' association. At a general assembly he convinced the men around Ernst Kuzorra with the words: “You belong in the blue and white dress on the green lawn of the Glückauf arena.” Unkel resigned from his position on July 23, 1932 for reasons of age and became honorary chairman of the association.

After the National Socialists had taken over the leadership of the West German Game Association (WSV) on May 13, 1933 , the members of the individual association boards mostly joined the NSDAP in order to maintain their positions against the background of the " Gleichschaltung " and the introduction of Gauligen . The then president, the non-party Georg Stolze, was apparently pushed out of office. At a general meeting on June 24, 1933, Fritz Unkel was re-elected chairman. So far there is no evidence of Unkel's NSDAP membership, although this was intended in the course of the “Gleichschaltung”. The deputy was the NSDAP member Heinrich Tschenscher; on August 6, 1939 he became Unkel's successor. Unkel remained honorary chairman of the association.

Fritz Unkel died on November 4, 1944.

Commemoration

A restaurant in the Veltins Arena bears the name Unkel in memory of the club's president . In 2017 Unkel was admitted to the club's " cabin of honor ".

Web links

literature

  • Stefan Barta: Heroes in Royal Blue. Delius Klasing Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-76883-563-3
  • Hardy Greens: Faith, Love, Schalke. The complete history of FC Schalke 04. Verlag Die Werkstatt, 3rd updated edition, 2012, ISBN 978-3-89533-747-5

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Siegfried Gehrmann: The FC Schalke 04 . In: Wilhelm Hopf (Ed.): Football. Sociology and social history of a popular sport . 3rd edition, LIT Verlag, Münster 1998, ISBN 3-88660-231-1 , p. 118 ( online )
  2. ↑ Stefan Goch, Norbert Silberbach: Between blue and white lies gray: FC Schalke 04 in the time of National Socialism . Essen: Klartext 2005. ISBN 978-3-89861-433-7
  3. ↑ David Bender: Soccer Sport and Politics in the Third Reich. The case study FC Schalke 04. Study paper, GRIN Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-640-31863-6 , p. 24 ( online )
  4. ↑ Veltins Arena - Kuzorra und Unkel , website in the heise.de portal , accessed on May 17, 2014
  5. ↑ "Papa" Unkel and Buyo move into the dressing room , FC Schalke 04 homepage from June 25, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Unkel, Fritz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Uncle, papa
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sports official and first club president of FC Schalke 04
DATE OF BIRTH August 28, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH Schalke
DATE OF DEATH November 4, 1944
Place of death Schalke