Soccer World Cup 1954/Germany

This article is about the German national team at the 1954 FIFA World Cup in Switzerland .

qualification

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Germany	12:3	7:1
2	Saarland	4:8	3:5
3	Norway	4:9	2:6

For the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland , the German national team was allowed to take part in the qualification for the first time since the Second World War . Opponents in Group 1 were Norway and the then independent Saarland .

In the first game they drew 1-1 with Norway in Oslo . In the Neckarstadion in Stuttgart , where about three years earlier the first German international match after the Second World War took place, Sepp Herberger's team won 3-0 against the Saarland selection , which was coached by Helmut Schön , who years later inherited Herberger as national coach. The German team clearly won the second leg against Norway 5:1 in Hamburg 's Volksparkstadion . In the final group game against Saarland, who beat Norway 3-2 in Oslo and drew 0-0 at home, a draw would have been enough to advance them to the finals. The game in Saarbrücken was eventually won 3-1 and Germany qualified for the World Cup four points clear of the surprising group runners-up Saarland.

Germany thus qualified for the first time since 1938 .

games

Norway 1-1 Germany (1-1)
Data	19 August 1953 at Ullevaal Stadium , Oslo; Referee: WB Aussum, Netherlands
Gates	1: 0 Harald Hennum (41st), 1: 1 F. Walter (44th)
Germany	Turek (goalkeeper), Kohlmeyer, Retter , Schanko , Posipal, Eckel, Rahn, Morlock, F. Walter, O. Walter, Schäfer (substituted for Pfaff in the 37th); Coach: Herberger
Norway	A. Hansen (goalkeeper), O. Hansen , H. Karlsen, Svenssen , Hernes, T. Olsen, Natland, Thoresen, Hennum, Dybwad, L. Olsen; Coach: Rooster

Germany 3-0 Saarland (1-0)
Data	11 October 1953 at Neckarstadion , Stuttgart; Referee: Karel van der Meer, Netherlands
Gates	1: 0, 2: 0 Max Morlock (13th and 51st), 3: 0 Horst Schade (71st)
Germany	Turek (goalkeeper), Erhardt, Retter, Mai, Posipal, Gottinger (substituted for Eckel in the 38th), Rahn, Morlock, Schade , Metzner, Schäfer; Coach: Herberger
Saarland	Strempel (goalkeeper), Biewer , Puff , Berg , Momber , Clemens , Philippi , Otto , Martin , Balzert , Siedl ; Coach: Nice

Germany – Norway 5: 1 (1: 1)
Data	22 November 1953 Volksparkstadion , Hamburg; Referee: Archer Luty, England
Gates	0-1 Hans Nordahl (26'), 1-1 Max Morlock (27'), 2-1 Max Morlock (63'), 3-1 Ottmar Walter (69'), 4-1 Fritz Walter (80'), 5-1 Helmut Rahn (86')
Germany	Turek (goalkeeper), Kohlmeyer, Retter, Mai, Posipal, Eckel, Rahn, Morlock, F. Walter, O. Walter, Herrmann; Coach: Herberger
Norway	A. Hansen (goalkeeper), O. Hansen , H. Karlsen (substituted against Holmberg in the 29th), Svenssen , Hernes, T. Olsen, Fossli, Thoresen, Hvidsten, Nordahl, Dybwad; Coach: Rooster

Saarland – Germany 1: 3 (0: 1)
Data	March 28, 1954 Ludwigsparkstadion , Saarbrücken; Referee: J. Bronkhorst, Netherlands
Gates	0: 1, 0: 2 Max Morlock (37th and 51st), 1: 2 Herbert Martin (67th), 1: 3 Hans Schäfer (83rd)
Germany	Turek (goalkeeper), Kohlmeyer, rescuers, Schanko , Posipal, Liebrich, F. Walter (substituted for O. Walter in the 30th), Rahn, Morlock, Schade, Röhrig , Schäfer; Coach: Herberger
Saarland	Strempel (goalkeeper), Biewer , Keck , Clemens , Momber , Philippi , Otto , Martin , Binkert , Siedl , Schirra ; Coach: Nice

German squad

number / name		club at that time	birthday	Sp.	goal	Red
goalkeeper
21	Heinz Kubsch	FC Pirmasens	07/20/1930	0	0	0
22	Heinrich Kwiatkowski	Borussia Dortmund	07/16/1926	1	0	0
1	Tony Turek	Fortuna Dusseldorf	01/18/1919	5	0	0
defense
4	Hans Bauer	FC Bayern Munich	07/28/1927	2	0	0
5	Herbert Erhardt	SpVgg Fuerth	07/06/1930	0	0	0
3	Werner Kohlmeyer	1 FC Kaiserslautern	04/19/1924	5	0	0
2	Fritz Laband	Hamburger SV	11/01/1925	3	0	0
10	Werner Liebrich	1 FC Kaiserslautern	01/18/1927	4	0	0
7	Yup Posipal	Hamburger SV	07/20/1927	5	0	0
midfield
6	Horst Eckel	1 FC Kaiserslautern	02/08/1932	6	0	0
8th	Karl May	SpVgg Fuerth	07/27/1928	5	0	0
9	Paul Mebus	1. FC Cologne	06/09/1920	1	0	0
11	Karl Heinz Metzner	KSV Hessen Kassel	01/09/1923	0	0	0
13	Max Morlock	1. FC Nuremberg	05/11/1925	5	6	0
16	FritzWalter	1 FC Kaiserslautern	10/31/1920	6	3	0
attack
18	Ulrich Biesinger	BC Augsburg	08/06/1933	0	0	0
17	Richard Herrman	FSV Frankfurt	01/28/1923	1	1	0
14	Bernhard Klodt	FC Schalke 04	10/26/1926	2	1	0
19	Alfred Pfaff	Eintracht Frankfurt	07/16/1926	1	1	0
12	Helmut Rahn	Red and white food	08/16/1929	4	4	0
20	Hans Shepherd	1. FC Cologne	10/19/1927	5	4	0
15	Ottmar Walter	1 FC Kaiserslautern	03/06/1924	5	4	0
Trainer
	Sepp Herberger ( national coach )		03/28/1897
	Albert Sing ( assistant coach )		04/07/1917

German games

Bern (VR + F) Basel (VR + HF) Zurich (VR/ES) Geneva (VF) Spiez

Venues (red) and district (blue)

preliminary round

In the preliminary round, the German national team was drawn to Hungary , Turkey and South Korea . Due to the unusual tournament format, in which there were two seeded and two unseeded teams in each group, Germany only played against Hungary, which was considered the best team in the world at the time, and Turkey as an unseeded team. In the first game of the preliminary round, the team around captain Fritz Walter , whose 1. FC Kaiserslautern lost the final of the German championship 1:5 against Hannover 96 only a few weeks before , played against the Turks. They surprisingly and happily prevailed against Spain in qualifying after a coin toss . The West German team won this game 4:1 on June 17, 1954 in Bern. The goals were scored by Hans Schäfer , Bernhard Klodt , Ottmar Walter and Max Morlock . Mamat İsmail Suat made it 1-0 for Turkey . In the second group game, the opponent was now called Hungary. Sepp Herberger came up with clever tactics for this game. With the assumption that Germany would lose anyway to Hungary, who had previously beaten South Korea 9-0, Herberger called up a squad with seven players changed. He wanted to mean that his regular players, apart from Fritz Walter, who didn't want to leave his comrades alone, were spared for a necessary decider against Turkey, which would probably win against South Korea. A playoff was possible because goal difference didn't matter back then, so it didn't matter how much Germany lost. In the end there were eight goals against at least three of their own goals. Herberger received threatening letters from home, ranging up to and including suicide . But he had a plan, because in the decider Herberger was able to field his best team and the Turks were defeated 7:2. Ottmar Walter, Hans Schäfer (2×), Max Morlock (3×) and Fritz Walter were successful.

Germany – Turkey 4:1

• Germany: Toni Turek; Fritz Laband, Werner Kohlmeyer; Horst Eckel, Jupp Posipal, Karl Mai; Bernhard Klodt, Max Morlock, Ottmar Walter, Fritz Walter, Hans Schäfer
• Turkey: Turgay ; Ridvan, Basri; Erton, Cetin, Robert; Erol, Suat, Feridun, Burhan , Lefter

• Goals: 0: 1 Suat (3rd), 1: 1 Hans Schäfer (13th), 2: 1 Bernhard Klodt (52nd), 3: 1 Ottmar Walter (60th), 4: 1 Max Morlock (84th)

• Spectators: 28,000 (according to FIFA)

Germany – Hungary 3:8

• Germany: Heinrich Kwiatkowski; Hans Bauer, Werner Kohlmeyer; Jupp Posipal, Werner Liebrich, Paul Mebus; Helmut Rahn, Horst Eckel, Fritz Walter, Alfred Pfaff, Richard Herrmann
• Hungary: Gyula Grosics ; Jenő Buzánszky , Mihály Lantos ; József Bozsik , Gyula Lóránt , József Zakariás ; József Tóth , Sándor Kocsis , Nándor Hidegkuti , Ferenc Puskás , Zoltán Czibor

• Goals: 0-1 Sándor Kocsis (3'), 0-2 Ferenc Puskás (17'), 0-3 Sándor Kocsis (21'), 1-3 Alfred Pfaff (26'), 1-4 Nándor Hidegkuti (53') ), 1: 5 Nándor Hidegkuti (55'), 1: 6 Sándor Kocsis (68'), 1: 7 József Tóth (74'), 2: 7 Helmut Rahn (78'), 2: 8 Sándor Kocsis (79'). ), 3: 8 Richard Herrmann (81.)

• Spectators: 56,000 (according to FIFA)

Germany – Turkey 7:2 (playoff)

• Germany: Toni Turek; Fritz Laband, Hans Bauer; Horst Eckel, Jupp Posipal, Karl Mai; Bernhard Klodt, Max Morlock, Ottmar Walter, Fritz Walter, Hans Schäfer
• Turkey: Sukru; Ridvan, Basri; Naci, Cetin, Robert; Erol, Lefter, Necmettin, Erton, Coşkun

• Goals: 1-0 Ottmar Walter (7th), 2-0 Hans Schäfer (10th), 2-1 Erton (22nd), 3-1 Max Morlock (31st), 4-1 Max Morlock (61st) , 5: 1 Fritz Walter (62nd), 6: 1 Max Morlock (76th), 7: 1 Hans Schäfer (79th), 7: 2 Lefter (82nd)

• Spectators: 17,000 (according to FIFA)

Quarterfinals

In the quarter-finals, the West German selection had to play against Yugoslavia . An opponent known for his dangerous wingers Zlatko Čajkovski and Vujadin Boškov , who supported the attack with international stars like Rajko Mitić , Stjepan Bobek , Bernard Vukas and later Bundesliga coach Branko Zebec . It was not for nothing that the Yugoslavs were called the “ball artists from the Balkans”. Coach Sepp Herberger assessed them almost as well as the Hungarians, against whom Germany had lost 8-3 in the group stage. The game in front of around 30,000 spectators at the Stade des Charmilles in Geneva went well for Germany from the start. Herberger relied on a strong defense from which you wanted to counterattack quickly. In the tenth minute of the game, one of the many German counterattacks gave the Herberger team a 1-0 lead. The Yugoslav defender Ivica Horvat scored an own goal. Now the Yugoslav team attacked the goal of Toni Turek from Fortuna Düsseldorf , who acted convincingly in this game for the first time in this tournament. As the 85th minute rolled around, Herberger reminded his striker Helmut Rahn , who had promised him a goal before the game, of his promise. In one of the many furious attacks by the Yugoslavs, the German team again managed a counterattack like the 1-0. This time the goal scorer was Helmut Rahn. The “boss” had played his way into the team, having previously only been called up in the game against Hungary when Herberger fielded his B-Elf. It had paid off for the national coach for the first time to rely on the sometimes somewhat idiosyncratic attacker from Rot-Weiss Essen .

Germany 2-0 Yugoslavia

• Germany: Toni Turek; Fritz Laband, Werner Kohlmeyer; Horst Eckel, Werner Liebrich, Karl Mai; Helmut Rahn, Max Morlock, Ottmar Walter, Fritz Walter, Hans Schäfer
• Yugoslavia: Vladimir Beara ; Branislav Stankovic, Tomislav Crnkovic; Zlatko Čajkovski , Ivica Horvat , Vujadin Boškov ; Miloš Milutinović , Stjepan Bobek , Rajko Mitić , Bernard Vukas , Branko Zebec

• Goals: 1-0 Horvat (10', own goal), 2-0 Helmut Rahn (86')

• Spectators: 17,000 (according to FIFA)

semifinals

To the astonishment of the general professional world, Germany was in the semi-finals, which few would have believed the Germans could do before the tournament. In the round of the last four, Austria was now waiting for the DFB team. The duels with the Alpine Republic have always been of particular importance. There is a neighborly rivalry between Germany and Austria, which of course was intensified by the “ Annexation of Austria ” to the German Reich in 1938. The Austrians beat Scotland 1-0 and Czechoslovakia 5-0 in the preliminary round and were “pulled” to the top of the group by drawing lots against Uruguay. As a result, the players of team boss Walter Nausch met host Switzerland in the second round . In Lausanne , at 40 degrees in the shade, a game developed that later became known as the “ Heat Battle of Lausanne ”. With twelve goals, seven for Austria and five for Switzerland, the match in front of 32,000 spectators in the Stade Olympique de la Pontaise is still the highest-scoring game at a football World Cup. The balance of the encounter was a sunstroke in the Austrian goalkeeper Kurt Schmied and a collapse in the Swiss player Roger Bocquet . Eventually Austria won 7:5 and was in the semifinals. Germany was waiting there. Austria went into the match still damaged by the difficult game in Lausanne, so that the Germans enjoyed an advantage. In the 33rd minute, Hans Schäfer made it 1-0. That's how it was at the break. In the 47th minute, Max Morlock made it 2-0 before Erich Probst scored the goal to make it 2-1 five minutes later. Now a gala performance by the Walter brothers has started. Fritz and Ottmar each scored twice to make it 6:1. Fritz converted both penalties in the 57th and 65th minutes to make it 3-1 and 5-1. His brother scored in the 61st and 87th minutes to make it 4-1 and 6-1. Germany was thus in the final. The euphoria at home knew no bounds. The team was showered with congratulations and Herberger's tactics, which were so heavily criticized in the preliminary round, were now regarded as "a brilliant move". On a Munich theater stage, an actor even changed his text. After giving flowers to his girlfriend in the play, instead of professing his love, he said, "...because we won 6-1."

Germany – Austria 6:1

• Germany: Toni Turek; Jupp Posipal, Werner Kohlmeyer; Horst Eckel, Werner Liebrich, Karl Mai; Helmut Rahn, Max Morlock, Ottmar Walter, Fritz Walter, Hans Schäfer
• Austria: Walter Zeman ; Gerhard Hanappi , Walter Schleger ; Ernst Ocwirk , Ernst Happel , Karl Koller ; Robert Körner , Theodor Wagner , Ernst Stojaspal , Erich Probst , Alfred Körner

• Goals: 1: 0 Hans Schäfer (33rd), 2: 0 Max Morlock (47th), 2: 1 Probst (52nd), 3: 1 Fritz Walter (57th, penalty), 4: 1 Ottmar Walter (61st .), 5: 1 Fritz Walter (65th, penalty), 6: 1 Ottmar Walter (87th)

• Spectators: 58,000 (according to FIFA)

final

→ Main article : Miracle of Bern

Germany – Hungary 3:2

• Germany: Toni Turek; Jupp Posipal, Werner Kohlmeyer; Horst Eckel, Werner Liebrich, Karl Mai; Helmut Rahn, Max Morlock, Ottmar Walter, Fritz Walter, Hans Schäfer
• Hungary: Gyula Grosics; Mihály Lantos, Jenő Buzánszky; József Bozsik, Gyula Lóránt, József Zakariás; Mihály Tóth, Sándor Kocsis, Nándor Hidegkuti, Ferenc Puskás, and Zoltán Czibor

• Goals: 0-1 Ferenc Puskás (6th), 0-2 Zoltán Czibor (8th), 1-2 Max Morlock (10th), 2-2 Helmut Rahn (18th), 3-2 Helmut Rahn (84th). )

• Spectators: 62,500 (according to FIFA)

remarkable

• No player from the then German soccer champions Hannover 96 was in the World Cup squad, but five players from the runners-up 1. FC Kaiserslautern . One reason for this was the date of the German final (May 23) and the earlier registration deadline at FIFA (May 1).
• Probably the best German goalkeeper of that generation , Bert Trautmann from Manchester City , was not allowed to go to the World Cup because coach Sepp Herberger did not nominate “football legionnaires” in 1954 as a matter of principle.
• The special issue 50 Years - The Miracle of Bern in the magazine kicker reveals that Sepp Herberger would have liked to nominate Kurt Clemens from SV Saar 05 Saarbrücken . But since he had already played for the Saarland national football team , he was not available internationally for the DFB until Saarland joined the Federal Republic, as were some GDR refugees later.
• Germany became the first country to become world champions despite having previously lost a game in the course of the tournament. Apart from Germany ( again in 1974 ), only Argentina (1978) and Spain (2010) managed to do this .
• After both Turkey (seeded) and Germany (unseeded) had one win and one defeat in the group stage and both were tied on points, a decider between these two teams was necessary according to the then controversial format. According to today's goal difference regulation, Germany would have been eliminated, but at that time not everyone played against everyone in the group: there were two seeded teams that only played against the two unseeded teams, but not against each other.
• The “Heroes of Bern” have never played together in an official game since their 3-2 win against Hungary on July 4, 1954. The only exception is a benefit game for the previously deceased Jürgen Moll on April 14, 1969.
• On December 3, 2021, Horst Eckel died as the last player at the age of 89.

literature

• kicker Edition : 50 Years - The Miracle of Bern , Olympia-Verlag , Nuremberg 2004, ISSN  1613-2297 (with reprint of the kicker of July 5, 1954).

web links

• www.das-wunder-von-bern.de
• dfb.de: “The 1954 World Cup in Switzerland – The Miracle of Bern” ( memento from August 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive )

itemizations

1. ↑ www.60xdeutschland.de
2. ↑ www.das-wunder-von-bern.de
3. ↑ Final round of the German Championship 1954. In: revierkick.de. RevierSport Online GmbH, retrieved on April 18, 2019 (article at the bottom of the website). 
4. ↑ www.das-wunder-von-bern.de
5. ↑ www.das-wunder-von-bern.de
6. ↑ www.das-wunder-von-bern.de
7. ↑ FIFA.com: FIFA World Cup Switzerland 1954 - Matches - West Germany-Yugoslavia - FIFA.com. Retrieved July 3, 2018 . 
8. ↑ www.20min.ch
9. ↑ FIFA.com: FIFA World Cup Switzerland 1954 - Matches - West Germany-Austria - FIFA.com. Retrieved July 3, 2018 . 
10. ↑ kicker Edition : 50 Years - The Miracle of Bern , Olympia-Verlag , Nuremberg 2004, p. 24, ISSN  1613-2297 .
11. ↑ In 1962, Herberger called up the first legionnaire in the World Cup squad , Horst Szymaniak from Calcio Catania .
12. ↑ DFB mourns world champion Horst Eckel , dfb.de, December 3, 2021, retrieved on December 3, 2021.