Günter Eichberg

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Günter Eichberg (* 6. May 1946 in Gütersloh , † 22. July 2018 ) was a German management consultant , football functionaries and clinic owner. From January 16, 1989 to October 17, 1993 he was President of FC Schalke 04 .

Life

Education and early years of work

Günter Eichberg trained as a social security clerk in his hometown . In 1965, at the age of 19, he took over the management of the company health insurance fund of the Gütersloh textile company Güth & Wolf. Shortly afterwards, he began to optimize other health insurance companies as a management consultant. At the same time, he graduated from the Administration and Business Academy in Münster with a second administrative examination and a social diploma.

At the beginning of the eighties, Eichberg worked as the spa director of the air and Kneipp spa town of Olsberg in the Hochsauerland. In 1982 he took over the previously underutilized Mosel-Eifel Clinic in Bad Bertrich near the Moselle and expanded it into a specialist clinic for venous diseases. In the following years he acquired other clinics, including the renowned Klinik im Park in Hilden and houses in Bad Gandersheim , Bad Oeynhausen , on Juist and in Switzerland.

President of FC Schalke 04

Eichberg, who has become wealthy mainly through his clinics and lives in Düsseldorf , was briefly involved in the Fortuna Düsseldorf football club , to whom he paid the transfer fee for two amateur players from his private assets. On January 16, 1989, at an extraordinary general meeting, he was elected President of the traditional Gelsenkirchen club FC Schalke 04 , which at that time was playing in the second Bundesliga . With three opposing candidates, he received over 83 percent of the member's votes. As one of his first official acts, he founded Schalke 04 Marketing GmbH , of which he was the only partner. The economically independent GmbH was not subject to any conditions on the part of the German Football Association . In this way, Eichberg managed to sign players for the economically troubled club, such as Günter Schlipper . He extended the contracts of key players such as Ingo Anderbrügge , Bjarne Goldbæk and Jürgen Luginger . When Schalke 04 was on the penultimate place on the 26th match day of its first season and threatened to relegate to the amateur class, Eichberg dismissed the hapless coach Diethelm Ferner . He hired Peter Neururer from Alemannia Aachen , who came from the Ruhr area, to succeed him . With the new coach, relegation from the second division could be averted.

In his second season (1989/90) Eichberg signed Matthias Herget and Peter Sendscheid , attacking midfielder Alexander "Sascha" Borodjuk, the first Russian in German professional football. The new team reached fifth place in the second division. At the same time, Eichberg and the new Chairman of Marketing GmbH, Heribert Bruchhagen , managed to triple the average number of viewers and the number of members through a fan-friendly design of the ticket prices. New sponsors alleviated the financial problems in the club. Due to his extroverted lifestyle and sometimes shirt-sleeved administration, the press gradually referred to him as the "Sun King of Schalke".

The highlight of the Eichberg era at FC Schalke 04 was the club 's promotion to the Bundesliga after the 1990/91 season . A 2-1 home win against Fortuna Köln brought the championship wrapped up three game days before the end of the season. At that time, however, Eichberg had already dismissed the coach Peter Neururer, who was popular with fans, as he was annoyed that Neururer, who was demanding a coaching contract for both the second and the first division, was putting pressure on him through the press. Aleksandar Ristić was the new coach at Schalke . After promotion to the first division, Eichberg first brought Günter Netzer as manager and, for high transfer fees, Radmilo Mihajlović and Bent Christensen Arensøe to Gelsenkirchen. However, both players fell far short of expectations. At the beginning of the 1992/93 season, Eichberg replaced the coach Aleksandar Ristić with Udo Lattek , who, despite a longer contract period, only sat in the coaching bench for half a season and resigned for the winter break. Eichberg had plans to ensure the long-term success of FC Schalke 04. So he hired Holger Osieck , Eduard Geyer and the very successful Bodo Menze one after the other as the club's youth manager. His concepts also included a rehab clinic in the Park Stadium and a new venue with a lockable roof. Rudi Assauer , whom Eichberg had brought back to Schalke as a manager after Günter Netzer and Helmut Kremers' brief tenure , later put these ideas into practice.

Publications of the mirror

After a sale of his clinics failed in 1993, some newspapers speculated about Eichberg's liquidity problems. The WestLB and other banks demanded then of him that he veräußere some of its houses. With the sums obtained, long-term loans should be redeemed. In addition, the institutes asked him to withdraw from the public. On October 17, 1993, Eichberg announced - completely surprising to many - his resignation as president of FC Schalke 04. He left Germany for Florida , where he had married for the third time in December 1992. On October 25, 1993, under the title Im Rausch der Kohlen, an extensive article about Eichberg appeared in the magazine Der Spiegel , in which the authors accused FC Schalke 04 of bribery, financial tricks and millions in loans of the “charlatan” and “Felix Krull from Gütersloh” to have driven into ruin. Both the club and Eichberg defended themselves against these allegations.

Nevertheless, the Spiegel insisted in further reports that Eichberg was dubious and also over-indebted. In November 1993 prohibiting Hamburg Regional Court the mirror under the threat of administrative detention and order punishment to repeat certain allegations from the first article. Among other things, the formulation that Schalke had "16 million marks in debt" and that "2.1 million marks in loan payments" were due in the short term was prohibited. Following a decision of Higher Regional Court which was mirror also imposed a reply reprint.

On February 7, 1994, Bernd Tönnies was elected as the new President of FC Schalke 04. In one of his first interviews ("I feel a deep contempt for all Eichbergs in the world") he repeated some of the allegations made by the Spiegel against Eichberg and expected his predecessor to repay one million marks for every home game, a total of 17 million marks. This sum, although not further documented, made the rounds in public. Eichberg's reputation deteriorated noticeably; the environment of FC Schalke 04 began to see him critically. When he traveled to Milan for the UEFA Cup final in 1997 to support FC Schalke 04, he was attacked by angry and drunk fans of the club before the final training session. Even several years after his resignation as President of FC Schalke 04, Eichberg himself maintained that he had “invested a double-digit million amount privately” during his tenure.

Further career

From the end of 1993 until the turn of the millennium, Günter Eichberg lived in Palm Beach , Florida, where several business ideas were unsuccessful. Among other things, he developed a drug for diabetes together with a doctor from Texas , which was not approved by the responsible US authorities. After his return to Germany he worked again as a management consultant for clinics and health insurance companies.

Between 2004 and 2009, Eichberg held the honorary position of the local mayor of Bad Bertrich . He had returned to the place where he had operated his first clinic. Thanks to his initiative, the Swiss national soccer team stayed at the state baths on the Moselle during the 2006 soccer world championship . He also implemented several infrastructure measures and pushed the construction of a new thermal bath .

Trivia

The Bild newspaper claimed in 1990 that Eichberg, who had not been able to arrive in time for the funeral of the legendary Schalke player Ernst Kuzorra , absolutely wanted to be seen in the official photo of the funeral. Therefore, the funeral procession and the laying of the wreath were carried out a second time. Eichberg himself later stated that he had only been persuaded by the press to take a picture of Kuzorra's fresh grave, together with the Gelsenkirchen Lord Mayor and Schalke Vice-President. Beyond that, there were no other actions.

literature

  • Katharina Strohmeyer: Günter Eichberg - Schalke's forgotten savior? Verlag Neue Buchschmiede, Hamm 2014. ISBN 978-3-9816651-1-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Katharina Strohmeyer, Günter Eichberg - Schalke's forgotten savior? , Hamm 2014, p. 7
  2. ↑ Schalke's ex-president Günter Eichberg has died. Süddeutsche Zeitung , July 23, 2018, accessed on August 25, 2020 . .
  3. ↑ Katharina Strohmeyer, Günter Eichberg - Schalke's forgotten savior? , Hamm 2014, pp. 9–15
  4. ↑ Katharina Strohmeyer, Günter Eichberg - Schalke's forgotten savior? , Hamm 2014, pp. 17-27
  5. ↑ Katharina Strohmeyer, Günter Eichberg - Schalke's forgotten savior? , Hamm 2014, p. 27 f.
  6. ↑ Katharina Strohmeyer, Günter Eichberg - Schalke's forgotten savior? , Hamm 2014, pp. 29–35
  7. ↑ Katharina Strohmeyer, Günter Eichberg - Schalke's forgotten savior? , Hamm 2014, pp. 36-38
  8. ↑ Katharina Strohmeyer, Günter Eichberg - Schalke's forgotten savior? , Hamm 2014, pp. 43–45
  9. ↑ "I exchanged strikers for combine harvesters" bild.de, March 4, 2013
  10. ↑ Katharina Strohmeyer, Günter Eichberg - Schalke's forgotten savior? , Hamm 2014, pp. 52–59
  11. ↑ Katharina Strohmeyer, Günter Eichberg - Schalke's forgotten savior? , Hamm 2014, pp. 62–83
  12. ↑ Katharina Strohmeyer, Günter Eichberg - Schalke's forgotten savior? , Hamm 2014, p. 100 f.
  13. ↑ Der Spiegel , 43/1993, p. 288 ff.
  14. ↑ Facsimile of the court decision of November 22, 1993 in Katharina Strohmeyer, Günter Eichberg - Schalke's forgotten savior? , Hamm 2014, p. 122 f.
  15. ↑ Der Spiegel , 49/1993; Online version
  16. ↑ Katharina Strohmeyer, Günter Eichberg - Schalke's forgotten savior? , Hamm 2014, pp. 114–117
  17. ↑ Der Spiegel , 12/1994; Online version
  18. ↑ Katharina Strohmeyer, Günter Eichberg - Schalke's forgotten savior? , Hamm 2014, pp. 140–146
  19. ↑ What is Günter Eichberg actually doing stern.de, September 20, 2004
  20. ↑ Katharina Strohmeyer, Günter Eichberg - Schalke's forgotten savior? , Hamm 2014, pp. 133-135
  21. ↑ Katharina Strohmeyer, Günter Eichberg - Schalke's forgotten savior? , Hamm 2014, pp. 155–163
  22. ↑ Ben Redelings: Schalke album . Göttingen: Verlag die Werkstatt (2014), pp. 132–133
  23. ↑ Digging out the "Sun King" about Kuzorra, Assauer, Holzbeine, Neururer and many newspaper stories - book talk with Günter Eichberg and Katharina Strohmeyer  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. fankultur.com from October 5, 2014. Memento at archive.is from January 26, 2015@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.fankultur.com  
personal data
SURNAME Eichberg, Günter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German management consultant and football official
DATE OF BIRTH May 6, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Gutersloh
DATE OF DEATH July 22, 2018
Place of death Gutersloh