Günther Lühr

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Günther Lühr (born October 3, 1924 ) is a former German soccer player and coach. The long-time goalkeeper of Bremerhaven 93 completed 198 league games from 1949 to 1959 in the then first-class Oberliga Nord and scored five goals.

career

Günther Lühr started playing football as a teenager in the Bremerhaven district of Wulsdorf near Gut-Heil or TuSpVgg Wulsdorf. During World War II he was taken prisoner by the British and was transferred to POW Camp 50 (now Byrchall High School) in Ashton-in-Makerfield, between St. Helens and Wigan. He played there with footballers such as the later Schalke Karl Krause and the Bremen Bert Trautmann , who later became a legend as the future goalkeeper of Manchester City . Lühr had qualities as a field player as well as a goalkeeper. After his return from captivity in 1948, he joined the Green-Whites of TSV Wulsdorf for the 1948/49 season. With the "Löwen von der Ahnthöhe" he climbed promotion to the Bremen State League in 1949. After a round of amateur football, for the 1949/50 season he accepted the offer from TuS Bremerhaven 93 from what was then the first-class football league north .

Lühr made his debut on the start day of the round, September 4, 1949, in the 3-2 home win against Bremer SV, in the league. He stormed in the center-forward position in the World Cup system at that time and scored a goal. On the tenth game day, November 16, 1949, he was in the 93er goal for the first time. The away game at VfL Osnabrück was lost 3-1, but Lühr became the goalkeeper. At the side of the strong running team player Werner Lang and under the Austrian coach Gustav Wieser , he played all 30 league games for the "Weinroten" and scored four goals to reach tenth place.

From the 1950/51 season, Helmuth Johannsen was responsible for the training management of the club from the city at the mouth of the Weser. With his seriousness, professionalism and correctness of work, the later Bundesliga coach established the 93er in the midfield of the Oberliga Nord. When Johannsen reached eighth place three times (1951 to 1953) and seventh place in the table in the north in 1954, Günther Lühr was the clear number one in the goal of the team at the Zollinlandstadion.

Lühr and his teammates experienced the most successful season in the round after Johannsen left for Holstein Kiel and Robert Gebhardt took over as coach , who played five games for the "Weinroten" in the last Johannsen season in 1953/54 1954/55 . The round start brought on August 22, 1954 a 3-1 home win in the Zollinlandstadion against the reigning German champions Hannover 96. This was followed by three more victories against Bremer SV, VfB Oldenburg and VfL Osnabrück and thus leading the table with 8-0 points. The 0: 3 away defeat by three goals by the young center forward Uwe Seeler at Hamburger SV on matchday five brought disillusionment to the "Zolli", but it did not lead to a crash into the midfield of the league. In the second half of the season it was enough for Lühr and his teammates in front of 13,000 spectators on April 17, 1955 to a 2-2 home draw against the record champions of the north. With the best defense in the league, only 38 goals conceded, the 96ers landed in second place and moved into the finals of the 1955 German football championship as runner-up. The goalkeeper had played 29 rounds. Hamburger SV became champions with a goal difference of 108: 41 goals, while the two goal scorers of the "Rautträger", Günter Schlegel and Uwe Seeler, had exactly the same number of goals as vice-champions Bremerhaven with 56 goals with 28 goals each. Heiner Mokroß distinguished himself as the top scorer with 19 goals on the side of runner-up Bremerhaven.

Before the actual final round, the Gebhardt protégés had to play a qualifying game against the runner-up from the southwest, Wormatia Worms, on May 4th in Düsseldorf. The game ended after extra time with a 3-3 draw. One (!) Day later, on May 5th, Bremerhaven prevailed in the replay with a 3-2 victory and was thus qualified for Group II in the final round. Opponents were Rot-Weiss Essen , Worms and Kickers Offenbach, but not in the "Zolli" in the Lehe district, determined by the DFB in the Weserstadion in Bremen. In the "away" home games, Lühr and his 93ers prevailed 1-0 against Worms and 2-0 against Südmeister Kickers Offenbach and defied the eventual German champions Rot-Weiss Essen - RWE won the final on June 26th with 4: 3 against 1. FC Kaiserslautern - a 1-1 draw in front of 15,000 spectators. TuS took second place in the group with 6: 6 points and Lühr had played all eight final round matches.

Previously, the Gebhardt-Elf had already convinced in the games for the DFB Cup in 1955. In the first main round they prevailed with a 5-1 home win in the "Zolli" against SpVgg Erkenschwick with the young Horst Szymaniak and on December 19, 1954 a 3-1 win against Hamburger SV, where the goalkeeper was primarily against the offensive forces around Günter Schlegel , Klaus Stürmer and Herbert Wojtkowiak . In the quarter-finals, FC Schalke 04 finished the further path of the "Zolli" eleven in the cup after two goals by Günter Brocker with a 2-0 victory in the local Glückauf-Kampfbahn .

Lühr and colleagues were unable to continue the runner-up in the next few rounds, and fifth place in 1958 was the best place. The veteran was no longer a regular goalkeeper, he was only used sporadically in his final laps. The 34-year-old played his last league game under coach Oswald Pfau on April 5, 1959, in a 2-2 home draw against Phoenix Lübeck. Werner Lang and Wilfried Kapteina of the old companions and, as a new hope, Uwe Klimaschefski , were there.

In the summer of 1959 Günther Lühr ended his high-class playing career. As a coach, he was then in the amateur field at the clubs TSV Wulsdorf , Leher Turnerschaft and SG Leherheide even further connected with football.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Lühr, Günther
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH October 3, 1924