Gerard Wodarz

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Gerard Wodarz.JPG

Gerard Wodarz (born August 10, 1913 in Bismarckhütte , † November 11, 1982 in Chorzów ) was a Polish football player.

Career

Interwar period

Wodarz was born a citizen of Prussia . His first name was initially written in the German spelling "Gerhard". With the annexation of East Upper Silesia to Poland in 1922, he received Polish citizenship , his first name was Polonized . As a 13-year-old he joined Ruch Wielkie Hajduki's youth department in 1926 and remained loyal to the club throughout his career in the left winger position . He was considered calm, solid and homely, and he stayed away from drinking parties, which are not unusual in his club. At the age of 21 he became team captain because of his balancing nature .

With Teodor Peterek and Ernst Willimowski he formed the most successful storm in the history of the Polish top division . It was mainly thanks to these "three Silesian kings" that Ruch was Polish champion five times between 1933 and 1938. He scored 51 goals in 183 games for Ruch.

Between 1932 and 1939 he was called up to the national team 28 times . With her he reached the semifinals at the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936 . In the tournament he scored 5 goals. Overall, he scored 9 goals in the national team's jersey. In 1938 he took part in the World Cup in France, which began with the round of 16 . 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 World War II

In the last week of August 1939 he was drafted into the Polish armed forces as part of the general mobilization . According to his own statements, he was taken prisoner of war by the Germans soon after the Wehrmacht invaded Poland on September 1, 1939 , but was able to escape from a prisoner transport near Krakow and make his way to Upper Silesia.

With the re-annexation of East Upper Silesia to the German Reich in October 1939, the Polish club management von Ruch was arrested and replaced by Germans, the club got its old German name Bismarckhütter SV (BSV) again. Nobody who called himself a Pole was allowed to play in it. Already at the first game of his club after the end of the fighting, Wodarz was on the field, next to Peterek and Willimowski, who like him signed the German people's list . His first name was spelled “Gerhard” again by the German authorities and newspapers, his family name also appeared in the forms “Wodasch” and “Wlodasch”.

1940 and 1941 he was in the selection of the Gauliga Silesia , which took part in the Reichsbund Cup. In January 1942 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht , initially his unit was stationed in Lorraine . During his home leave he regularly competed for the BSV in Gauliga points games.

With the rank of corporal , he was taken prisoner by the British at the end of August 1944 on the Western Front near Provins around 100 kilometers south-east of Paris . According to his later reports, he had deserted and defected to French partisans . Accordingly, he was handed over by the French to the US Army , who, as a former citizen of Poland, transferred him to the Polish armed forces in the west , which were under British command .

post war period

After the end of the war, his unit was relocated to Scotland , where the pro-Western leadership of the Polish associations there initially waited for further political developments at home. He played football there again, first in a soldiers' team in the Royal Air Force , then in the local club in the city of Fraserburgh .

In the fall of 1946 he returned to Poland and joined Ruch Chorzów again. Like other Upper Silesian top players, he had to justify himself to the communist-controlled Security Office UB for his appearances in German clubs during the war. Decades later, according to descriptions by Polish sports journalists, he reported that while in German captivity in 1939 he had been a Polish national soccer player. A German officer then kicked him in the knee so hard that he had to spend three months in the hospital. After his return to Upper Silesia he only found work when he signed the people's list. He played football under pressure because he had to support his family.

Just one year after his return to Chorzów, he ended his active career in 1947. After obtaining the trainer's diploma, he took over the post of Ruch trainer in 1949. But after only a year he switched to the later master Górnik Zabrze , who was only founded after the war , with whom he made promotion to the second division in 1952. Two years later his employment in Zabrze ended. Without much success, he coached several clubs in the region in the lower divisions. In 1961 he returned to Ruch as a trainer for four months.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mecz, October 24, 1990, p. 28.
  2. ↑ Przegląd Sportowy, December 8, 1934, p. 4. http://buwcd.buw.uw.edu.pl/e_zbiory/ckcp/p_sportowy/1934/numer098/imagepages/image4.htm
  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 August 29, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / de.fifa.com
  4. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated December 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) 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.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / sport-dienst.fussball.de
  5. ↑ Andrzej Gowarzewski / Joachim WALOSZEK: Ruch Chorzów . Katowice 1995, p. 54.
  6. ↑ Kattowitzer Zeitung, November 20, 1939, p. 4.
  7. ↑ Der Kicker, January 2, 1940, p. 5; Football Week, January 21, 1941, p. 4.
  8. ↑ a b Deutsche Dienststelle , II C 2-111014 / 209, p. 5.
  9. ↑ Oberschlesische Zeitung, December 28, 1942, p. 3; Andrzej Gowarzewski / Joachim Wałoszek: Ruch Chorzów . Katowice 1995, p. 55.
  10. ↑ Andrzej Gowarzewski / Joachim WALOSZEK: Ruch Chorzów . Katowice 1995, p. 55.
  11. ↑ Gazeta Wyborcza (Katowice), April 19, 2010, p. 19. http://katowice.wyborcza.pl/katowice/1,35019,7787580,Legenda_Ruchu_Chorzow__jakiej_dotad_nie_znaliscie.html
  12. ↑ Andrzej Gowarzewski / Joachim WALOSZEK: Ruch Chorzów . Katowice 1995, pp. 54-55.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wodarz, Gerard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wodarz, Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH August 10, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Bismarckhütte , German Empire
DATE OF DEATH November 11, 1982
Place of death Chorzów , Poland