Gerhard Breitenstein

Gerhard Breitenstein (born July 29, 1921 ) is a former German soccer player who was active in the East German Zone League in 1949/50 for SG Gera-Süd .

Athletic career

After all sports clubs in Germany had been banned by the occupying powers after the end of the Second World War , loosely organized sports communities / sports groups (SG) were founded in order to be able to compete in the sports competitions, which were initially approved for the region. In Gera, among others, the SG Gera-Zwötzen was established, in whose soccer team Gerhard Breitenstein also played. When in 1949 several sports communities merged to form the SG Gera-Süd, the 28-year-old Breitenstein joined the new SG. With her he won the Thuringian Soccer Cup, which Gera-Süd qualified for the first ever competition for the East German FDGB Soccer Cup. The Geraer made it to the final, where they met Waggonbau Dessau on August 28, 1949 and lost 1-0. In this encounter, Breitenstein was positioned as the left wing runner .

As a finalist, Gera-Süd was eligible to start the first season of the newly founded soccer zone league (later DS-Oberliga, GDR-Oberliga ), with which the East German soccer champions for 1949/50 were to be determined from 1949/50. The Gera squad again included Breitenstein, who was also used in the first league game. Up to the 17th matchday he played all the point games, after which he was no longer used and from then on no longer belonged to the Gera squad.

Aftermath

In March 1961, Breitenstein, who had meanwhile become an employee of the Gera municipal construction company, was sentenced to six months in prison by the Bamberg regional court for being a secret group. He had previously made contact with workers from the Dickerhoff company in Munich and invited them to visit the GDR . The imprisonment and the subsequent trial caused widespread media coverage in the GDR, and protest rallies were called.

literature

• GDR daily newspaper Neues Deutschland : Years 1960/61 via staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/ddr-presse
• Hanns Leske : Encyclopedia of GDR football . Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89533-556-3 , p. 87.
• Andreas Baingo, Michael Horn: The History of the GDR Oberliga. 2nd Edition. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-89533-428-6 , pp. 22, 316.

Web links

• Gerhard Breitenstein in the database of the German Football Association
• Gerhard Breitenstein in the database of weltfussball.de