Gerhard Reichelt

Gerhard Reichelt (born February 15, 1931 in Krummwohlau , Wohlau district , Silesia ) is a former German soccer player and soccer coach. As a player he was three times GDR champion and one cup winner with Vorwärts Berlin . He also played for the GDR youth national team and the B selection.

Athletic career

Soccer player (national)

In the summer of 1951, the sports association (SV) Vorwärts Leipzig, which had not previously been involved in supraregional GDR football , was designated as the main administration's football focus by the head office training (HVA), an organ of the GDR interior ministry and forerunner of the barracked people's police . For this purpose, the soccer team was reinforced by players from other forward teams. For the 1951/52 season, the Leipzig team, first under the name SV Volkspolizei Vorwärts, a little later as SV Vorwärts of the HVA Leipzig, was incorporated into the GDR Oberliga without any athletic qualifications.

The 20-year-old Gerhard Reichelt also belonged to the new player base. He was used by coach Heinz Krügel from the second league point game on, initially as a striker, from the ninth round continuously as a right wing runner . During the 1952/53 season, the Leipzig team was relocated to East Berlin , Reichelt only played two league games for Vorwärts Leipzig and three for Vorwärts Berlin. At the end of the season, the team had to relegate to the GDR league . In the GDR league in 1953/54 Vorwärts Berlin managed to immediately rise again, in which Reichelt was involved with 17 point games and two goals. In addition to the resurgence, the Berliners won the GDR soccer cup after a 2-1 victory over Motor Zwickau . Reichelt was put into the game in the 63rd minute. After rising again, Reichelt played in the GDR league without interruption until 1962. With the exception of the 1958 season, in which he was only able to play eight point games due to injuries, he was a regular in the forward team until 1961 and always played in midfield. After Reichelt sustained an archilles tendon injury in the summer of 1961, his senior league career was practically over. By September 1962 he played only four league point games. With his use on September 23, 1962 in the encounter Motor Karl-Marx-Stadt - ASK Vorwärts (0: 2) ended Reichelt's career in the league, in which he had played a total of 169 games and scored eight goals. With Vorwärts Berlin he was champion three times (1958, 1960, 1962). During his training as a coach, Reichelt also played at the HSG DHfK Leipzig in the fourth-class district league and district class.

Soccer player (international)

As a second division player from Vorwärts Berlin, Reichelt was part of the GDR junior national team in 1954. On February 7, 1954, he played an official international match against Hungary and played as a midfielder in the 0-0 in East Berlin as usual. After he had become a top division player again in the fall of 1954, he was appointed to two international matches for the B national team. In the match Poland - GDR (1: 2) on September 26, 1954 he was only a substitute, on October 24 in the game GDR - Romania (0: 0) he was used as a left runner.

Vorwärts Berlin was represented three times in the European Cup in Reichelt's active time, in 1959/60 and 1962/63 in the European Cup of National Champions , and in 1960/61 in the European Cup Winners' Cup . The Berliners were eliminated after the first round, so they only came to a total of six games in the three competitions. Reichelt was there at every encounter, the opponents were Wolverhampton Wanderers (2: 1, 0: 2) and Dukla Prague (0: 3, 0: 1) in the championship cup and Spartak Brno (2: 1, 0: 2) in the cup winners' competition.

Trainer

Reichelt began his work as a coach in December 1966 at his old club Vorwärts Berlin, which has now operated as a football club, as an assistant coach. In 1970 he had to give up this post again. A year after FC Vorwärts was relocated to Frankfurt (Oder) , Reichelt took over the position of assistant coach again in 1972. At the beginning of the 1973/74 season he was promoted to head coach after his predecessor Fritz Belger had retired. After the end of the 1974/75 season he was released again, although the team had not deteriorated significantly under his leadership (1972/73 7th, 1973/74 4th, 1974/75 5th). In October 1978, when FC Vorwärts had just been relegated, Reichelt was brought back as head coach, and he and the team achieved immediate promotion back to the league. Then Reichelt managed to stabilize FC Vorwärts, after two fifth places and reaching the cup final in 1981 (1: 4 against 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig ), followed in 1981/82 with fourth place, the best placement since 1974 (also fourth place ). Nevertheless, he was replaced by Jürgen Großheim for the new season . In January 1987 Reichelt returned for the third time as head coach for FC Vorwärts. Like his predecessors, he did not succeed in leading the team out of the decline of recent years. While he reached tenth place in 1987, he was relegated with the team in 1988. Although FC Vorwärts had reached third place in the GDR league after the first half of the 1988/89 season and the recovery was realistic, this time the army club parted ways with Reichelt, who last held the rank of lieutenant colonel in the People's Army .

literature

• German sport echo : born 1951–1989. ISSN  0323-8628 .
• Hanns Leske : Encyclopedia of GDR football . Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89533-556-3 , p. 382.
• Andreas Baingo, Michael Horn: The History of the GDR Oberliga. 2nd Edition. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-89533-428-6 , p. 315.
• DFSF (ed.): GDR Chronicle - GDR Football 1949–1991 (Volume 8). Berlin 2010, p. 297.

Web links

• Gerhard Reichelt in the database of weltfussball.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Between 1955 and 1960 the football season was aligned with the calendar year