Gerhard Schulz (referee)

Gerhard Schulz (born June 26, 1906 in Leipzig , † January 10, 1969 in Berlin ) was a German football referee . After 1945 he played a key role in building up refereeing in the Soviet occupation zone and the GDR and was the first FIFA referee for the DFV .

Career until 1945

Schulz learned the profession of book printer in Leipzig and until he moved to Dresden in 1936, he became the deputy typesetting manager at Schelter & Giesecke. In 1924 he passed his referee examination. His subsequent performances were so appealing that, at the age of just 26, on May 28, 1933, he led the semi-finals of the German championship between Schalke 04 and TSV 1860 Munich. As a result, Schulz was appointed chief referee in Leipzig in September 1933 and now, in addition to his job and whistling games, took care of recruiting, training and appointing referees. After Schulz had achieved some level of awareness, he decided to apply to the Reichsbund for physical exercises as a clerk. This was successful and so Schulz moved to Dresden to work as a clerk for the Reichsbund, responsible for football, handball and athletics in the Gau Sachsen. At the same time, he was in charge of refereeing in the Gau Sachsen in addition to his own office as referee and regularly wrote specialist articles for the referee newspaper headed by Carl Koppehel. In order to consolidate his position, Schulz also applied for membership in the NSDAP in 1937, in which he was listed with membership number 5876551. In the following years Schulz developed into a top referee who was soon on the FIFA list for four years. Schulz now regularly whistled games in the Tschammerpokal and at least 10 games in the final round of the German championship, including another semi-final and a game for 3rd place. The provisional highlight was the management of the championship final of the 1938/39 season between Schalke and Admira Vienna , which ended 9-0. When he was called up to join the Wehrmacht in 1941, Gerhard Schulz's career as a referee ended for the time being, without having directed an international match.

Post war career

After a short 14-day American captivity in the Bavarian transit camp Weilheim, Schulz returned to his Saxon homeland in Dresden. A sports business was out of the question at first. Schulz initially worked as an auxiliary fitter, later as a draftsman for the Dresden Hygiene Museum and as a representative for neon advertising. It was not until the spring of 1948 that Schulz came back to play in football, albeit in a different role. He was instrumental in the implementation of the first football championship in the Soviet occupation zone, but without whistling a game himself. This was followed by a job at the Saxon State Sports Association as an official referee teacher. As a result, Schulz conducted a first course for Saxon referees in Oppach in June 1948. Now he was in charge of game operations in Saxony for the 1948/49 season and appointed the referees. In April 1949 Schulz was commissioned by the German Sports Committee, which had now been established, to organize and carry out the first central referee course for the Soviet occupation zone in the newly inaugurated Leipzig-Rosental sports school. The main aim was to eliminate different interpretations of rules in the individual countries of the Soviet Zone. In the same year Schulz whistled again championship games, even in East and West. Since Berlin did not yet have a split game operation, Schulz was able to whistle the quarter-finals of the West German Championship between Berliner SV 92 and Borussia Dortmund on June 12, 1949 in the Berlin Olympic Stadium. A little later, on June 26, 1949, he whistled the final of the 1949 Eastern Zone Championship in Dresden. His qualities as a match organizer and referee did not go unnoticed by the German Sports Committee. Accordingly, from July 1, 1949, Schulz was employed full-time as the DS referee teacher. A few months later, he was also appointed sole head of the football division at DS. Schulz was now fully absorbed in his work, among other things he created the first game, referee and legal system of the DS. In addition, he created the game plan for the league that had just started, assigned referees to the games, took care of referee monitoring and set the game bans for players who were expelled from the field. At that time, all of these functions were combined in the person of Gerhard Schulz, functions that are performed in various bodies in today's high national leagues. He headed the finals in the FDGB Cup in the seasons 1949/50 and 1954/55 .

Schulz was in the qualification for the 1954 World Cup and in the qualification for the 1958 World Cup .

Web links

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