Hans Hoffmeister (water polo player)

Johannes "Hans" Hoffmeister (born February 2, 1936 in Chemnitz ; † September 26, 2016 ) was a German water polo player .

Hoffmeister began his sporting career at Lokomotive Chemnitz . In 1953 Hoffmeister fled the GDR to the West. He learned the profession of driver and joined SC Rote Erde Hamm as an athlete in 1954 . From 1955 to 1971 the hammer was a German water polo champion eight times .

In 1958 he made his debut in the national team , for which he played a total of 129 internationals. His first international placement with the German team was seventh at the 1958 European Championship. At the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome , he finished sixth with the team from the Federal Republic of Germany. For the European Championship in 1962 and the Olympic Games in 1964 , the team from the GDR qualified as part of the all-German qualifications. At the European Championship in 1966, the German team with Hoffmeister finished seventh like eight years earlier. After finishing tenth at the 1968 Olympic Games , Hoffmeister's national team career initially ended and Günter Kilian , fourteen years younger than him , became a regular goalkeeper. When Kilian got into a form crisis, Hoffmeister returned to the national team in 1972 and was next to Gerd Olbert goalkeeper at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich , when the German team finished fourth.

After his career, Hoffmeister was a coach in Hamm and later at SV Bayer Uerdingen 08 .

literature

• National Olympic Committee for Germany: Munich. Kiel. 1972. The Olympic team of the Federal Republic of Germany. Munich 1972 p. 489

Web links

• Short portraits of German water polo players
• Hans Hoffmeister in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )