Heinrich Gärtner (soccer player)

Heinrich Gärtner (born September 23, 1918 in Frankfurt am Main , † November 18, 2003 ) was a German football player . With the military team Luftwaffen-Sportverein Hamburg (LSV) he was in the final of the Tschammer Cup in 1943 and in the final of the German football championship in 1944 . From 1945 to 1953 he played 213 games in the soccer Oberliga Süd and Oberliga West and scored 33 goals as a defensive player.

Career

Until 1945

At the oldest football club in Frankfurt, the black and whites of VfL Germania 1894 , in the "Ebbelwoi" district in Sachsenhausen on the "Mainwiesen", the youth footballer "Heini" Gärtner developed into a promising talent. Under coach Hugo Mantel , he was a member of the promotion team to the Gauliga Südwest , Main-Hessen relay in the 1939/40 war season; The class affiliation to the Gauliga existed only one round. The ability of the player, who was mostly in the middle position in the World Cup system at the time , was also underlined by appointments to selection teams. During his time at Germania he played on December 3, 1939 in the competition of the Reichsbund Cup 1939/40 in the southwest selection against Hesse. In the 3-0 victory of the southwest, he acted as a middle runner and the two years younger half-striker Fritz Walter from 1. FC Kaiserslautern scored two goals. In the 1941/42 series he was registered again in the Hessen / Nassau selection in the game on October 5, 1941 in Frankfurt against Lower Silesia.

Gärtner was stationed as an air force soldier in an anti-aircraft division in the Rostock area during the further course of the Second World War . With the Gauligame champion of Mecklenburg of the war round 1942/43, the TSG Rostock , he was active in April 1943 in the two qualifying games for the final round of the German championship against Holstein Kiel. A goal by the middle runner and the use of the old national player Ludwig Wieder in the 1-1 home draw could not make up for the 4-0 defeat in the first leg. The performance of the Kiel top performers around Kurt Krüger , Alfred Boller , Franz Linken and Ottmar Walter was too high for the master from Mecklenburg. In the second half of the year Gärtner was stationed in Hamburg and thus belonged to the Luftwaffensportverein Groß-Hamburg (LSV). The military team, which consisted of so-called “anti-aircraft fighters”, was able to play through the two years of its existence in an almost unchanged formation, which is why it was unpopular with the old clubs.

In the autumn series - from the end of August to the end of October 1943 - of the 1943/44 season , the Luftwaffe SV competed as a representative of the Hamburg district in the “Tschammer Cup” , the forerunner of the DFB Cup. After victories over SpVgg Wilhelmshaven 05 (1: 0), Luftwaffen-SV Pütnitz (3: 2), Holstein Kiel (4: 2) and Dresdner SC (2: 1), Hamburg reached the final in Stuttgart. In this, however, Vienna Vienna retained the upper hand 3-2 after extra time and won the last competition held until the end of the war. Gärtner had played all five competitive games on the middle runner position and proved to be the center of defense. In the 2-1 semi-final success against the top team of Dresdner SC, the test against the DSC inner storm with Heinrich Schaffer , Fritz Machate and Helmut Schön was successful. In the final in Stuttgart, however, the head of defense could not prevent the narrow assertion of the blue-yellow Vienna around the two outstanding half-strikers Karl Decker and Rudolf Noack .

The man from Frankfurt and his playmates belonged to the Gauliga Hamburg with the LSV in the 1943/44 season . The selection trained by ex-national player Karl Höger won the championship in Hamburg with 35: 1 points and 117: 13 goals. On January 16 and March 19, 1944, the LSV and the Rote Jäger soldiers carried out two propaganda games in Hamburg. In January the LSV lost 2: 3 goals, in the second leg they took revenge with a 5: 1 win.

The unrivaled team in Hamburg, due to numerous player commitments from all over the Reich - including Willy Jürissen , Robert "Zapf" ​​Gebhardt , Ludwig Janda , Karl Miller , Heinz Mühle , Reinhold Munzenberg , Walter Ochs and Jakob Lotz - defeated the German team in the final round Championship one after the other Wehrmacht-SV Celle (4: 0), SpVgg Wilhelmshaven 05 (1: 1 after extra time and 4: 2), war syndicate Duisburger SpV and TuS 48/99 Duisburg (3: 0) and Heeres-SV Groß Born (3: 2) and was thus in a final again after the cup final of the previous year. In front of 70,000 spectators in Berlin on June 18, 1944, it was not enough to win the title this year: the defending champion Dresdner SC took revenge for the semi-final defeat in the Tschammer Cup and clearly beat LSV Hamburg 4-0. The quality of the DSC attack, grouped around old master Richard Hofmann , could not stand up to the LSV defense in the course of the game in the second half. Gärtner had played five finals for the military team as a middle runner and only missed the replay against Wilhelmshaven due to an injury.

After 1945

After the end of the Second World War, Gärtner returned to his hometown of Frankfurt. On November 4, 1945, the first season of the Oberliga Süd kicked off under the adventurous conditions of the post-war period. Gärtner was able to complete two games and score one goal for FSV Frankfurt in the debut season 1945/46 . For the 1946/47 season, the powerful and massive middle runner, who was able to set accents in both forward and backward movements, joined Eintracht Frankfurt . Both games against the rivals from Bornheimer Hang, FSV, ended in a draw (1: 1/2: 2). In the season of 20 Gärtner played 36 league games for Eintracht. The home game against champions 1. FC Nürnberg (62:14 points - 108: 31 goals) ended on December 1, 1946 in front of 35,000 spectators with a 1-1 draw. Gärtner had led the Eintracht defense in front of goalkeeper Anton Turek with the support of the outside runners Adolf Schmidt and Erwin Schädler against the goal-threatening "club attackers" Max Morlock (25 goals) and Hans Pöschl (38 goals). Gärtner and his teammates took third place with Eintracht. In his second league season with Eintracht, the team from Riederwald was no longer in the top group, they came in 10th and Gärtner had scored two goals in 32 games. The Eintracht stopper belonged to the line-up of the southern German selection for the representative game on May 19 in Frankfurt against the selection from Northwest. He was not used, Georg Kennemann from 1. FC Nürnberg was the head of defense of the South, which won 2-1 goals.

Gärtner and Eintracht started the 1948/49 season on September 11, 1948 with a 1-1 draw at the Karlsruhe district club VfB Mühlburg . Center runner Gärtner had equalized in the 59th minute of the game. After two more games against BC Augsburg and VfB Stuttgart, "Heini" Gärtner ended his activity at Eintracht after a total of 71 league appearances with three goals and joined the league competitor in Mühlburg with immediate effect. He made his debut with his new club on October 24, 1948 in a 4: 4 away draw against 1860 Munich, where he introduced himself with a goal. On January 23, 1949, he won the away game with VfB 1-0 at Eintracht Frankfurt. Together with the pair of outside runners Max and Eugen Fischer , the defense chief kept the Eintracht offensive in check. In 27 games he scored six goals for Mühlburg and the Karlsruhe team finished ninth. In his second year, 1949/50, he improved to seventh place with Mühlburg, and Eintracht was able to avoid relegation as 14th.

With third place in the 1950/51 season , the 32-year-old experienced his best placement with VfB Mühlburg. After the preliminary round, the Karlsruhe team led the table in the Oberliga Süd. The home defeats in the top game on March 26, 1951 against 1. FC Nürnberg (3: 4) and on April 21 against FC Schweinfurt 05 (1: 3) prevented entry into the final round of the German championship. With Herbert Dannenmeier and Heinz Trenkel , "Heini" Gärtner formed one of the best runners in the Oberliga Süd. The middle runner scored three goals in 31 league games. On November 12, 1950, he came in Frankfurt in the South German selection in the representative game against West Germany for use. In the 5-4 success, the southern German runner row with Dannenmeier, Gärtner and Karl Barufka fought the West German inner trio with Alfred Preißler , Karl Hetzel and Hans Schäfer . After a total of 87 league appearances with 16 goals for Mühlburg, Gärtner joined the western league club Alemannia Aachen for the 1951/52 season .

The “Colorado beetles” from the Tivoli stadium had only been able to secure their relegation in the Bundesliga West in 1950/51 with a 5-1 win in the decider against Borussia Mönchengladbach. With 36:24 points, Alemannia achieved third place in 1951/52 with the new stopper. "Heini" Gärtner had scored eleven goals in 28 league games. The home game against the champions Rot-Weiss Essen was won in November 1951 with 3-1 goals. Jupp Derwall distinguished himself as a two-time goalscorer and the defensive around defensive boss Gärtner successfully fought the dangerous attackers from RWE with Helmut Rahn , Bernhard Termath and August Gottschalk . In his second season, 1952/53, Aachen took fifth place and the native of Frankfurt had scored two goals in 26 games. With his use on the last day of the round, April 26, 1953, in the 3-1 home win against Fortuna Düsseldorf, the 34-year-old veteran said goodbye to the Oberliga and Aachen and moved to Hassia Bingen .

Finale

With the club from the Nahe estuary, the red and black from Hassia Bingen, he played from 1953 to 1956 in the second division of the 2nd Southwest League. After relegation with the club from the Büdesheim stadium to the amateur camp, Gärtner ended his high-class playing career.

In later years he worked as a coach in the amateur field, for example from 1966 to 1968 with the old master Karlsruher FV in the 1st amateur league North Baden.

successes

• 1939/40 promotion to the Gauliga Südwest, Main-Hessen relay with Germania 94 Frankfurt
• 1943 finalist in the Tschammer Cup with LSV Hamburg
• 1944 Champion of the Gauliga Hamburg and finalist for the German championship with LSV Hamburg

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hardy Greens : Legendary Football Clubs. Hesse. Between FC Alsbach, Eintracht Frankfurt and Tuspo Ziegenhain. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2005, ISBN 3-89784-244-0 , p. 250.
2. ^ Andreas Meyer, Volker Stahl, Uwe Wetzner: Football Lexicon Hamburg . Die Werkstatt , Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89533-477-1 , p. 210-211 (396 pages).
3. ^ Hans Dieter Baroth : kick-off in ruins. Football in the post-war period and the first years of the upper leagues South, Southwest, West, North and Berlin. Klartext Verlag. Essen 1990. ISBN 3-88474-454-2 . P. 18.

literature

• Lorenz Knieriem, Hardy Grüne : Player Lexicon 1890 - 1963 . In: Encyclopedia of German League Football . tape 8 . AGON, Kassel 2006, ISBN 3-89784-148-7 .
• Werner Skrentny (Ed.): When Morlock still met the moonlight. The history of the Oberliga Süd 1945–1963. Klartext, Essen 1993, ISBN 3-88474-055-5 .
• Uwe Nuttelmann (Ed.): The German League Football 1903-2010, Nuttelmann-Verlag, Jade 2010.