Heinz Baas

Heinz Baas (born April 13, 1922 , † December 6, 1994 ) was a German football player and coach . As a striker, the native Rhinelander completed a total of 174 games in the Oberliga Süd for Eintracht Frankfurt and Kickers Offenbach , in which he scored 73 goals. The high point of his playing career was the final of the German championship and the associated runner-up with the Kickers in 1950. Baas' around 20-year coaching career for higher-class teams began in 1959 at the major league club Mainz 05 , which was followed by several stations in Hesse and Baden from 1966 Associated clubs, including the regional or second division clubs FSV Frankfurt , KSV Hessen Kassel , Karlsruher SC and SC Freiburg . His greatest success as a coach was reaching the promotion round to the Bundesliga with KSC in 1973.

Career as a player

Heinz Baas, who came from the Rhineland, played for SV Solingen-Gräfrath and Duisburger SpV before moving to the southern upper division Eintracht Frankfurt in 1946 . If he only made seven appearances in his first season as a substitute player, the attacker who played on the left half had a regular place after the return of striker Edmund Adamkiewicz to Hamburg. However, Eintracht could no longer build on the performance of the 1946/47 season , after which it had occupied third place, the loss of the previous year's goalgetters was too heavy. In 1947/48 she found herself in the middle again, Baas contributed with 14 hits to reach tenth place. In the following year, 1948/49 , the "Adler" were in serious danger of relegation, which was mainly due to a poor number of goals: With only 28 goals, Eintracht was by far the weakest storm in the Oberliga Süd; Baas was Frankfurt's most successful goalscorer with just nine goals.

For the round 1949/50 Baas moved to league and local rivals Kickers Offenbach . The OFC had previously had a strong 1948/49 season under coach Paul Oßwald and, to the surprise of many, had become southern champions with an eleven point lead. In his first year in Offenbach with five goals in 20 games, Baas contributed to the fact that the Kickers qualified for the DM finals with a third place in 1950 . With victories over TeBe Berlin, Hamburger SV and Preußen Dellbrück, the leather townspeople reached the championship finals. There Baas played together with OFC star Horst Buhtz and the up-and-coming Gerhard Kaufhold in the striker row, but the final in front of 95,000 spectators in Berlin was lost 2-1 to VfB Stuttgart . This game was also the highlight of Heinz Baas' time in Offenbach, because Horst Buhtz's departure to VfB Mühlburg meant a bitter loss for the Oßwald-Elf, which was reflected in a disappointing 10th place in the 1950/51 round . After a total of four years, the now 31-year-old Baas left the club in the summer of 1953 to end his active career with the neighboring second division club SV Darmstadt 98 .

Heinz Baas was a fast, tricky and powerful striker, for the latter he was also called “hammer”. Overall, he came in the top division in seven years on 174 games and 73 goals, of which 74 games (27 goals) for the Eintracht and 100 games (46 goals) for the Kickers.

Stations

• SV Solingen-Graefrath
• Duisburg SpV
• 1946 to 1949: Eintracht Frankfurt
• 1949 to 1953: Kickers Offenbach
• from 1953: SV Darmstadt 98

Stations as a trainer

The trained sports teacher Baas had already acquired the trainer's license in 1952. He gained his first experience while still active as a supervisor for the youth teams of Offenbacher Kickers, then as coach of SC Olympia Lorsch , which he led in the Hessian national league in 1955. This was followed by a commitment to the Hessian amateur league team Olympia Lampertheim , but the Hessen champions of 1951 and 1952 were on the decline at this time and were relegated to the 2nd amateur league after the round in 1955/56.

FSV Mainz 05 (1959-1966)

The first coaching station at a higher-class club, the FSV Mainz 05 , should also be the longest engagement of the coach Heinz Baas. The seven years from 1959 to 1966 were also long records for coaching in Mainz until they were hired by Jürgen Klopp in 2008 . Baas took over the Mainz team playing in the Oberliga Südwest for the 1959/60 season and, based on the South American model, introduced a more modern, more flexible game system with an early form of the Libero (instead of the center-half tied to the opposing center forward) and a central midfielder with greater freedom. The league was dominated in these years by the teams from Kaiserslautern , Pirmasens , Neunkirchen and Saarbrücken . The 05ers rarely stood out from the crowd, but had nothing to do with the relegation either. The introduction of the Bundesliga in 1963 meant that the FSV inevitably switched to the second division, into the regional league, which was newly introduced as the "substructure" of the top division . Here, the Mainz team largely had to deal with the same opponents as before, but the economic circumstances had a rather negative effect on the regional league teams due to the league reform. In the first year the Mainz team did surprisingly well, at the end of 1963/64 they finished fourth, albeit with a clear gap to the top trio. In the following year, Baas and his team in the DFB Cup attracted attention when they eliminated two Bundesliga clubs in the first two rounds, Werder Bremen and 1860 Munich , and only failed in the quarter-finals; In the everyday regional league, however, they performed rather moderately and ended up in the midfield. Another strong season in 1965/66 followed in the league, at the end of which the Baas-Elf only missed the promotion round to the Bundesliga by two points and finished third. After seven years, the club's contract of the coach, who is popular with spectators and players but expensive, was not renewed.

FSV Frankfurt (1966–1968)

Heinz Baas left the Mainzer Bruchweg in the summer of 1966 after seven very successful years and joined the southern regional division FSV Frankfurt . At this point in time, the Bornheimers were in a phase marked by sporting failures and internal squabbles. Under the new President Gindorf, the highly indebted club, which had just escaped both relegation and bankruptcy, wanted to start a rebuilding under coach Baas with talents from the region. The young team showed fighting spirit and in the first year under Heinz Baas could easily keep the class with 13th place. The start of the 1967/68 round, however, started anything but promising: After seven games without a win, the path they had taken was called into question again, and coach Baas was also criticized. After the ex-trainer Bogdan Cuvaj returned to the Bornheimer Hang as "technical manager", people secretly hoped that Baas would voluntarily resign, as they shied away from being released from the current contract for financial reasons. However, Baas could not be disturbed and continued his work, which in turn caused disputes within the association over competencies and an angry departure from Cuvaj. At the end of the round it was clear that the FSV would be relegated to third class for the first time, and Baas said goodbye to Frankfurt.

SV Wiesbaden (1968–1969)

The sports teacher has now also switched to the third division and has taken on the position of coach at SV Wiesbaden . The team from the Hessian capital had just been relegated to the 1st amateur league Hessen after just one year of the regional league together with the FSV and, like the latter, had planned to get promoted again immediately. For the entire 1968/69 season, the two clubs fought head-to-head at the top of the table, at the end of which the Bornheimers were champions with 51:17 points ahead of SV Wiesbaden (49:19).

KSV Hessen Kassel (1969–1971)

After missing promotion with SVW, Baas moved back to the regional league. In the 1969/70 season he took over the coaching position at KSV Hessen Kassel . In the past few years, North Hesse had seldom got beyond a midfield position and was now aiming for one of the top ranks and the associated, financially lucrative promotion round for the Bundesliga. The top trio from Offenbach , Nuremberg and Karlsruhe left the competition far behind in this round and played the first three places among themselves. For the people of Kassel, the season was disappointing in terms of the goals set, they finished the round in seventh place.

For the 1970/71 season , Baas strengthened the squad with eight newcomers. However, the preliminary round was anything but optimal. In addition, there was already a scandal between Baas and some spectators at the home game against Opel Rüsselsheim in mid-September . After loud expressions of disapproval by fans in view of the team's weak attacking performance, Baas let himself be carried away after the opening goal to make it 1-0, which in turn led to violent reactions and discussions. Baas apologized publicly a few days later, but he didn't have much credit in Kassel. The criticism of coach Baas from the environment increased in the course of the round, in particular he was accused of overly defensive play of the team. At the end of the calendar year, the aspired promotion ranks had become a long way off, mainly due to the unsuccessful situation in foreign places, the only bright spot at the end of the year was the 2-2 draw in the DFB Cup home game against FC Bayern Munich . It was all the more surprising that the KSV increased in the course of the second half of the season and moved closer and closer to the top of the table. After a 2-0 win on matchday 35 in the Auestadion against second place in the table, Karlsruher SC, even the promotion round to the Bundesliga was back within reach; KSC was able to secure second place with a victory on the final day, while Hessen Kassel finished third, two points behind. Regardless, it was already clear before the end of the season that Heinz Baas would leave the club.

Karlsruher SC (1971–1973)

Heinz Baas took over the Karlsruher SC team from Kurt Baluses immediately after the last league matchday of the Regionalliga Süd . Baluses had coached the ex-Bundesliga club since he was relegated from the House of Lords in 1968 and has now made it into the promotion round for the third time in a row. Immediately after the league games ended on May 21, 1971, he was completely surprisingly dismissed by the KSC presidium and replaced by Baas. Despite the coaching change, the team had no chance in the promotion round, in addition to two defeats against promoted Bochum , who dominated through the goals of his star striker Hans Walitza , they were defeated in two more games, so that it was only fourth among five teams. Heinz Baas found himself in Karlsruhe in a situation he was already familiar with because it was typical for ambitious regional league players: the financial means were low, the expectations high. In addition to a series of injuries at the beginning of the 1971/72 regional league season , which forced experiments in the team line-up, there were human problems between Heinz Baas and Jürgen Weidlandt ("Because I wasn't a kisser, but expressed my opinion. You were allowed to have an opinion at Baas - but they do not utter. ”), which ultimately led to the exclusion of the tried and tested defensive line from the team. After a passable start to the season, the performance decreased more and more, so that soon the audience numbers also fell. When the number of regular players available shortly before the turn of the year continued to decrease after several expulsions and the broken arm of goalkeeper Rudi Wimmer , the desired second place was a long way off. Baas reacted to the sporting downturn with intensified training, but the team continued to play only mediocre and finished in a disappointing fifth place at the end of the round.

For the 1972/73 season there was a major change in the team structure of the Karlsruhe team, only ten players from last year's squad were also in the squad for the new season. Baas showed a lucky hand with the new signings, in particular the offensive forces Gerhard Faltermeier ( Jahn Regensburg ) and Roland Vogel ( VfB Knielingen ) provided a breath of fresh air in the wildlife park with their goals. Despite the successful season, coach Baas was neither within the team - Wilfried Trenkel, for example, later described him as "incredibly suspicious" - nor was he popular with the fans; some even threatened to blow up his home. At the end of the season, the KSC was only one point behind Master Darmstadt 98 in second place in the table and was thus qualified for the promotion round. Internally, however, there was a mighty crash in the framework of the club before it began: The head of the contract players' department had resigned from his position after he felt that his powers had been curtailed. After the promotion round was far from being enough for the hoped-for return to the Bundesliga - only two wins and two draws emerged from the eight games - the club management asked Baas for an interview. And the latter then asked for the early termination of his contract.

KSV Hessen Kassel (1973–1974)

On November 6, 1973 Heinz Baas returned to KSV Hessen Kassel. He replaced Willi Hellwig there, who had been dismissed after a miserable start to the season in the 1973/74 regional round and eleven games without a win. The North Hesse found themselves after years in the secured midfield with ambitions to the top now on the relegation ranks. However, Baas could not prevent relegation to the Hessenliga, so that his second engagement with KSV ended again after six months.

SV Wiesbaden (1974-1975)

The next stop of Baas was the SV Wiesbaden and thus again a club that he had already looked after. SVW, last year fourth in the amateur league Hessen, wanted to force promotion to the second division and even signed two former Bundesliga professionals with "Bubi" Hönig and Bernd Rupp . Under Heinz Baas, the promotion should now succeed, although the Hessenliga was much stronger than in the previous year due to the previous league reform (introduction of the 2nd Bundesliga ) with three relegated members from the regional league - FSV Frankfurt , VfR OLI Bürstadt and KSV Hessen Kassel . Nevertheless, Baas set the goal of “promotion to the second division this year or next”. At the end of the 1974/75 season, the three regional league relegated teams ran in the order mentioned on the first three places in the table and Wiesbaden only finished fifth, so that the season's goal was clearly missed. Heinz Baas was replaced by Erich Gebauer, but the following year the SVW did not get above fourth place. Another two years later, the Wiesbadeners were relegated from the Hessen League.

SC Freiburg (1978–1979)

At the end of September 1978 Heinz Baas took over a higher-class club with the second division newcomer SC Freiburg . He had previously looked after the Baden-Württemberg amateur top division club 1. FC Pforzheim and, after the eighth game day of the 1978/79 season, took over the sporting management of the SCF from promotion coach Manfred Brief , who did not have the required A-coaching license. At that time, Baas was based in Frankfurt am Main and commuted every day by train between Frankfurt and Freiburg. His "mission" with the South Baden team was to keep the newcomer from relegation, who had started the season very badly with four defeats in a row. Baas was the first to bring Volker Fass from VfL Osnabrück to Dreisam, with the signing of the Hungarian Gabor Zele from FSV Frankfurt as well as Alfred Steinkirchner and Siegfried Susser , two loans from Nuremberg, further reinforcements followed during the season. In the end, SC Freiburg came in 15th and, like local rivals Freiburg FC , who had been defeated 1-0 in the derby in the second half of the season, were able to hold onto the class. Baas left the club at the end of the season.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hardy Green , Lorenz Knieriem: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 8: Player Lexicon 1890–1963. Agon-Sportverlag, Kassel 2006, ISBN 3-89784-148-7 .
2. ↑ According to Matheja, Schlappekicker and Himmelsstürmer , Göttingen 2007, p. 355. Other statistics differ in the number of goals.
3. ^ Match report in the HNA from September 21, 1970
4. ↑ Peter Putzing: Back from the valley of tears. History and stories about the Karlsruher SC. Self-published by Karlsruher SC, Karlsruhe 2007, p. 74.
5. ↑ Peter Putzing: Back from the valley of tears. History and stories about the Karlsruher SC. Self-published by Karlsruher SC, Karlsruhe 2007, p. 78.
6. ↑ Robert Kauer (Ed.): Phenomenon Freiburg ., Freiburg 1993, p. 32