Helmut Kafka

Helmut Kafka (born July 17, 1940 in Peiskretscham / Tost-Gleiwitz district ) is a former German soccer player and coach who played 68 games in the Bundesliga from 1965 to 1968 as a member of the Karlsruher SC .

career

Youth, Amateur and Regionalliga Nord, until 1965

Helmut Kafka was born in Upper Silesia and grew up after the expulsion with his mother and two sisters - the father was killed in the war - in Borgstede , Lower Saxony , in the Jade Bay region . As a schoolboy he gained football experience in the youth departments of TuS Borgstede, during his three-year apprenticeship from 1954 to 1957 at DJK Essen-Heisingen and after returning to the Jade region at Germania Wilhelmshaven . With the Red-Whites from the Siebethsburg district , the strong, powerful and sprinting attacker played in the first team at the age of 17.

In particular, the local derbies against TSR Olympia Wilhelmshaven regularly caused stadiums to be sold out in the Lower Saxon amateur Oberliga West from 1957 to 1962. But the games against Germania Leer and Kickers Emden also attracted the fans in droves to the “Black Earth” during this phase. Due to the geographical location of Wilhelmshaven , the young player was confronted with Dutch football during his time at Germania through frequent friendlies. When in 1959, with player- coach Gerhard Ihns - a former league player at Eimsbütteler TV, 1. FC Köln, Hamburger SV, FK Pirmasens, VfB Oldenburg - a new man became responsible for sporting development at Germania, the young winger received the first invitation for the Lower Saxony Association selection. In the regional cup game on October 3, 1959 in Hanover against Schleswig-Holstein, he stormed alongside Joachim Thimm and Horst Wilkening , both players of Arminia Hanover. With fourth place in the 1960/61 season, Germania placed for the first time in the then highest amateur class in Lower Saxony before local rivals TSR Olympia and repeated this success in 1961/62 with third place behind champion Arminia Hannover and runner-up SSV Delmenhorst. The ambitious young footballer Helmut Kafka tried to climb the next step on the football career ladder in the 1962/63 round by moving to the north upper division Werder Bremen .

On the Weser he won with the Werder amateurs in 1963 under the guidance of trainer Fred Schulz and at the side of his son Hans Schulz, the runner-up in the amateur league Bremen. Kafka was presented with a contract offer by SV Werder for the 1963/64 round, but at the same time the new coach Willi Multhaup from Schwarz-Weiß Essen brought in Theo Klöckner, another winger, to the Weser, where there were already prominent competitors in Klaus Hänel and striker Dieter Meyer for the young talent was available. This personal situation prompted Kafka to instead sign a contract with SV Arminia Hannover in the second division below the Bundesliga, the newly created Regional Football League North .

Kafka made his debut in Hanover at the start of the round on August 11, 1963 in a 0-0 home draw in the stadium at Bischofsholer Damm against VfL Oldenburg on the left wing in the Regionalliga. He scored his first goal on matchday two, in the 5-2 away win of coach Fritz Schollmeyer's team at Concordia Hamburg . The round was characterized by the fight at the top of the table for two places to move into the promotion round to the Bundesliga. Together with city rivals Hannover 96 as well as St. Pauli , Altona 93 and Holstein Kiel , the green-white-green “blues” were intensely involved in this sporting competition. Since next to Kafka, the other newcomer Uwe Witt also proved to be a reinforcement and with Werner Lyzio and especially on the offensive with Gerhard Elfert , Willi Langemann , Dieter Perau and the 30-time goal scorer Lothar Ulsaß, the Arminen had first-class player material, the move had in the promotion round top priority. Although the Arminen achieved a 2-1 success in front of 35,000 spectators in the Lower Saxony Stadium on October 27, 1963 - left wing Kafka scored the 2-0 lead - against local rivals Hannover 96, but coach Schollmeyer was already on December 1 through the long-standing top division player Robert Pluta replaced because the achievement of the sporting goal was seen as jeopardized. By the two defeats in the second round to eventual champion St. Pauli and Vice Hannover 96 - the "Reds" sat in the promotion round by and got into the Bundesliga - occupied Kafka and colleagues with 45:23 points on broadcast the third rank. The man from the Jade Region had scored nine goals in 32 appearances and was one of the Arminia regulars.

The second attempt to get into the promotion round was made by Arminia with Kafka in 1964/65 under the new coach Horst Witzler , but had to do without the goals and assists of Lothar Ulsaß, who had signed a contract with Bundesliga club Eintracht Braunschweig . The championship race, however, developed into a solo effort by Holstein Kiel. The “Storks” won the title in the north with ten points ahead of defending champion St. Pauli. The Altonaer FC 93 and Arminia Hannover landed one and two points behind in the places. Kafka had completed all 32 round matches and scored three goals. The change in position from October 1964 to the left defensive role had contributed significantly to the reduced goal yield of the athletic player. In addition to the two successes against St. Pauli, the home wins against Altona and Meister Kiel also stood out in this round. Kafka experienced special features in the 4-1 win against Altona on January 3, 1965 through the broken finger of Arminia goalkeeper Henke in the 13th minute and his subsequent appearance in the attack with two goals and the 10-0 runaway victory in March 1965 against the relegated lawn sport Harburg. On the occasion of its 60th birthday, the North German Football Association held the delightful game “Bundesliga North” against “Regionalliga North” in April 1965 in Hamburg am Rothenbaum. Klaus-Peter Kirchrath looked after the team in the Regionalliga. Kafka as left defender, Arminia teammates Uwe Witt as left winger and Gerhard Elfert on left winger made an excellent impression in the surprising 3-1 success of the regional league selection. In the sport magazine it is noted about the game “that the spectators experienced a great game, an excellent football match with wonderful moves, thrilling goal scenes and brilliant goals; the contract players from the regional league clubs deservedly won 3-1. ”On the defensive, Kafka and Witt faced Juhani Peltonen and Lothar Ulsaß on the right wing of the Bundesliga team.

After the round, the Arminia players Elfert signed in Mönchengladbach, Witt in Kiel and Kafka preferred the offers from Eintracht Braunschweig, Hamburger SV and Borussia Mönchengladbach - coach Hennes Weisweiler preferred fast, dynamic attackers on the flanks - the contract offer of the Baden Bundesliga club Karlsruher SC and moved to the fan-shaped city with his family in the summer of 1965.

Karlsruhe, 1965 to 1970

In Karlsruhe, before the third Bundesliga round in 1965/66, an attempt was made to improve the sporting substance with the newcomers Heinz Crawatzo , Arthur Dobat , Walter Rauh and the husband of Arminia Hannover so that one was not involved again in the fight for relegation ranks would. Kafka made his debut at the start of the round on August 14, 1965, in the away game against Tasmania 1900 Berlin, in the Bundesliga. Coach Helmut Schneider had formed the defense with goalkeeper Manfred Paul , the defender couple Horst Saida and Kafka, as well as with the runner row Heinz Crawatzo, Willi Rihm and Gustav Witlatschil . Walter Rauh and above all the undisputed top performer “Jupp” Marx had to make do with the substitute bench. The "Hertha BSC replacement", Tasmania 1900, had strengthened itself at short notice with Horst Szymaniak , who returned from Italy , but the third of the Berlin regional round 1964/65 - behind champions tennis Borussia and Spandauer SV - had no realistic chance of staying in the league to. In front of 81,000 spectators in the Olympic Stadium, after two goals in the second half by Wulf-Ingo Usbeck , the Berlin team surprisingly got the first pair of points in the Bundesliga. Kafka and colleagues were unlucky that the former master coach of the Oberliga era, Helmut Schneider, but also the Karlsruhe Presidium, could not adjust to the new challenges of concentration by the Bundesliga in the necessary hurry. In terms of administration and training, the KSC failed to make the transition in the 1960s from the manageable and predictable regional soccer league south to the single-track soccer league as a condensed top performance in German soccer. In addition, there was also the self-inflicted problem that there was no clear line in the sports management with the goalkeepers. Regular goalkeeper Paul came on 21, Erich Wolf on seven and Siegfried Kessler on six appearances in this round.

Kafka, Dobat and Rauh were the hoped-for reinforcements and the KSC ended up just on the saving 16th place despite the bad starting situation and weak 35:71 goals and 24:44 points. But only the two relegated Neunkirchen and Tasmania Berlin had received more goals than the Wildparkelf. Helmut Schneider was dismissed on October 18, 1965 and replaced on October 19 by the former KSC top division player Werner Roth . In the away games, the KSC was simply not competitive with 2:32 points and also had two depressing slips with 2: 8 and 0: 8 goals against MSV Duisburg and Hamburger SV. The lifeline was the 22:12 points in the local Wildpark Stadium , where the blue-whites also beat the top teams of TSV 1860 Munich (1: 1), Borussia Dortmund (0: 0) and with a 1: 0 victory against FC Bayern Munich could score. In his first year in the Bundesliga, Kafka played 24 league games for Karlsruhe.

The second Bundesliga series, 1966/67 , was Kafka's best result in Karlsruhe with 28 league appearances and 13th place in the table with the KSC. But this lap was also turbulent at the Adenauerring . With the prominent new signings of Dragoslav Šekularac and Christian Müller as well as the other players Lars Granström , Jürgen Weidlandt and Friedhelm Strzelczyk , expectations arose in the wildlife park for the first time, which was not only articulated on the fan side with relegation, but was financially clear within the team Two-class society cemented. Again, the sports management did not succeed in bringing the KSC team to the start in a physically, conditionally, playful and also interpersonal functioning perspective with Bundesliga level, through a planned preparation period that was adapted to the latest findings in training theory. After five games, the KSC was again at the bottom of the table with 1: 9 points. Kafka suffered an injury in the 1-0 defeat on September 17, 1966 at promoted Fortuna Düsseldorf and was therefore unable to play the next six game days. He returned to the debut of the new coach Paul Frantz , on November 5, 1966, in the 3-0 defeat at 1860 Munich back in the team. From the twelfth to the 34th matchday he then played all rounds in a row and was one of the top performers of the KSC-Elf, who in the second half of the season with 32:28 goals and 18:16 points still played up to 13th place in the final classification could. In the back series, the offensive strength of the Karlsruhe defenders Eugen Ehmann and Helmut Kafka was one of the cornerstones of the sporting success in Karlsruhe and made a name for themselves in the Bundesliga. Outstanding were the successes against Borussia Dortmund, Fortuna Düsseldorf, Werder Bremen, MSV Duisburg, Schalke 04 and especially against the German champions of 1966, TSV 1860 Munich, as well as on matchday 31 with a 3-0 home win against the new title holder Eintracht Braunschweig.

In the season 1967/68 one went in Karlsruhe with the returnee Günter Herrmann from Schalke and the French national left winger Gérard Hausser . Horst Wild , the dangerous midfielder from within their own ranks, was allowed to move to MSV Duisburg. The former youth national team finished seventh with the "Zebras" and scored ten goals in 31 league games for the Wedau-Elf. In the coaching area, Paul Frantz and Georg Gawliczek, two contradicting experts, were installed - but with that, there were also homemade problems of internal coordination and skills right from the start. The nine-time national player Herrmann - still a noble technician, but not a driver and leader - could not build on his performance at Schalke 04 and thus let the gap created by the departure of Wild become unexpectedly large. Hausser was too "good" for the Bundesliga and did not pose a threat to goals, Christian Müller's bruised knee was increasingly noticeable and Hans Cieslarczyk's career was clearly drawing to a close. As a result, the KSC had a clear problem on the offensive. Since Helmut Kafka was only able to play 16 out of 34 games due to a ligament rupture in his shoulder joint, the solid defense of the successful second half of the 1966/67 season was blown up. In addition, the recognized goalkeeper Siegfried Kessler was replaced by the 19-year-old talent Jürgen Rynio without necessity. The unfortunate behavior of those responsible for the club in the "coaching carousel" - Paul Frantz, who stood for future-oriented team management and training content, was replaced by Georg Gawliczek on October 25, 1967, and former national player Bernhard Termath took over as the season's third trainer on February 10, 1968 Wildpark - but ultimately led the Karlsruher SC primarily to the second division of the Regionalliga Süd after the 1967/68 round . Helmut Kafka went to the second division with Karlsruhe and tried his hand at the "immediate return" of KSC to the Bundesliga together with the new coach Kurt Baluses .

With the goals of the Meiderich returnees Horst Wild (17), the entry from Osnabrück by TuS Haste, Theo Menkhaus (16) and the goal scorer Christian Müller (23), KSC secured the championship in 1968/69 tied ahead of Freiburg FC Regional league south. Kafka injured his shoulder again in the second half of the top match against the team from the Möslestadion on March 1, 1969 and was unable to complete the remaining rounds and thus only made 24 missions. In the promotion round - the KSC started on May 24, 1969 with a 5-0 home win against Tasmania 1900 Berlin - he played again after a two-and-a-half-month break and played all eight games against the rivals Rot-Weiss Essen , VfL Osnabrück , Tasmania Berlin and TuS Neuendorf. His duels against Herbert Weinberg from newly promoted RWE and Willi Mumme from VfL Osnabrück stood out in the personal balance .

The fifth season in Karlsruhe, the regional league round 1969/70 , ended for Helmut Kafka after the fourth match day, on August 30, 1969. After the 0-0 draw at Freiburg FC - he defended with Ehmann, Weidlandt and Groppe in front of goalkeeper Kessler - he ended his active playing career at the age of 29 due to the recurring shoulder injury - this also not insignificant in view of his employment in School service - forced. From 1965 to 1969 he played 68 Bundesliga games, 27 regional league games, eight promotion round games and four DFB Cup games for Karlsruher SC.

Trainer

Kafka, who has been employed as a teacher for technology and sports in the school service since 1968, has been the "trainer of countless North Baden young footballers" for over 30 years in association services. In addition, from 1971 to 2006 he was an honorary coach at the Badischer Fußballverband (BFV) in the Schöneck sports school in Karlsruhe-Durlach as a junior sports teacher. He has won many championship titles from DFB and SFV junior tournaments on Karlsruhe's Turmberg. Later national players - Paul Steiner , Bernd Förster , Karlheinz Förster , Uwe Rahn , Jürgen Kohler , Maurizio Gaudino , Oliver Kahn , Mehmet Scholl , Christian Wörns - were decisively supported and shaped by him. From Herbert Widmayer to Pál Csernai , Rolf Schafstall , Philipp Rohr , Horst Gröhnke and Jörg Daniel to Roland Reichel , Helmut Kafka has experienced and supported no fewer than seven association sports teachers in the BFV service.

The football specialist, who found his new home in Linkenheim-Hochstetten with his family - wife Ruth with daughter and son - dedicated himself to the youth work, "to give back what I got myself, but also had to work hard for myself". First he got a taste of the coaching business as a district exercise leader in Karlsruhe, was also active in the Baden amateur area at the clubs FV Linkenheim, FC Germania Friedrichstal , VfB Bruchsal (today 1. FC Bruchsal ) and FC Huttenheim, and then fully trained the BFV youth prescribe. Kafka also derived the fundamental change in youth training from the slogan “only play from eleven at eleven”, which has been in effect since 1995, according to which e-youngsters play seven to seven on half a playing field, and noted that “more and more people were working with the ball . With the system change in football, the training content has of course also changed. "

From 1971 to 2006, Helmut Kafka was a guarantor of stable value, professional and human quality and a constant, competent contact person for players, coaches and clubs in youth football in northern Baden. Now as a pensioner (2009), he has long since settled in Baden and supports the TSG Hoffenheim youth academy with his scouting activities. Even today he can be found on many sports fields in the region with a pen and notepad to jot down the names of the young talents.

literature

• Uwe Nuttelmann (Ed.), Regionalliga Nord and Süd 1963-1974, Jade, 2002, ISBN 3-930814-28-5
• Ulrich Homann (Ed.), Höllenglut an Himmelfahrt. The history of the promotion rounds to the Bundesliga 1963-1974. Klartext-Verlag, Essen 1990, ISBN 3-88474-346-5 .
• Matthias Weinrich: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 3: 35 years of the Bundesliga. Part 1. The founding years 1963–1975. Stories, pictures, constellations, tables. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 1998, ISBN 3-89784-132-0 .
• Matthias Kropp, Germany's major soccer teams, part 11: Karlsruher SC, AGON Sportverlag, 1998, ISBN 3-89609-115-8
• BFV (Ed.), 50 Years of the Badischer Fußballverband 1946-1996, Karlsruhe, 1996
• NFV (Ed.), 50 Years of the Lower Saxony Football Association 1946-1996, Barsinghausen, 1996

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sports magazine. Olympia Publishing House. No. 17. Volume 20th edition A. Date April 20, 1965. P. 24
2. ↑ BFV (ed.), 50 Years of the Badischer Fußballverband 1946-1996, Karlsruhe, 1996, page 133