Hermann Paul (soccer player)

Hermann Paul (born October 21, 1920 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf ) is a former German soccer player who was the top scorer in the Berlin City League in 1949 and 1954 .

career

Youth and World War II, 1930 to 1945

At the age of ten the career of the pupil Hermann “Manne” Paul began in the youth department of Wilmersdorfer SC . The technically very talented left-footer was an outstanding talent right from the start. He enthusiastically emulated his footballing role models “Hanne” Sobeck and “Hänschen” Appel , even though his father had played with the Berlin FC Vorwärts 1890 in 1921 until the final of the German championship. He learned the profession of clerk and switched to SG Edeka in Berlin in 1937, as he was not ready to join the Hitler Youth and thus at least be able to be active in this company sports group. With SG Edeka, he also played for the first time in the men's team in the district class from 1938. Due to the circumstances of the Second World War , he was in the labor service from October 1940 before he was drafted as a soldier and had to participate in the Russian campaign from 1941. On June 28, 1941 he was seriously injured by a shot in the head and was then in the hospital for about a year. In mid-1942 - on March 28, 1942, he had celebrated his wedding - he was called to arms again and transferred to southern France. This was followed by missions in Italy and at the turn of the year 1944/45 he was stationed on the Western Front, where he was also taken prisoner of war. In August 1945 he was released and returned to Berlin.

Post-war football in Berlin until 1951

In Berlin, the Allies ordered the establishment of communal sports groups for each area of ​​a city district, and only those who lived there were allowed to play in them. The former clubs were banned and the old classifications were also ignored. 36 newly formed sports groups - four relays with nine city district teams each - were allowed to play a championship in Berlin from January 6, 1946. "Manne" Paul, born in Wilmersdorf and now living here again, competed with SG Wilmersdorf - Wilmersdorf embodied roughly the Berliner SV 92 - and won the group in season A. In the final round, Wilmersdorf prevailed in a double round against the other three season winners Prenzlauer Berg-West , Staaken and Mariendorf and became the first Berlin champion after the war. The last game day in the final round was July 28, 1946. Before that, “Manne” Paul, mostly as the half-left, in the final of the Berlin Cup on March 17, 1946 against SG Tempelhof , with a 2-1 win after extra time celebrated the first triumph with his teammates. The combination player scored both goals with qualifications for Wilmersdorf. In the double winner, several players had known each other since childhood. In the attack, the master mostly appeared in the line-up with Martin Niedzwiadek, Walter Zunker, Heinz Nickel, "Manne" Paul and Günther Ritter. In the summer of 1946 the single-track Berlin City League was introduced with twelve clubs; it included all four sectors. With Köpenick , Lichtenberg and Stadtmitte three "clubs" from the Soviet part of Berlin were in the highest Berlin league. From the beginning, the 1946/47 round was characterized by the duel between the two teams from Wilmersdorf and Charlottenburg playing in the British sector. In the end, the team around center forward "Hanne" Berndt - the striker scores 53 goals - prevails over the team of "Manne" Paul and Heinz Nickel, who scored 18 and 16 respectively in the round, with a three point lead . Also in the Berlin Cup, from this round it was held under the name RIAS Cup, SG Wilmersdorf had to make do with second place. The men around the left half-striker Paul lost the final on February 9, 1947 at Gesundbrunnen in front of 12,000 spectators after extra time with 3: 4 goals against the second division club SG Oberschöneweide. The Wuhlheider rose to the 1947/48 round in the city league and in 1948 also won the Berlin championship before Wilmersdorf. In this round Paul had thirteen goals. The round was characterized by the "four-way battle" Oberschöneweide, Wilmersdorf, Charlottenburg and Prenzlauer Berg-West.

“ Years later, Hermann 'Manne' Paul, successful striker of the vice, is asked by the magazine 'Libero' about the expenses for the services: 'What fee did the players receive back then?' The sparse but truthful answer: 'No money, just one meal per game. "

The teams ended the 1948/49 season under the city district names that the Allies had forced upon them. The box office hits in Berlin of ruins were the fights between Wilmersdorf and Charlottenburg, but Oberschöneweide from the eastern part also lured the masses to the sidelines. Little by little the old club names came back. Wilmersdorf was again the Berliner SV 92 and won the championship title with 37: 7 points. "Manne" Paul contributed 20 goals for the team of coach Willi Kirsey and thus also became the top scorer in the Berlin city league. In the final round of the German football championship, however, the champions of West Germany, Borussia Dortmund , on June 12, 1949 in front of 50,000 spectators in the Olympic Stadium, clearly superior to the black-whites in the clear 5-0 defeat. The great technician and goalscorer Hermann Paul couldn't change that either.

In the last joint championship in Berlin, 1949/50, a new record was set with 978,400 spectators. The champions are tennis Borussia , Vice Union Oberschöneweide and BSV 92 finished in third place. Paul had scored 15 goals in 22 games. For round 1950/51, the DFB suggested that the contract player was introduced in Berlin. This was vehemently rejected by East Berlin. With that, the split in Berlin football was perfect. The Union Oberschöneweide team then "moved" to the western part of the city and adopted the status of contract players under the name SC Union 06 Berlin . In their new home Tiergarten in the Poststadion , Union 06 came second behind Tennis Borussia Berlin and, with Paul Salisch , was the top scorer in Berlin with 29 goals. “Manne” Paul finished fourth with the BSV 92. He played all 26 league games and scored twelve goals. For the round in 1951/52 he moved to Hertha BSC .

Relegation and again Berlin champion, 1951 to 1956

Under coach "Jupp" Schneider, Paul shot himself to second place in the scorers' list in 1951/52 with 18 hits, together with Kurt Wolff he ranked behind Horst Schmutzler from the champions Tennis Borussia, who scored 25 goals. The "Veilchen" led the table ahead of SC Union 06, BFC Viktoria 89 and Hertha BSC. In Hertha’s second year, 1952/53, everything went wrong at Gesundbrunnen: Hertha won just three out of 24 league games, gained six points from draw games and lost all the other 15 games. With 12:36 points, Hertha BSC rose from the bottom of the table from the Berlin City League. "Manne" Paul had played in 15 games and scored three goals. The 32-year-old then returned to BSV 92 in the summer of 1953.

With his "old love", the familiar surroundings gave him new impetus, he celebrated the Berlin championship in the 1953/54 season and also won the top scorer's crown with 19 goals. On November 8, 1953, 20,000 spectators celebrated the 2-0 victory against defending champions SC Union 06 in the Wilmersdorf stadium on Lochowdamm. In the 1954 football world championship in Switzerland, only a shortened final round of the German football championship was held. The BSV played in group I in two games against Hannover 96 and VfB Stuttgart . The future German champion Hannover 96 won on May 2, 1954 in front of 60,000 spectators in the Olympic Stadium against the Berlin champions with a goal in the 83rd minute with just 2-1 goals. The BSV took a storm with Horst Tessendorf, Gerd Blüchert, Dieter Karlsch, Paul and Günter Sendrowski . Seven days later, on May 9th, director and striker “Manne” Paul was absent from the second game against VfB Stuttgart due to an injury. With the catch-up game on April 29, 1956 against Union 06, "Manne" Paul ended his playing career at the age of 35. Again he had played 17 games for BSV 92 - the Wilmersdorfer finished third behind champions BFC Viktoria 1889 and SC Minerva 93 - and scored six goals. In the contract league Berlin Hermann Paul is statistically led from 1950 to 1956 with 119 games and 69 goals. After the end of his playing career, he played in the old men's team of BSV 92 for ten years.

Berlin city selection, 1946 to 1953

On April 19, 1946, Paul played in the first city game after the Second World War in the Berlin team, which won 2-1 goals against Dessau in front of 30,000 spectators at Gesundbrunnen . He also represented Berlin in the first away game on August 25, 1946, when Berlin lost 2: 6 goals in Dresden in front of 36,000 spectators in the Ostragehege . When Berlin lost in the all-German regional cup 1949/50 on September 18, 1949 in front of 75,000 spectators in the Olympic Stadium against the eventual winner Bavaria with 0-3 goals, he formed the left wing together with Gerhard Graf . In his last city game on December 25, 1953, Paul led the West Berlin team as captain to compare against the East Berlin team. The team of captain Horst Scherbaum prevailed with 3-2 goals.

Trainer

Immediately after the end of his playing career, he took over the BFC Alemannia 90 Berlin and immediately rose in the 1956/57 round in the Berlin City League. With the Alemannia he also moved into the final of the German amateur championship in this round. In the rounds of 1959/60 to 1962/63 he was in charge of BSV 92 and Spandauer SV in Berlin's highest league . In later years he had chosen gardening as a hobby.

literature

• Hans Dieter Baroth , "Kick off in ruins", football in the post-war period and the first years of the top leagues South, Southwest, West, North and Berlin, Klartext-Verlag, 1990, ISBN 3-88474-454-2 .
• Wolfgang Hartwig / Günter Weise, 100 years of football in Berlin, SVB Sportverlag, 1997, ISBN 3-328-00734-2 .
• LIBERO, No. 4, IFFHS, August-October 1989, pp. 17-20.
• Hardy Grüne , Lorenz Knieriem: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 8: Player Lexicon 1890–1963. Agon-Sportverlag, Kassel 2006, ISBN 3-89784-148-7 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans Dieter Baroth, "Anpfiff in ruins", football in the post-war period and the first years of the Oberligen Süd, Südwest, West, Nord and Berlin, p. 122.