Josef Posipal

Jupp Posipal
Jupp Posipal, 1953
Personnel
Surname	Josef Posipal
birthday	June 20, 1927
place of birth	Lugoj ,  Romania
date of death	February 21, 1997
Place of death	Hamburg ,  Germany
position	Defense
Juniors
Years	station
1943-1944	TSV Badenstedt
1945-1946	Blau-Weiß Wölpinghausen
1946	SV Linden 07
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1946-1949	SV Arminia Hanover	42 (17)
1949-1958	Hamburger SV	250 (13)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1951-1956	Germany	32 0(1)
1 Only league games are given.

Autograph from Josef Posipal

Josef "Jupp" Posipal (born June 20, 1927 in Lugoj , Romania , † February 21, 1997 in Hamburg ) was a German football player . From 1947 to 1958 he played a total of 292 games in what was then the first-class soccer Oberliga Nord for the clubs Arminia Hannover (42-17) and Hamburger SV (250-13), in which he scored 30 goals. He also played in 1947 for SV Linden 07 - a sports club from Hanover .

Posipal played mostly as a middle runner in the World Cup system ; after his use in 1953 in the European selection against England he was called "the continent stopper"; In 1954 he won the world championship title with the German national soccer team in Switzerland .

career

youth

His father Peter Posipal was born in Lugosch and ran a bakery there, his mother Anna Maria (née Hillier) came from Darova . The son of the Danube Swabian baker grew up in the Romanian Banat not far from Temesvar . The half-orphan - his father died early - attended the German grammar school in Lugoj until 1942. His first club was Vulturii Lugosch; however, the student was an all-round athlete and practiced the sport in a variety of ways. In winter he was skiing and ice skating alongside handball and table tennis, in summer he was a swimmer and athlete. When young “ ethnic Germans ” had to either go to the Wehrmacht or “ home to the Reich ” at the request of the Nazi rulers , the 16-year-old Posipal left his homeland and moved to Germany. In Wülfel near Hanover he learned the trade of precision mechanic in an armaments factory, he was housed in the youth hostel and in a warehouse.

In Hanover he came into close contact with football and played first in the works team, then in the “White Eagles” eleven, from 1943 at the Badenstedter Sportclub (BSC) and until 1947 at SV Linden 07 .

Oberliga Nord, 1947 to 1958

When the Second World War ended, he received a letter from his mother from his old homeland in Romania. She advised the son to stay in Germany because the Romanian Germans were deported to the Soviet Union for forced labor . After the war, Posipal had played several times for Blau-Weiß Wölpinghausen in the Schaumburger Land under the pseudonym Berwanger . With Linden 07 he originally won third place in the Lower Saxony Oberliga, Group South, in 1946/47, so that Linden would have qualified for the Northern Football League, which started in the 1947/48 season. After several protests and replays, Linden was ousted by Hannover 96 and Posipal joined the second league starter from Hannover, SV Arminia.

With the "blues" he finished seventh in a 12-man squadron in 1948, scoring twelve goals in 20 missions and the city rival Hannover 96 relegated to the amateur camp. In total, he completed 42 league games for Arminia between 1947 and 1949 and scored 17 goals. In the then 12-man squadron, he still mainly acted in the attack. His great sponsor was Arminia trainer Georg Knöpfle , who took him to Hamburger SV in 1949 . In May 1949 Posipal was next to Arminia teammate Fritz Apel in the Lower Saxony selection against the English professional team from Rotherham United, in the game won with 5-1 goals.

In the "Rothosen" category, the newcomer from Hanover immediately played all 30 league games in the 1949/50 season. Coach Knöpfle's team won the championship in the Oberliga Nord with a nine-point lead over FC St. Pauli, and Posipal immediately belonged to the circle of top performers around Edmund Adamkiewicz , Heinz Bung Bottle , Erich Ebeling , Heinz Trenkel , Herbert Wojtkowiak and Walter Warning . In the last round match, runner-up St. Pauli was relegated to their place on April 30, 1950 in front of 25,000 spectators with 6-0 goals. Immediately afterwards a trip to America followed, from which the HSV delegation did not return until May 26th. Two days later, on May 28, HSV won the first game in the final round of the German championship with 7-0 goals against Union Oberschöneweide. The exhausting weeks overseas made themselves felt in the 3-2 defeat on June 4, 1950 in Düsseldorf against Kickers Offenbach. After a 2-0 half-time lead by the north champions, the players around Horst Buhtz prevailed in the second half and the final round was over for Posipal and colleagues.

The connection between Posipal and Hamburger SV became a success story, outstanding in the Oberliga Nord, where the man from the Banat was able to celebrate eight championships in nine rounds. But also the finals in 1956 in the DFB Cup and in 1957 and 1958 in the finals of the German soccer championship were confirmation of the national class for the "eleven with the diamond". His sporting ability in connection with his pronounced gift for integration made him much more than just a respected expert on the pitch, especially when it came to integrating the young players Horst Schnoor , Uwe Seeler , Klaus Stürmer , Jürgen Werner , Gerhard Krug and Uwe Reuter .

He played his last competitive game for Hamburger SV on May 18, 1958 in Hanover against FC Schalke 04 in front of 80,000 spectators in the Lower Saxony Stadium in the final of the German championship. The 3-0 defeat was painful, but on August 6, 1958, he said goodbye to Spartak Prague in front of his Hamburg fans. His association honored him with the highest honor, the "Golden Ring of Honor" and an honorary contract. He then became team manager and was described by Klaus Stürmer as “our good spirit in the dressing room”. Later, Posipal also worked as a trainer at Germania Schnelsen.

After 250 league games (13 goals), 38 appearances in the final round of the German championship (2 goals) and 16 games in the DFB Cup (2 goals) for Hamburger SV, the "continent stopper" ended his career in the summer of 1958.

National team, 1951 to 1956

From 1951 to 1956 Posipal played 32 times for Germany and scored one goal. At the latest after his use in the representative game on October 2, 1949 in Munich in the north selection against southern Germany (2: 2) and his participation in the DFB's first post-war course from November 14 to 19 in the same year, he was in Sepp Herberger's notebook written down. In the starting game of the national team after the Second World War, on November 22, 1950 in Stuttgart against Switzerland, he was unable to take part due to lack of personal papers and unclear nationality. The HSV player made his debut on June 17, 1951 in the friendly game in Berlin against Turkey in the team of national coach Herberger. He played right outside runner and next to him the other newcomers Hans Haferkamp , Werner Kohlmeyer , Werner Liebrich and Erich Schanko came into the DFB-Elf for the first time in the 1: 2 defeat. In his sixth international match, on May 4, 1952 in Cologne against Ireland, he gave the German team a 1-0 lead in a 3-0 win with a goal in the 31st minute.

He was on the German team in all four qualifying games for the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland against Norway and Saarland; including on November 22, 1953 in Hamburg at home in a 5-1 win in the second leg against Norway. A month earlier, on October 21, 1953, he was appointed to the 90th anniversary of the English Football Association as the only German in the European selection who was able to wrest a 4: 4 from England at Wembley Stadium. He formed the runner row of the continent selection with Zlatko Čajkovski and Ernst Ocffekt .

At the World Cup tournament, he played five games. For the first time in the sovereign 6-1 success in the semifinals against Austria, he acted in the right defender position. He performed the same task in the final on July 4th in Bern, when the team of national coach Herberger won the final of the soccer world championship with a 3-2 victory over Hungary .

In Hanover, the starting point of his footballing career in the Federal Republic, Posipal ended his national team career on September 15, 1956 with his 32nd international match. With goalkeeper Fritz Herkenrath , the defender couple Karl Schmidt and Erich Juskowiak , as well as the two outside runners Horst Eckel and Herbert Erhardt , he formed in the 1: 2 defeat against the Soviet Union - with Lev Jashin , Igor Netto , Valentin Ivanov , Eduard Strelzow - the German defensive. The national coach tried to incite the Hamburger to remain in the national team, as documented by his letter of September 24, 1956 to Leinemann, where he wrote: “Let me tell you, dear Jupp, that I still believe in you. Even if your performance is not so convincing and has the shine of earlier days. But it will be again, dear Jupp, and don't let God make you weak in your faith and confidence by bad reviews. Now there is only one thing: a defiant first right. ”But the professional demands took their toll, the“ continent ”stopper also ended his club career at Hamburger SV in the summer of 1958.

From 1950 to the 1954 World Cup final in Switzerland, the DFB had played 25 international matches. In the first two internationals after the end of World War II Posipal was absent due to a lack of personal papers, in 21 of 23 internationals he was on the field for the Herberger-Elf.

family

Posipal was married to a former HSV handball player and had two children. The former carpet seller worked from 1955 to 1993 as the North German general agent for a Coburg furniture company and lived with his family in the Hamburg district of Lokstedt. As an independent sales representative for the furniture company, he covered between 1,500 and 2,000 kilometers per week with the car in northern Germany. Both on the green grass and later in professional life, Posipal was solidity and reliability in person. After he retired, his son Peer Posipal (born July 3, 1962) took over his previous professional function. The former professional soccer player played 30 games (2 goals) for Eintracht Braunschweig in the Bundesliga . Grandson Patrick Posipal is also active as a football player.

Death and remembrance

Grave of Josef Posipal

Posipal died at the age of 69 in Hamburg in the intensive care unit of the University Hospital Eppendorf during a routine examination of heart failure. He was buried in the old Niendorf cemetery in Hamburg. On June 18, 2006, a memorial stone was unveiled in his honor in the Wölpinghausen district of Wiedenbrügge.

“He was unique and good-hearted”, Uwe Seeler praised the late world champion, “a role model for fairness and human qualities beyond the game.” Harry Behre found the following words: “A great person and a real role model, unbelievably modest and reserved. For us youngsters he was a fatherly friend. "

successes

• Eight championship wins in the Oberliga Nord with Hamburger SV
• 1956 DFB Cup final.
• Final for the German championship in 1957 and 1958.
• 32 international matches from 1951 to 1956.
• European selection 1953.
• World Champion 1954.

Honors

• 1954: silver laurel; Silver plaque of honor of the city of Munich; Silver Senate plaque of the city of Hamburg
• 1955: Golden badge of honor from the DFB
• 1955: Classification as world class in the ranking of German football
• 1958: Hamburger SV Golden Ring of Honor.

literature

• Werner Skrentny, Jens Reimer Prüß : With the diamond in the heart. The great history of Hamburger SV. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-89533-620-1 .
• Andreas Meyer, Volker Stahl, Uwe Wetzner: Football Lexicon Hamburg . Die Werkstatt , Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89533-477-1 (396 pages).
• Hans Vinke: Football legends. The golden era of Hamburger SV. 1947 to 1963. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2008, ISBN 978-3-89784-338-7 .
• Jens Reimer Prüß (Ed.): Bung bottle with flat pass cork. The history of the Oberliga Nord 1947–1963. Klartext, Essen 1991, ISBN 3-88474-463-1 .
• Lorenz Knieriem, Hardy Grüne : Player Lexicon 1890 - 1963 . In: Encyclopedia of German League Football . tape 8 . AGON, Kassel 2006, ISBN 3-89784-148-7 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Posipal wrote football history. In: Transylvanian newspaper. July 6, 2004.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Jürgen Bitter : Germany's national soccer player: the lexicon . SVB Sportverlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-328-00749-0 , p. 368 .
3. ↑ Skrentny, Prüß: With the diamond in the heart. 2008, p. 161.
4. ^ Lower Saxony Football Association (NFV): Football in Lower Saxony. 50 years of the Lower Saxony Football Association. Barsinghausen 1996, p. 18.
5. ↑ Werner Skrentny, Jens Reimer Prüß: Hamburger Sportverein. Always first class. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 1998, ISBN 3-89533-220-8 , p. 170.
6. ↑ Skrentny, Prüss: With the diamond in the heart. 2008, p. 459.
7. ^ Jürgen Leinemann: Sepp Herberger. One life, one legend. Rowohlt Verlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-87134-285-8 , p. 360.
8. ↑ Unveiling of a memorial stone for world champion Jupp Posipal on June 18, 2006. from: wiedenbruegge.net , accessed on July 21, 2011.
9. ↑ Skrentny, Prüß: With the diamond in the heart. 2008, p. 161.
10. ↑ Hans Vinke: The golden era of Hamburger SV 1947 to 1963. 2008, p. 38.
11. ↑ Honor by the Senate , report in the archive of the Hamburger Abendblatt (accessed on June 12, 2019)
12. ^ Fritz Tauber: German national soccer players. Player statistics from A to Z. Updated and advanced Edition. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2010, ISBN 978-3-89784-366-0 , p. 151.

Web link

Players A – Z (bung bottle) , visited on March 17, 2020