Karl Berndt

Karl Berndt (born January 17, 1898 in Berlin , † October 9, 1979 in Kaiserslautern ) was a German football player and coach .

Career

Karl Berndt, known as “Bübchen” in Berlin, was born the son of a railway official. In footballing terms, he was initially active in the North-Northwest Berlin Sports Association - in the 1921/22 season he played in the final round of the German Championship with the Berliners - and also played 22 times as a player for the Berlin city selection. From 1922 to 1924 he played for the club, which from 1922 was renamed SV Norden-Nordwest .

Later he came to the south-west of the German Reich and joined the VfR Kaiserslautern "after a short stopover in Neunkirchen" . In 1927 he moved to FV Kaiserslautern, which in 1929 merged with SV Phönix to form FVK-Phönix Kaiserslautern, from which 1. FC Kaiserslautern emerged in 1931 . With his team, Berndt was district champion several times. He was active as a player at 1. FCK until at least 1934.

The foundations for the first sporting successes that the FCK had from 1938 to 1943 were due to their coach Karl Berndt. In 1938 he took over as the successor to Maximilian Eduard Eheberg as coach at FCK, shortly after Fritz Walter joined the men's team. The FCK had just relegated to the district class. The fact that Karl Berndt himself was a former player of 1. FC Kaiserslautern enabled him to live the philosophy of the club and to develop a close relationship with his players. Berndt recognized the potential of the young players and integrated them more and more into the team, which brought a new upswing. The team rose, now with coach Karl Berndt, as champions of the district class directly. In the following season, the climber was instantly champion of the Gauliga Südwest / Saarpfalz group. In the finals of the area war championship you lost to the master of the Mainhessen group, Kickers Offenbach . There you could already see that new talents were maturing. After a second place in the next year, the second Gauliga championship followed in 1942. This took part in the so-called qualifying round of the final round of the German championship. There 1. FC Kaiserslautern Waldhof Mannheim defeated 7-1. In the round of 16 they lost to FC Schalke 04 3: 9. Nevertheless, the season could be seen as a great success. After more and more players were drafted into the Wehrmacht , the team's sporting record deteriorated. In 1943/44, the FCK was finally the last of the Gauliga Westmark . In the summer of 1944, Karl Berndt trained a war syndicate made up of players from the Kaiserslautern clubs 1. FC, VfR and TSG. There was no longer a regular league operation. During his time as coach of the FCK Berndt was supported by Peter Zängry , supervisor of the youth department and also a former player. With Fritz Walter , Ottmar Walter and Werner Kohlmeyer , three of the five future Lauterer world champions from 1954 made their debut for the first team of the FCK during Karl Berndt's tenure. 1. FCK became the most successful club in Germany in the following seasons.

After the war, Berndt was no longer the coach of 1. FC Kaiserslautern. Fritz Walter took over the office . Berndt became coach of VfR Kaiserslautern in 1949 as the successor to Fritz Walter, who briefly coached VfR in addition to his work at FCK.

In Kaiserslautern, Karl Berndt was also known by the nickname "Schwadder". His sons Werner and Kurt were also soccer players.

Web links

• Karl Berndt in the database of weltfussball.de (incomplete data)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ quoted from “Der Betze under the swastika”, p. 163.
2. ↑ Profile in the database of ludwigspark.de
3. ↑ Markwart Herzog: The "Betze" under the swastika - 1. FC Kaiserslautern in the time of National Socialism. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2006, pp. 163–166.

literature

• Markwart Herzog : The "Betze" under the swastika: 1. FC Kaiserslautern in the time of National Socialism. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-89533-541-X .
• Markus Röder: The statistics of 1. FC 1900 Kaiserslautern. M. Röder, Düsseldorf 1996.