Konrad Koch

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Portrait of Konrad Koch,
Carte de Visite by Jean Baptiste Feilner , around 1900

Wilhelm Carl Johann Konrad Koch (born February 13, 1846 in Braunschweig ; † April 13, 1911 there ) was a German teacher who founded the school games in Germany and introduced the soccer game in Germany in 1874 .

Life

Konrad Koch was the son of the senior teacher Johann Conrad Koch (1810-1884) and his wife Luise. Koch completed his school days from 1856 to 1864 at the Pro- and Obergymnasium in Braunschweig. After graduating from high school, he studied theology and philology from 1864 , first in Göttingen , later in Berlin and Leipzig . There Koch received his doctorate in 1868 with a thesis on the language of Homer and then returned to Braunschweig as a teacher at the Martino-Katharineum , where he taught German and Ancient Languages until his death in 1911 . One of his students later reported about Koch as a teacher:

“He was generous, a fine man, highly educated, it was a pleasure to be with him. We weren't yelled at in the senior class, he understood us and was among us in the voluntary gymnastics lessons as if he belonged to us. "

- Ewald Bertram (around 1900 student of Koch)

His biographer characterized the teacher Koch as follows:

"Konrad Koch was an excellent teacher who tried to educate his students on the basis of the classical humanism of Wilhelm von Humboldt and the example of the eternal greatness and beauty of the Greek people."

- Kurt Hoffmeister (historian)

Koch recognized early on that sporting activities in the open air are beneficial for the development of the students. So in 1872 he introduced so-called "school games" in addition to the already existing gymnastics lessons (including cricket in 1876 ), with the support of his colleague and gymnastics teacher August Hermann (1835-1906).

1874: The first soccer game in Germany

The first soccer game in Germany
City map of Braunschweig around 1899.
The location of the first soccer game in Germany on the so-called “small parade ground” in Braunschweig.

After August Hermann, as a gymnastics teacher at the Martino-Katharineum in Braunschweig, had a "real football" come from England, he and Koch initiated the first football game on German soil: In the autumn of 1874, students from the Martino-Katharineum wore the game on the so-called " Small parade ground ”on Rebenstrasse (today Rebenring) under the direction of Koch and Hermann. In doing so, they believed they had found a remedy against the "couch potato" and the pub crawls of their high school students. August Hermann had obtained a rugby ball from Great Britain , which was initially simply thrown between the students without any explanation. This experiment is considered to be the birth of football in Germany.

"A good football from England was simply thrown onto the pitch, some of the most important rules were given, and soon the German boys were playing the English game, albeit not with all the subtleties at first, but eagerly and skillfully and for their greatest pleasure."

- Konrad Koch

Other sources, according to which the first football game on German soil took place in Dresden in April 1874, have proven to be outdated. This comes from an English source which emphasizes that the Dresden English Football Club played under rugby rules. The first evidence of a football game in Germany that was played according to the rules of the Football Association (FA) comes from Lüneburg and dates back to 1875. The Johanneum there was led by the teacher Wilhelm Görges and the young Englishman Richard Ernest Newell, who had come from Marlborough College Twopeny the soccer game. Three games are documented, the first one was also reported by the Lüneburgsche Anzeiger in September 1875. The club founded at the Johanneum only existed for a short time and was then forgotten. Konrad Koch himself was a fan of rugby all his life. His biographer Malte Oberschelp emphasizes that Koch did not introduce football, but rugby in Germany. Nonetheless, Konrad Koch can rightly be called a football pioneer, because in all of his writings after 1890, when the football game prevailed over rugby in today's sense, he campaigned for the acceptance of this new sport in the German Empire.


The soccer game quickly found its way into school sports:

"The game teaches and exercises common sense, arouses and strengthens the joy of active life and full dedication to jointly set tasks and goals."

- Gustav von Goßler : Decree of the Prussian Ministry of Culture from 1882

The physician Friedrich Reck (1827–1879) introduced Koch to the English ball game, who - unlike Koch - had visited the British Isles in his work as a military doctor and was familiar with the English situation.

First football rules and clubs in Germany

First football rules , 1875 initially for the Martino-Katharineum

In 1875 Koch presented the first soccer rules for the game, which was new in Germany, and in the same year founded the first German soccer club at Martino-Katharineum , which, unlike the above-mentioned Lüneburg club, played rugby. Only the second, expanded edition from 1885 also contained the rules for association football.

“Nobody is allowed to lie down or stand idle in the square. No student is allowed to take off his skirt without special permission; this permission is only given to those who wear a woolen shirt. "

- Konrad Koch : set of rules

Koch's aim was to teach the students about physical fitness as well as ethical values ​​such as discipline and team spirit when football was introduced into school sports . The set of rules was developed for this, in which, for example, stepping in front of the shin was prohibited. "Almost all health rules from Koch's set of rules have been adopted in the entire German-speaking area," reports the Braunschweig local researcher Kurt Hoffmeister . In this early phase of game development, the team captains themselves acted as referees , known as "football emperors". In the first set of rules, the ball could also be picked up and carried by the players. “Picking up football without a ball”, ie playing exclusively with your foot, was initially introduced as a bad weather variant, but was made a mandatory form of play in 1882.

The soccer game was initially reserved for the boys. Looking for a suitable game for girls August Hermann led 1896 from basketball derived play basketball one. The introduction of this game shows what the so-called game movement , of which Koch was the leader in these years, was fundamentally about : The aim was not to establish individual new games, but to reform school teaching by integrating new and educationally valuable games.

Koch and his colleagues were in opposition to the sporting movement that was emerging in parallel , as they always strived for the educational goal. Koch's relationship to the competitive nature of the soccer game was appreciative in terms of the motivating effect of "competitions"; However, he refused to play a game based purely on victory and performance, which would not focus on comprehensive physical development. The football pioneer therefore did not want to adopt the game in its English style without making changes to the rules. He himself not only viewed the football game from an academic point of view, but also actively participated on the pitch.

Some of the English football terms were partially translated literally into the German language and some made-up words were created . In 1903 he published a list of German football terms and their English equivalents in the magazine of the "Allgemeine Deutsche Sprachverein". Many of the 81 technical terms listed there are still in use today.

First national and international games

In 1888 the first comparative competitions were held against teams from Göttingen and Hanover . The first international matches against teams from Great Britain and the Netherlands followed in 1894 . In 1890 Konrad Koch also supported the establishment of the German Football and Cricket Association in Berlin , headed by the Birmingham-born German-Englishman John Bloch. Bloch was also president of the English Football Club Berlin and editor of the weekly "Spiel und Sport", which was the most important newsletter for the first generation of German footballers. (Note NEW 4): Hans-Peter Hock: The Dresden Football Club and the beginnings of football in Europe. Arete-Verlag, Hildesheim 2016, ISBN 978-3-942468-69-5 , pp. 39-43. Both Konrad Koch and the somewhat younger football pioneer Walther Bensemann published in it regularly in 1893 and 1894.

In addition, in 1891 Koch introduced " Raffball ", a forerunner of modern handball .

The "English disease"

The Stuttgart gymnastics teacher Karl Planck initially ridiculed the new sport as "sluggish feet" and "English disease".
Koch's upbringing for courage as intellectual training through sport and play

Football spread from Braunschweig at a rapid pace (the " Braunschweiger Turn- und Sportverein Eintracht von 1895 eV " was founded in 1895 ), so that Koch was able to determine in his "History of Football" as early as 1894:

"The question of whether or not football should be introduced in Germany no longer needs to be discussed, it is decided by the power of facts."

The beginning was difficult: Koch and his colleague August Hermann were mocked for their conviction as "game apostles" or "game enthusiasts". There was resistance in particular from the gymnastics camp . These denigrated the football game as "foot lolling", "stuck ball" and "English disease". The rudeness of the game was a decay of morals for them . The newfangled term “ sport ” alone caused irritation. Society paid attention to demeanor, moderation and dignity. Elsewhere, teachers and students were expelled from school if they took part in a football game.

Honors

On May 8, 1895, the 58th birthday of the Prince Regent of the Duchy of Braunschweig Albrecht von Prussia , Koch was personally awarded the Knight's Cross 2nd Class by the Order of Henry the Lion in the assembly hall of the Martino-Katharineum .

Appreciation

Unveiling of the memorial plaque for Konrad Koch on June 9, 2006 in Braunschweig: Braunschweig's Lord Mayor Gert Hoffmann on the left and Kurt Hoffmeister on the far right

Koch is regarded as a pioneer of the game movement in German-speaking countries and a fundamental theoretician of school sports in Germany. Among other things, he was a member of the Central Committee for the Promotion of Popular and Youth Games in Germany . His most important work on the subject was published in 1900: Education for courage through gymnastics, games and sports . The city of Braunschweig paid tribute to the historic event of the first soccer game on German soil on June 9, 2006 at the opening of the 2006 soccer World Cup in Germany with the inauguration of a memorial plaque on the Rebenring, in front of the former "small parade ground". Another memorial plaque is located at the entrance to the assembly hall of the Martino-Katharineum. In addition, the sports field at Franzschen Feld in Braunschweig was expanded and renamed the "Konrad Koch Stadium". Konrad Koch's life and work was presented in detail in several specialist books by Kurt Hoffmeister . For his services to sport in Lower Saxony , he was included in the Honor Gallery of Lower Saxony Sports of the Lower Saxony Institute for Sports History (founded in 1981).

Among other things, Koch was a member of the Ehrlichen Kleiderseller zu Braunschweig , a circle of friends around Wilhelm Raabe .

On April 3, 2019, a commercial building was reopened in Braunschweig after a long renovation, which is now called "Konrad-Koch-Quartier".

filming

The feature film The Big Dream , directed by Sebastian Grobler with Daniel Brühl in the role of Konrad Koch, was released on February 24, 2011 in German cinemas.

Fonts (selection)

literature

Web links

Commons : Konrad Koch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Günter Scheel (ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon. 19th and 20th centuries , p. 330.
  2. ↑ Konrad Koch: De augmento apud Homerum omisso , Diss. Universität Leipzig, Verlag Joh. Heinr. Meyer, Braunschweig 1868 ( digitized version of the Bavarian State Library ).
  3. ↑ a b c d e Eduard Hoffmann: "Fußlümmelei" from England. In: Calendar sheet (broadcast on DLF ). April 13, 2011, accessed April 13, 2011 .
  4. ↑ Press photos on Konrad Koch and the football city of Braunschweig on braunschweig.de .
  5. ↑ The man who brought soccer to Germany, Zeit Online, February 24, 2011.
  6. ^ Hans-Peter Hock: The Dresden Football Club and the beginnings of football in Europe. Arete-Verlag, Hildesheim 2016, ISBN 978-3-942468-69-5 , pp. 15-17.
  7. ^ Hans-Peter Hock, Matthias Sobottka: News about the beginnings of football in Germany. SportZeiten 17th year 2017, issue 1, pp. 53–71.
  8. ↑ Malte Oberschelp: Konrad Koch - The football pioneer. An annotated edition of selected original texts. Arete-Verlag, Hildesheim 2015, ISBN 978-3- 942468-56-5, pp. 7–8.
  9. ↑ https://www.braunschweig.de/politik_verwaltung/fb_institutionen/staedtische_unternehmen/bsmportal/presseportal/bsm_wissenswertes_Konrad_Koch_Fussball_Braunschweig.html
  10. ^ Konrad Koch: set of rules , reprint of the edition from 1875, Braunschweig 2011, ISBN 3-925320-19-9 .
  11. ↑ Kurt Hoffmeister: Time travel through the Braunschweig sports history . 2nd Edition. Books on Demand GmbH, Braunschweig 2010, ISBN 978-3-8391-0712-6 , p. 33 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  12. ↑ https://www.braunschweig.de/politik_verwaltung/fb_institutionen/staedtische_unternehmen/bsmportal/presseportal/bsm_wissenswertes_Konrad_Koch_Fussball_Braunschweig.html
  13. ^ Friedrich Koldewey : V. To the history of the institution. In: News about the Ducal Martino-Katharineum grammar school in Braunschweig. Pressure v. Joh. Heinr. Meyer. Braunschweig. Easter 1896. page 19.
  14. ↑ Konrad Koch: The education for courage through gymnastics, games and sports. The spiritual side of physical exercises , Gaertner, Berlin 1900 ( digitized version of the Braunschweig University Library ).
  15. ↑ Lessons of a Dream in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  16. ^ In the catalog of the German National Library
personal data
SURNAME Koch, Konrad
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Koch, Wilhelm Carl Johann Conrad
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German educator, inventor of the soccer game in Germany
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1846
PLACE OF BIRTH Braunschweig
DATE OF DEATH April 13, 1911
Place of death Braunschweig