Oscar Heisserer

Oscar Heisserer (born July 18, 1914 in Schirrheim , Reichsland Alsace-Lorraine , German Empire , † October 7, 2004 in Strasbourg ) was a French football player and coach .

The player

In the club

The Alsatian began his career at his native FC Bischwiller , for whom he also played in the first team and with whom he earned his first, relatively modest spurs: Bischwiller became Alsatian amateur champion in 1933 and 1934. Racing Strasbourg then brought him for his professional team; already in the 1934/35 season Heisserer was with these eleven runners-up in Division 1 , where he played 26 of the 30 encounters, and in 1936 also to the national team. In 1937 he stood for the first time - in those years always at the side of the German striker "Ossi" Rohr  - in the cup final , but this time it ended with a defeat for his team (1: 2 against FC Sochaux ). He was used either as a striker on half-left or as an outside runner ; He was also dangerous for goals - in 1935/36 and 1937/38 he was one of the 15 most successful shooters in the league with 13 and 14 hits respectively - but he became famous above all for his team play, his willingness to run and his huge radius of action.

In 1938 he moved to the Racing Club de Paris , which at that time was peppered with Austro- French ( Hiden , Hiltl , Jordan , Mathé , Weiskopf ) and local national players (including Veinante and Diagne ). Heisserer was also not champion with this club up to and including 1944/45, especially since during his seven years in Paris only an official title was awarded in 1938/39 and Racing only came third here. During the “war championships” , the club, which was viewed as “friendly to Jews”, did not play a major role in the division of the league. In the Coupe de France, on the other hand, Heisserer had three great successes: in 1939 (3: 1 against Olympique Lillois ), 1940 (2: 1 over Olympique Marseille ) and 1945 (3: 0, again against Lille), the Paris Racing Club wrote join the list of winners; the half-forward was in all the finals in the successful team and scored a goal in 1945.

For the war years , the sources contain different statements regarding Heisserer's biography. It can only be assumed that he was drafted into the army after the mobilization (September 1939). According to the French Wikipedia article, he is said to have temporarily returned to Alsace, which was annexed by Germany , helped Jewish people there to flee to Switzerland, and went there himself in 1943 to avoid forced recruitment by the German Wehrmacht ; he belonged to the French resistance movement and in 1944 participated in the liberation of Alsace. According to another source, he is said to have rejected an offer from Josef Herberger to play in the German team, as well as the request to play for the SS Strasbourg sports community . In 1943 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht, went into hiding in Lorraine the following day with false papers and then escaped to Switzerland. He is said to have been interned in a labor camp for two years and returned to Strasbourg in the spring of 1945 as a soldier in the French army.

After winning the Cup in 1945, he left the capital for good and returned to Racing in Strasbourg , where he played in the top league (and also in the national team) for four more years, albeit less and less frequently. 1946/47 was another relatively successful season: the club finished the season in third place and reached the cup final. For Heisserer it was the fifth of his career and the third against Lille, but with the Alsatian Racing Club - as in 1937 - he was denied triumph; the footballers from northern France won 2-0. After the RC Strasbourg had to relegate from Division 1 in the summer of 1949 , he ended his time as an active player at the age of almost 35.

Stations

• FC Bischwiller (1932–1934)
• Racing Club de Strasbourg (1934-1938)
• Racing Club de Paris (1938–1940? And? -1945)
• Racing Club de Strasbourg (1945-1949)
• Olympique Lyonnais (1950–1952, 1950/51 as player-coach in D2)

In the national team

Between December 1936 and April 1948 Oscar Heisserer played 25 international matches for the Equipe tricolore and scored eight goals. The war and occupation of France probably cost him a much larger number of missions, since France only fought two international encounters during those five years up to December 1944; Heisserer himself was used in January 1940 and then again in May 1945. In 1938 he was also a regular for the Bleus at the World Cup finals and scored the interim equalizer against Italy in the quarterfinals .

His most memorable international match took place on May 26, 1945: for the first time in its history France managed not to lose to England at Wembley Stadium ; and it was Heisserer who first led his teammates onto the “holy turf” as team captain, then was able to keep up against Matthews , Mercer and Co. and in the final minute made the final score 2-2 with his goal.

The trainer

In 1949, the second division Lyon Olympique Universitaire hired him as a coach, and in 1950 the newly founded Olympique Lyonnais club . With this he was immediately successful: Lyon rose by a large margin in 1951, but had to relegate again in 1952. This season, Heisserer has lined up twice more and scored his very last first division goal. In 1954 he led Olympique again to the championship in Division 2 ; After this promotion he moved back to Alsace for personal reasons, and so he handed over the command to Julien Darui , with whom he had already played at the 1938 World Cup. In the 1955/56 season he was persuaded, succeeding Josef Humpal as coach at Racing Strasbourg to take over, and carried - next to the towering striker Ernst Stojaspal  - largely to the fact that the "his" Racing belonging Division 1 could get . At the end of the 1950s he worked again as head coach at SR Colmar .

Life after football

Oscar Heisserer ran a shoe shop in Colmar for a quarter of a century , which is why, despite some offers, after 1956 he was no longer to be found in “big football”, except as a spectator and occasional advisor. Around 1980 he retired, moved back to Strasbourg and settled in the south-western suburb of Montagne Verte. He died there in 2004, at the age of 91. The stadium of his birthplace bears his name today (2009).

Palmarès as a player

• French champion : nil (but runner-up in 1935 with Strasbourg)
• French cup winner : 1939, 1940, 1945 (with Paris) and finalist in 1937 and 1947 (with Strasbourg)
• Alsatian amateur champion: 1933, 1934
• 25 senior international matches (18 of which during his time with Strasburg and seven with Paris) and eight goals for France , including seven team captains; World Cup participant in 1938
• Six games and four goals for the Alsatian regional team

Remarks

1. ↑ see fr: Oscar Heisserer
2. ↑ see fr: Malgré-nous
3. ↑ Simon Kuper: Ajax, the Dutch, the War. Football in Europe During the Second World War. S 121ff, Orion Books, London 2003 ISBN 0-7528-5149-7
4. ↑ France Football, January 6, 2009, p. 8

Web links

• Data sheet with photo (French)