Oskar Rohr

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Oskar Rohr
Oskar Rohr (1937) .jpg
Oskar Rohr (1937)
Personnel
birthday April 24, 1912
place of birth Mannheim ,  German Empire
date of death November 8, 1988
position Storm
Juniors
Years station
Phoenix Mannheim
0000-1930 VfR Mannheim
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1930-1933 FC Bayern Munich
1933-1934 Grasshopper Club Zurich 12 0(11)
1934-1940 Racing Strasbourg 136 (118)
1940-1941 FC Sète
1945 VfR Mannheim 7 00(3)
1946 TSV Schwaben Augsburg 15 00(8)
1947-1948 FK Pirmasens 21 0(11)
1948-1949 SV Waldhof Mannheim 17 00(5)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1932-1933 Germany 4 00(5)
1 Only league games are given.

Oskar "Ossi" Rohr (born April 24, 1912 in Mannheim ; † November 8, 1988 ) was a German football player . The four-time national player was one of the first German international professionals. Originally from VfR Mannheim , he won the German championship with FC Bayern and the Swiss Cup with Grasshopper Club Zurich in the 1930s . With Racing Strasbourg , where he is listed as the most successful goalscorer in the club's history, he was runner-up and cup finalist in the same decade. After the Second World War, where he temporarily served in the French Foreign Legion and spied for Germany, he played for some time in the Oberliga Süd and also worked as a player-coach.

Beginning and steep ascent

In Mannheim, Ossi Rohr was born and raised as the last of six children in a family of innkeepers. His four older brothers Philipp, Karl, Heinrich and Otto played soccer at FC Phönix 02 Mannheim. Sister Paula was a handball player at VfR Mannheim . Philipp "Fips" Rohr , son of Philipp and nephew of Ossi, also became a successful soccer player and coach. With VfR Mannheim he was Baden champion, as a coach he led the VfR and later the VfL Neckarau to success. Later there were even five sons of "Fips" at the same time in the Neckarau amateur league team he trained. The best known of these was Gernot Rohr , Ossi's great-nephew. He made it to the youth national player and amateur national player in Germany and was also once under contract with Bayern Munich. Coach Gernot was also on the team of Girondins Bordeaux to Zinedine Zidane in the 1990s in the UEFA Cup was defeated Bayern finale. He later coached many African national teams.

Ossi Rohr started playing football at Phönix Mannheim and continued it in the youth department of VfR Mannheim . Talent and goal instinct already set him apart as a young player. Wanting to present these qualities on a larger stage prompted him to move to FC Bayern Munich in 1930. In his premier season for Bayern , he just missed the final round of the German championship as third in the southern German championship , but in the 1931/32 season, as second in the southern German championship , he qualified with the team for the final round of the German Championship 1931/32 . After he was able to prevail with the team against Minerva 93 Berlin , PSV Chemnitz and 1. FC Nürnberg , he moved into the final with her on June 12, 1932, which was won 2-0 in Nuremberg against Eintracht Frankfurt where he scored the 1-0 with a penalty.

In the following year, Bayern played only a mediocre role even in southern Germany - too little for him, who wanted to aim high; Especially since the year before he was appointed to the national team for the first time by Reich coach Otto Nerz , in which he already played alongside greats like Ernst Kuzorra and Richard Hofmann at the age of 19 .

Rohr played four international matches by March 1933 and made his debut on March 6, 1932 in Leipzig in a 2-0 victory over Switzerland . His second international match on September 25, 1932 in Nuremberg , in a 4-3 victory over Sweden , he crowned with his first two goals, the 1-0 goal in the 10th and the 4-2 goal in the 64th Minute. In the 1: 3 defeat on New Year's Day in Bologna against the selection of Italy , he achieved the 1-0 lead in the 4th minute. He also scored two goals in his last international match, in the 3-3 draw in Berlin against France . With five goals in four games, he seemed to have a brilliant career ahead of him.

He won the district selection competition for the Adolf Hitler Cup in 1933 with the district selection Bavaria on August 6, 1933 in Munich, 6: 1 in the replay against the district selection Berlin-Brandenburg (with players such as Hans Appel , Heinz Emmerich , Hans Brunke , Johannes Sobeck , Willi Kirsei ). Bergmaier , Krumm , Lachner and Frank stormed next to him .

1933–1934: Grasshopper Club Zurich

The German association, which is linked to amateurism, has strict limits on the allowances for footballers. Rohr did not like that, as it meant that he was limited to his monthly salary as a mechanic of 180 marks. So it was a good thing that the Grasshopper Club Zurich , benefiting from the patronage of its President Willy Escher , the majority shareholder of Nestlé , made an offer with a salary of around 500 marks. Since the German Football Association did not issue any approval at the time, if there was no particular reason, such as a job-related move, Rohr reported that he had become engaged to a young lady in Zurich and would continue to work in her family's business. That worked and Rohr arrived in Zurich in October 1933. Immediately, however, the Swiss authorities stepped in, assuming that Rohr wanted to work in Switzerland without a work permit and immediately expelled him from the country. For the time being, Rohr then settled in Strasbourg in Alsace .

It took some time until Rohr's official affairs in Switzerland could be sorted out. Therefore, he did not come to his first use for the Grasshoppers until March 1934 in a friendly game; in a 9: 1 against Freiburg FC , he also scored his first goal for the Swiss. His first competitive game was the final of the Swiss Cup 1933/34 on April 2nd . With the Grasshoppers trained by Izidor "Dori" Kürschner , he won 2-0 against the Geneva Servette FC team, led by Austrian player- coach Karl Rappan , alongside the strong German middle runner Fritz Engel and the Swiss star André "Trello" Abegglen in Bern's Wankdorf Stadium . He was used in all of the remaining eleven championship games, scoring eleven goals. The Grasshoppers finished the championship in 1933/34 with three points behind Servette as runner-up. He was only used in August in the first league game of the 1934/35 round , because Switzerland removed him again, this time because of incorrect information in his tax return.

1934–1939: Racing Strasbourg

He returned to Strasbourg, where he was signed by first division promoted Racing Strasbourg in early October 1934 . When he signed the contract, he received a Citroën convertible as a bonus .

1934/35 season: Sochaux-Strasbourg 2: 3 - Albert Gougain and Conrado Ross defend against Rohr

Rohr introduced himself successfully on matchday eight with four assists and one goal in a 6-1 win over FC Antibes . The 1934/35 season started excellently for the Alsatians trained by the Austrian Fritz Kerr , who climbed to the top of the table for the first time on matchday three and were also ahead after the first half of the season. In the end, RC Strasbourg had to be content with second place with one point behind the top team of that era, FC Sochaux , sponsored by the Peugeot automobile company . That should remain the best placement for the Strasbourgers until the 1979 championship. Rohr scored 20 goals in 22 games in his first season in Division 1.

In the 1935/36 season , which was all about Racing Paris , winning the trophy and championship, Strasbourg, which was now trained by the former Austrian wonder team player Josef "Pepi" Blum , finished third. Rohr rises from eighth to second in the top scorers list. In 28 point games he scored as many goals; only the Swiss-French striker Roger Courtois von Sochaux scored more: 34. On New Year's Day 1936, FC Bayern made a guest appearance at Racing Strasbourg and won 4-2. Rohr was overzealous, often got stuck in the Bayern defense and was otherwise in good hands with his opponent Ludwig "Lutte" Goldbrunner .

In the 1936/37 season , Strasbourg was in first place after the first half of the season , but in the end it was only sixth in the league. Ossi Rohr was the top scorer with 30 goals in 29 games, ahead of Mario Zatelli from the champions Olympique Marseille , who scored 28 times. In the national cup competition , Strasbourg reached the final. Also thanks to Ossi Rohr, who scored all of his team's goals in the 3-1 semi-final win over FC Rouen . In the final against FC Sochaux , Rohr gave Strasbourg the lead after half an hour, but a goal three minutes before the end of the game secured Sochaux the trophy.

RC Strasbourg 1936–1937, with pipe (standing, 2nd from left)

In 1937/38 the RC Strasbourg improved slightly to fifth place in the league and in the cup they were eliminated in the sixteenth finals. With 25 goals in 30 games, Rohr only came second in the scorers' list, behind international Jean Nicolas von Rouen, who was once more. In the last season before the war , the aging team of the financially ailing Strasbourg club under the new coach Karl "Charles" Rumbold , again an Austrian, dropped to tenth place. The champions were FC Sète from the Mediterranean coast. The now 27-year-old Rohr only scored 15 goals in 27 games, which earned him ninth place on the top scorer list.

Rohr to this day with 118 first division races most successful striker of all time ahead of Gérard Hausser , member of the cup winning team from 1966, who also played his season at Karlsruher SC , who scored 73 goals in 223 games between 1959 and 1974, and Albert Gemmrich , member of the championship team from 1979, who scored 70 times in 229 first division games between 1973 and 1984.

Rohr also played twelve games for the Alsace team during his time at Racing Strasbourg. Among them was a 3: 4 defeat in Strasbourg in February 1938 against a selection from Baden / Württemberg where he got all three goals for the Alsatians.

In 1935 he made his first experiences as a coach when he worked for the club Kronembourg , which played in the Alsatian league .

War years and later

At the beginning of September 1939, Strasbourg was evacuated in anticipation of an attack by the German Wehrmacht and Racing temporarily settled in Périgord , where the team played against the local clubs for the championship of the Dordogne department and won the title of 1939/40 undefeated. Coach Rumbold was praised by the newspapers for being able to bring suitable replacement for Rohr to the team from the younger generation. Because he was no longer available, at least for the decisive phase of this championship, since he had voluntarily joined the French Foreign Legion from February 1940 . Nothing is reported about actual participation in combat operations, which could also have something to do with the fact that France de facto surrendered soon afterwards. In September 1940 it was reported that Rohr regularly competes on Sundays alongside some other players from Alsace for the local team from Périgueux , including in the Dordogne.

In October 1940, Oskar Rohr joined the southern French FC Sète in the unoccupied zone, for which he probably played for the last time in early February 1941 in a 1: 2 home defeat in the cup quarter-finals against Toulouse FC .

During this phase, Rohr met Karl Rumbold again, who had become penniless and since then has been working as a secret service for Germany in the unoccupied zone. Rohr expressed regret to him that he had joined the Foreign Legion. Rumbold subsequently recruited Rohr for the German secret services.

Regarding the subsequent events, one is now largely dependent on often vague and contradicting information from Ossi Rohr himself, or what he is said to have entrusted to Fips Rohr and Gernot Rohr . Rohr is said to have been arrested by the local authorities, possibly not until November 1942. It is often stated that this was due to anti-French or communist activities. He is said to have been sentenced to three months in prison, but was soon extradited to Germany, where he was initially detained for up to two months in the Kislau concentration camp near Karlsruhe and then assigned to serve on the Eastern Front . It is also reported that he was able to get a flight back to Reich from there, possibly only towards the end of the war, because he was recognized as the popular footballer or as the ex-Bayern striker, or because he suffered a slight injury, as elsewhere is reported.

In those years some reports relating to him were published in the German newspapers. In September 1942, the trade journal “ Fußball-Woche” sent its readers greetings from “Ossi Rohr, once a professional player at RC. Strasbourg ”under the heading“ From our soldiers ”. In October 1943 it was reported that "Ossi Rohr, passing through Strasbourg, will strengthen the team of the Rasenport Club (as Racing was now called) in the game against TSG Saargemünd ". However, he does not appear in the match report.

“VfR Mannheim with Ossi Rohr, Langenbein and Striebinger?” Ask Der Kicker / Fußball in their joint war issue of April 18, 1944, page 8, and continue: “The best team for the championship rounds are: Vetter; Conrad, Krieg (...), Fips Rohr , Ossi Rohr (!), Wilpert, Klee (...) Maybe even Karl Striebinger will come on vacation. “In fact, neither Fips nor Ossi played and Striebinger did not play either. In the trade press of July 1944, it was noted that Rohr had played in Landau in the semi-finals of the Westmark Cup in a 4-2 draw against FK Pirmasens by a “Landau soldiers' team” and scored two goals in front of 4,000 spectators. In the final against FV Saarbrücken (1: 6) he was "missing".

After the Second World War

In the first half of the season 1945/46 of the Oberliga Süd , he spent at VfR Mannheim where he made three goals in seven games. From around January 1946 he started for Swabia Augsburg , scoring a goal in a 3-1 win against his former club FC Bayern. In total, he scored eight times in 15 games for Augsburg. In December 1945 there was speculation about a possible return to RC Strasbourg, which was also possible since he had served in the Foreign Legion.

At the beginning of September 1946, Oskar Rohr was arrested by military authorities in Augsburg and transferred to Strasbourg. In a report that briefly and without detail discussed his involvement in an espionage matter with Rumbold, his release from prison was announced for December 10, 1946. He announced that he did not want to return to Germany and that he would like to stay and play in France if he was given a contract, referring to his involvement in the Foreign Legion. The report concluded, however, that it was unlikely that Strasbourg would want him back. Incidentally, nothing has been heard from Rumbold since that time.

This was followed by two seasons for FK Pirmasens , with whom he was promoted as a player-coach after his first season from the second-rate regional league West Palatinate for the 1947/48 season in the Oberliga Südwest . He played his last season in 1948/49 in the Oberliga Süd for SV Waldhof Mannheim , where he occasionally worked with his nephew Philipp .

However, he occasionally made use of his contacts with Racing Strasbourg during this time. In November 1949, for example, he brought players on a difficult journey from Mannheim ( American occupation zone ) through the Palatinate ( French occupation zone ) and Saarland (special status) to Strasbourg, where they competed for a guest appearance against Lokomotiv Zagreb in Racing dress . The record top division player of VfR Mannheim, Rudolf de la Vigne , played there as an alleged Czech named Adamowski; the masquerade was discovered anyway and de la Vigne received a four-week ban and a 20 DM fine from the South German Football Committee for “playing game”. At that time, Oskar Rohr had already ended his playing career.

Later he worked, as it is said, as a "small employee" of the Mannheim city administration. In later years, it is said somewhere, he should have settled in the Black Forest .

literature

  • Julian Voloj, Marcin Podolec: A life for football: the story of Oskar Rohr , Hamburg: Carlsen, 2020, ISBN 978-3-551-73367-2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ International friendly game , Neue Zürcher Nachrichten , March 9, 1934, 2nd edition, p. 2
  2. ↑ Chronique Sportive , Tribune de Lausanne , September 10, 1934, p. 3
  3. ↑ Dirk Gieselmann: "I always wanted to be free , interview with Rohr's great-nephew Gernot , 11 friends , February 2008, p. 90.
  4. ↑ Strasbourg-Munich , Paris-Soir , January 2, 1936, p. 10
  5. ^ Collectif (Ed .: Ligue d'Alsace de Football Association): 100 ans de football en Alsace. Édito, Strasbourg 2002, ISBN 2-911219-13-9 , Volume 5, p. 351.
  6. ↑ Amateur players beat professionals: Alsace - Baden / Württemberg 3: 4 , Badische Presse , February 21, 1938.
  7. ^ Rohr entraîneur , L'Intransigeant (Paris), August 6, 1935, p. 5
  8. ↑ Ossi Rohr dans l'armée française , Le Petit Parisien , February 1, 1940, p. 2 - also other newspaper reports
  9. ↑ Football , L'Œuvre (Paris), September 27, 1940, p. 4
  10. ↑ Le Football-Club de Sète jouera le championnat , Le Petit Provençal (Marseille), October 19, 1940, p. 2
  11. ↑ Tolouse favori devant Sète , Le Petit Marseillais, February 3, 1941, p 2
  12. ↑ Simon Kitson : The Hunt for Nazi Spies: Fighting Espionage in Vichy France , University of Chicago Press, 2008, pp. 40, 174.
  13. ↑ Football Week , North German edition of September 22, 1942, page 6
  14. ^ Sports events , Strasbourg Latest News , October 3, 1942, p. 8
  15. ↑ Der Kicker / Fußball , April 18, 1944, page 8
  16. ↑ Der Kicker / Fußball, July 18, 1944, p. 2 f.
  17. ↑ Der Kicker / Fußball, August 1, 1944, page 3
  18. ↑ Ossi Rohr a Strasbourg? , France Soir (Paris), December 9, 1945, p. 2
  19. ^ Sport Bref , L'Aube (Paris), September 4, 1946, p. 4.
  20. ^ Henri Traen: Rohr fait parler de lui , L'Intransigeant (Paris), November 9, 1946, p. 4.
  21. ↑ Sport (Munich), August 20, 1947, page 15
personal data
SURNAME Rohr, Oskar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rohr, Ossi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH April 24, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Mannheim
DATE OF DEATH November 8, 1988