Otto Cuntz (soccer player)

Otto Cuntz (born April 1, 1918 in Karlsruhe ; † March 23, 1987 there ) was a German football player. The offensive player played a total of 64 league games at Phoenix Karlsruhe from 1935 to 1939 in the Gauliga Baden and from 1945 to 1947 in the southern football league and scored seven goals.

career

Gauliga

At the age of 17 Otto Cuntz made his debut with the German soccer champions of 1909, FC Phönix Karlsruhe, in the Gauliga Baden. On January 5, 1936, at the local derby against the Red-Blacks of the Karlsruhe FV , ex-national player Karl Wegele , the coach of the Black-Blue from the Karlsruhe Wildlife Park, trusted him in the dress of the Gauliga team in the KFV stadium at the Telegrafenkaserne Phoenix in the first competitive game in the seniors. At the side of the Baden selection players Arthur Lorenzer and Hermann Föry , the young talent stormed in a 3-0 defeat on the left wing of Phoenix. In his third Gauliga assignment, on January 26th, the offensive talent scored two goals as a right winger in a 4-2 away win at 1. FC Pforzheim. At the end of the round - Cuntz had completed six games with two goals - his club was relegated from the Gauliga, but immediately won the championship in the district league in 1936/37 and thus returned to the top division of Baden. In the next two rounds Otto Cuntz belonged to the regular line-up of Phönix in the Gauliga Baden and finished 6th (1938) and 7th (1939) with the club. He had scored five goals in 25 Gauliga appearances. The attacker played his last game in the Gauliga on March 26, 1939 in a 0-1 home defeat against SpVgg Sandhofen. Viktor Havlicek guarded the Phoenix gate, Lorenzer and Erwin Nied were in the defense and, in addition to Cuntz, teammates Josef Heiser , Georg Butscher , Max Biehle and Föry were in action in the attack .

The 1939 conscription to the military and his use in a mountain troop division in the Balkan campaign and further into the Caucasus, prevented the continuation of his football career. In early 1945 he was taken prisoner by Russia, from which he was released immediately after the end of the war.

Oberliga Süd, 1945 to 1945 7

Cuntz belonged to the circle of players with whom the first season of the Oberliga Süd kicked off on November 4, 1945 under the adventurous conditions of the post-war period. Phoenix opened the season with a home game against Eintracht Frankfurt and Cuntz played in defense in front of goalkeeper Havlicek with teammates Nied, Hans Gizzi , Herbert Baier and in attack with Herbert Binkert and Föry. The game ended 2-2. At the end of the lap, Phoenix finished 15th with 18:42 points. In the book about the league it is noted: “The Karlsruhe clubs KFV and Phönix were relegated, but because they had such excellent connections to the military authorities and US professional sport has no relegations, they stayed in 46-47 thanks to higher instructions the first division. "

The mammoth season 1946/47, which had resulted from the unexpected whereabouts of the two Karlsruhe “relegated teams” with 20 clubs and 38 match days, started the new round on September 22, 1946. In terms of sport, the second league season was again very bad for Cuntz and Phönix, not only because of the extreme “hunger winter” , with the Karlsruhe team in 20th place with 24:52 points. Phönix lost 8-0 at champions 1. FC Nürnberg, and lost 7-0 at Stuttgarter Kickers and VfL Neckarau. The home wins against Eintracht Frankfurt (3: 2), Munich 1860 (2: 1), VfB Stuttgart (2: 0), Stuttgarter Kickers (3: 2), SpVgg Fürth (1: 0) and BC Augsburg (5: 0) could not prevent the descent. For Cuntz, who had mostly been an outside runner, the Oberliga Süd chapter was over after a total of 33 league appearances. How long he played in the state league with Phoenix after relegation can not be seen from the available literature.

Job and life

The trained wholesaler had a job in the field of a company in Karlsruhe. At the beginning of 1954 he had an accident with his car due to a material defect and crashed into a tree with full force. A ten-month hospital stay was the result, his right arm had to be amputated and several broken bones were the consequences of the accident. In 1963, the family suffered another stroke of fate when their younger son Wolfgang died from leukemia. Otto Cuntz worked his way up to the position of authorized signatory and the older son Günther started a teaching career and was a successful coach in the upscale amateur area of ​​Baden for many years, including at ASV Durlach and 1. FC Pforzheim .

A few days before his 69th birthday, on March 23, 1987, Otto Cuntz suffered a heart attack while bowling and died.

literature

• Andreas Ebner: When the war ate football. The history of the Gauliga Baden 1933–1945. Verlag Regionalkultur, Ubstadt-Weiher 2016, ISBN 978-3-89735-879-9 , pp. 304/305.
• Lorenz Knieriem, Hardy Grüne : Player Lexicon 1890 - 1963 . In: Encyclopedia of German League Football . tape 8 . AGON, Kassel 2006, ISBN 3-89784-148-7 , p. 53 .
• Werner Skrentny (Ed.): When Morlock still met the moonlight. The history of the Oberliga Süd 1945–1963. Klartext Verlag. Essen 1993. ISBN 3-88474-055-5 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Werner Skrentny (ed.): When Morlock still met the moonlight. The history of the Oberliga Süd 1945–1963. P. 162