Otto Diringer

Otto Diringer (born January 24, 1914 in Mannheim ; † June 7, 1992 ibid) was a German soccer player who was active as a goalkeeper at VfL Neckarau from 1933 to 1948 in the Gauliga Baden and in the soccer Oberliga Süd . In the 1940/41 war round , the eight-time selection player from Baden with Neckarau won the championship in the Baden area class and took part in the final round of the German soccer championship. Overall, the goalkeeper is led with 121 rounds for Neckarau in the Gauliga. After the end of the Second World War, the veteran was also in 37 association games in the football league south for the blue-whites from the Altriper ferry in the gate from 1946 to 1948 , before he ended his career at the age of 34 in the summer of 1948.

Athletic career

Youth and senior football in the Rhein-Saar district / Rhein group, until 1932/33

The goalkeeper Otto Diringer is noted for the first time in the documentary about Mannheim football from 1920 to 1945 in a youth match between the city teams Mannheim and Ludwigshafen on September 29, 1929. The 15-year-old young talent from VfL Neckarau was in Mannheim's 3-0 win in the gate of the victorious city selection from the square city. The first appearance of the 1.83 m tall goalkeeper in the 1st team of VfL in the Rhein-Saar district league dates from August 9, 1931 in a 1-0 win against SpVgg Sandhofen . Neckarau finished second at the end of the round, two points behind master SV Waldhof. In the group matches for the southern German championship, Neckarau came fourth. The achievements of the young goalkeeper of VfL in his first season in senior football led him directly to the city selection of Mannheim: The 18-year-old guarded on January 10, 1932 in the game against Budapest (2: 3), on May 15 against FC Birmingham ( 2: 1, both goals by Otto Siffling ) and on June 19, 1932 in the historically high 3:11 defeat against Ludwigshafen, the goal of the city selection of Mannheim. In the last season of the Rhine district, 1932/33, Diringer and his teammates from VfL Neckarau achieved third place behind champions SV Waldhof and Phönix Ludwigshafen and thus belonged to the 1933/34 season of the newly installed Gauliga Baden (Gau 14) together with VfR and Waldhof Mannheim.

Gauliga Baden, 1933–1943

Neckarau lost the start of the Gauliga on September 10, 1933 with 1: 2 at Karlsruher FV , the second round match against KFV brought the highest round success for VfL with 6: 1, where in addition to goalkeeper Diringer in defense Siegel, Meister and Großesle and in attack players how Zeilfelder, Wenzelburger and Hessenauer were used. On the last round match day, April 8, 1934, the blue-whites managed to stay in the league with a 5-1 win over FC Germania Brötzingen. In the course of the association round Diringer was used on January 3, 1934 in a test match of a youth team of the DFB in the city selection Mannheim (2: 1). In the second season in the Gauliga Baden, 1934/35 , Diringer and colleagues improved to 3rd place. The achievements of the goalkeeper of Neckarau led him on May 5, 1935 in the gate of the Gauwahl Baden, which won a game against Switzerland B 3-1 in Karlsruhe. Although he came in with his VfL 1935/36 ten points behind SV Waldhof in 5th place and had a negative goal difference with 42:45 goals, Diringer was used in three selection games in the first half of the season: On October 18, 1935 in the Reichsbund Cup of Baden against North Hesse (3: 2), on November 10th in Kreuzlingen with the Gau Baden against Switzerland B (1: 3) and on November 20, 1935 in a game of North Baden against the Upper Palatinate (3: 1). In July 1938 he took part in the German gymnastics and sports festival in Breslau with the Gau selection of Baden. The goalkeeper of VfL Neckarau was used in the games against the Lower Rhine (4: 3), Southwest (3: 4) and Middle Rhine (2: 5). In the last season before the outbreak of the Second World War, 1938/39 , Diringer lost with Neckarau on May 18, 1939 the deciding game for remaining in the Gauliga Baden against SpVgg Sandhofen with 0-2.

Due to the outbreak of the Second World War, the championship games 1939/40 could not be held again until the end of November 1939. The Gauliga Nordbaden was limited to a group of six, which included Neckarau and took fourth place. In the second round of the war, 1940/41, VfL Neckarau celebrated with goalkeeper Diringer and teammates such as Karl Gönner, Georg Lutz, Hermann Klostermann, Theo Wahl, Richard Wahl, Gottfried Sälzler, Hermann Veitengruber, Richard Mannale, Willi Preschle, Kurt Gärtner, Oskar Benner, Gottfried Wenzelburger and Oskar Wilhelm won the championship ahead of VfB Mühlburg, SV Waldhof and the tied teams VfR Mannheim and Freiburg FC. In 16 games, the champions scored 27: 5 points with a goal difference of 46:17. Neckarau only allowed their opponents two wins in the entire round: On the third first round match day, October 20, 1940, VfL lost 1-0 to their toughest rivals for the title, the Karlsruhe district club VfB Mühlburg, and completely surprisingly on December 1, 1940 at the old master Karlsruher FV with 1: 2. At the end of the round, the KFV finished last with 4:28 points. After the defeat in Karlsruhe, Neckarau started an impressive series with nine wins, including the successes against Waldhof (1: 0, 4: 2), VfR Mannheim (1: 0) and, above all, the second leg on March 2, 1941 against Mühlburg with 4: 1.

In the following group games for the German soccer championship, Diringer was only able to play two matches against Rapid Vienna (0: 7) and Munich 1860 (2: 6) in April 1941, in the remaining games he was represented in goal by his substitute Kurt Gaska. The Baden division champion landed level on points with Stuttgarter Kickers, both teams had 4: 8 points to show after six games, in fourth place in the group stage. Due to an absence due to the war, Diringer could no longer be active for Neckarau from 1943 to 1945.

Oberliga Süd, 1946 to 1948

Since Neckarau was not eligible to start in the Oberliga Süd for the 1945/46 season, the blue-whites had to compete in the Landesliga Nordbaden after the end of World War II . With 30: 4 points, with a seven point lead over runner-up VfB Knielingen from Karlsruhe, they won the championship and rose to the top division. Neckarau started in the 20-man league 1946/47 on September 29, 1946 with a 3-0 away win against FC Phönix Karlsruhe. VfL conceded their first home defeat on January 12, 1947 with a 1: 2 in the local derby against VfR Mannheim. The new star striker Fritz Balogh had equalized VfR's early 1-0 lead by Karl Striebinger in the 29th minute , but center forward Otto Bardorf scored the winning goal for VfR in the first half against VfL goalkeeper Diringer. Only with the 3-2 away win on July 13, 1947 at Munich 1860, Neckarau was able to secure relegation as 16th at the end of the round.

In the second league year, 1947/48 , the veteran was again in the second half of the VfL goal, but especially the two defeats on June 6, 1948 against the clearly beaten bottom Sportfreunde Stuttgart (1: 3) and SpVgg Fürth on 27 June 1: 2, led to relegation to the amateur camp in the summer of 1948. Then the goalkeeper ended his active career. Diringer was listed in the Oberliga Süd from 1946 to 1948 with 37 competitive appearances.

With Philipp Rohr , player from VfR Mannheim and later trainer also at VfL Neckarau, the following can be read in his remarks on Mannheim football about Neckarau and Diringer: “The Neggaraaler hawwe always en guuder football gschbield. The Manemer Buwe still know the names of Zeilfelders 'Jaggl', Diringers 'Ottl', the Long in Gool, and späder in my Dränerzeid soin hochdalenddier the son Peter. With the 'Ottl' I had played several representative games for the Gau Baden, including in 1938 in Breslau at the German Gymnastics and Sports Festival, where Helmut Schneider from SVW was also there. "

Private

The father of the regional and second division footballer Peter Diringer ran a civil engineering company in Mannheim .

literature

• Andreas Ebner: When the war ate football. The history of the Gauliga Baden 1933–1945. Publishing house regional culture. Ubstadt-Weiher 2016. ISBN 978-3-89735-879-9 . Pp. 308/309.
• Werner Skrentny (Ed.): When Morlock still met the moonlight. The history of the Oberliga Süd 1945–1963. Klartext, Essen 1993, ISBN 3-88474-055-5 .
• A Bloomaul am Ball, Südwestdeutsche Verlagsanstalt, Mannheim, 1992, ISBN 3-87804-218-3 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Andreas Ebner: When the war ate football. P. 309
2. ↑ Werner Skrentny (ed.): When Morlock still met the moonlight. P. 210
3. ^ Gerhard Zeilinger: The football stronghold Mannheim 1920 to 1945. P. 107
4. ↑ Philipp Rohr: A Bloomaul on the ball. Mannemer football and dialect. SVA Südwestdeutsche Verlagsanstalt GmbH & Co. Mannheim 1992. ISBN 3-87804-218-3 . Pp. 25/26
5. ↑ Christian Karn, Reinhard Rehberg: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 9: Player Lexicon 1963-1994. Bundesliga, regional league, 2nd league. AGON-Sportverlag, Kassel 2012, ISBN 978-3-89784-214-4 , p. 102.