Raimund Krauth

Raimund Krauth (born December 27, 1952 in Karlsruhe , † November 22, 2012 in Karlsruhe ) was a German football player and coach . He played as a professional from 1972 to 1982 for the clubs Eintracht Frankfurt , FK Pirmasens and Karlsruher SC . The striker played a total of 87 games (11 goals) in the Bundesliga and 137 games (52 goals) in the 2nd Bundesliga South. Krauth had to end his career as a professional footballer in 1982 at the age of 29 because of a serious knee damage.

FC Neureut 08, until 1972

Born in Karlsruhe, Raimund Krauth belonged to the district club FC Neureut 08 for the entire youth and the first two rounds of senior football , whose first team played in the third-class first amateur league in North Baden . In the 1971/72 round he was appointed to the North Baden selection , which lost the second leg in the regional cup competition on November 20, 1971 in Bocholt against the Lower Rhine with 1: 2 goals. Klaus Wunder scored both goals for the Lower Rhine, Krauth conceded the goal to advance to the quarter-finals. Due to his achievements, the only 19-year-old striker of the Karlsruhe district cup winner of 1972 aroused the interest of several higher-class clubs.

Eintracht Frankfurt, 1972 to 1974

After a successful audition, he finally switched to Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt - league competitor VfB Stuttgart had also been interested in the offensive talent, while the local Karlsruher SC only played in the second-rate Regionalliga Süd at this point. The 19-year-old Raimund Krauth made his first competitive appearance for the team coached by Erich Ribbeck on September 12, 1972 at Liverpool's Anfield Road : In the first leg of the first round of the 1972/73 UEFA Cup , he came on as a substitute in the 79th minute. In view of the 0: 1 deficit, he should once again provide momentum in the attack, but shortly after Krauth came on, Emlyn Hughes scored the 2-0 for Liverpool FC. In the end, Eintracht had no chance in this encounter and was eliminated against the eventual cup winner. For Krauth, this short assignment was the only encounter on an international level.

Since the eventual world champions Jürgen Grabowski and Bernd Hölzenbein as well as the Austrian international Thomas Parits were attacking at Eintracht , Raimund Krauth had a hard time fighting for a place in the starting line-up. In the 1972/73 season , after a successful start, Eintracht became the league's “secret favorites”. But after the team had moved up to two points from the leaders on matchday 7 with a 2-1 victory over the previously unbeaten FC Bayern, a negative series of five games without a win followed, which also had a direct impact on the audience numbers. In the "Waldstadion construction site" - the renovations for the 1974 World Cup were already in full swing, so that the stadium could only accommodate 40,000 visitors - just 6000 spectators lost in the home game against Schalke 04, so that Eintracht Horst Heese in mid-December had to sell for 170,000 DM in order to make ends meet. At the end of the season the Ribbeck-Elf took a disappointing 8th place; Raimund Krauth was substituted on 14 times during the Bundesliga round and remained without a goal. After the exchange of coaches with 1. FC Kaiserslautern - Erich Ribbeck went to the Palatinate and Dietrich Weise came to the Main - Eintracht played more successfully in 1973/74 than last year, but from Raimund Krauth's point of view little changed. The 22-year-old only made nine appearances at the end of the round and it was only in his last competitive game for Eintracht that Raimund Krauth scored his first Bundesliga goal: In the 2-1 win over Fortuna Düsseldorf, he scored the 1-1. The game on matchday 34 was one of the few in the "Eagles" that he had played over the full playing time. Krauth also made little contribution to Eintracht's cup success this year, he was only used in the first round of the 8-1 win over TeBe Berlin and contributed a goal to the victory.

At the end of his two “apprenticeship years” at Eintracht, Krauth had gained experience in a total of 23 Bundesliga, four DFB Cup and one UEFA Cup games and scored one goal each in the top German division and in the national cup competition. Since it was foreseeable that he would not be able to prevail against the strong competition in the Eintracht offensive, he changed clubs in the summer of 1974.

FK Pirmasens, season 1974/75

Krauth made his breakthrough in professional football in 1974/75 at the second division club FK Pirmasens. As a long-time regional league team, “Die Klub” was one of the founding members of the 2nd Bundesliga South , which was introduced in 1974 as the new two-pronged substructure of the Bundesliga. The club management under President Gustav Käfer invested heavily in the team in the summer of 1974. “I wanted to go to the Bundesliga by force,” the Pirmasens shoe manufacturer and FKP patron later confessed. The team around FKP “veteran” Dieter Weinkauff was reinforced at the beginning of the season by new coach Bernd Hoss , especially on the offensive. In addition to the young Pirmasens home-grown Harry Erhart , the newcomers Raimund Krauth from Frankfurt, Alfred Sailer from Siegen and Günther Michl from Nuremberg (with 220,000 marks the most expensive purchase in the club's history) ensured that the FKP established itself in the upper third of the league table from the start . After an exciting season finale, the team from Horeb reached second place behind Karlsruher SC and was thus qualified for the relegation games against the runner-up in the northern season, Bayer 05 Uerdingen . In the first of the two promotion games, Krauth scored the 1-0 after just a few seconds, but at the end of a dramatic game it was 4: 4. In the second leg, the Palatinate were defeated in the Krefeld Grotenburg-Kampfbahn with 0: 6 and missed promotion.

Krauth scored twelve goals in 33 second division games. He left the club in the summer of 1975 and returned to his hometown and thus also to the Bundesliga.

Karlsruher SC, 1975 to 1982

In Karlsruhe there was great euphoria after the southern championship and promotion to the Bundesliga. After seven years in the second division, they wanted to re-establish themselves in the top German division. Coach Carl-Heinz Rühl strengthened the promotion team on the defensive around the experienced Jürgen Kalb and Hermann Bredenfeld , and in midfield Winfried Schäfer should provide impetus. In the attack, besides Raimund Krauth, Gustl Jung also switched to KSC, but here Rühl initially continued to rely on the previous year's storm series with top scorer Bernd Hoffmann and the wingers Roland Vogel and "Charly" Berger . Newcomer Raimund Krauth first had to go to the bench, but made his debut on the fourth match day at Wildpark in the 2-0 home defeat against Eintracht Braunschweig and scored his first Bundesliga goal for KSC a week later against 1. FC Köln. In the further course of the round, Rühl alternated between Raimund Krauth and Roland Vogel in the left wing position. Krauth came to a total of 19 league games (4 goals) this season. If the KSC was able to achieve the goal of “staying up” this season, the team had to return to the second division a year later. Of the newcomers, only the center forward Norbert Janzon demonstrated his suitability for the Bundesliga, while Thomas Sjöberg (Sweden) and Vančo Balevski (Yugoslavia), who were announced as international stars, disappointed. Even in the middle of the second half of the season everything looked as if the blue and whites would be able to hold the class again, but a series of sometimes bitter defeats caused a fall to 16th place. Krauth was only second choice for coach Rühl this season, Even after Roland Vogel left for Mannheim in October 1976, he was only substituted on sporadically and was also out for a long time in the winter months due to injury.

After the descent of the KSC, not only the coach Carl-Heinz Rühl left the wildlife park, but also some top performers migrated. Winfried Schäfer went to Mönchengladbach and in the attack center the KSC had to cope with the departure of Norbert Janzon. This gap was adequately filled by Emanuel Günther , whom the new trainer Bernd Hoss had “brought” from Worms. The offensive "wing tongs" were Raimund Krauth and Charly Berger. The start of the season of the 2. Bundesliga 1977/78 was extremely successful, so that one could hope for an immediate promotion in Karlsruhe. So it was all the more surprising that coach Hoss was kicked out at the end of October: the club's management justified this step by stating that Hoss would not play attractive football. Successor Rolf Schafstall also had to leave before the end of the season, because under his leadership the KSC had lost touch with the top of the table and direct promotion was out of reach. In the second division season 1978/79 took Manfred Krafft the Office of the exercise manager at KSC and should under its "iron hand" the Elf to goalkeeper Wimmer , defender Struth , the Youngster Harforth and the playmaker Trenkel in midfield and the forward line Krauth, students and Becker of League to teach fear. At the beginning of the second half of the season, the KSC led the table, but an intermittent slump in the spring, when eight games in a row could not be won, again brought an early end to the promotion ambitions. For Raimund Krauth, this season was the most successful at KSC in terms of goals: he scored 16 times in 36 games, making him the most successful goalscorer.

Despite missing the season's goal, "Manni" Krafft was KSC coach in 1979/80 . And not least thanks to the return of the goal scorer “Mano” Günther, who had been handed over to Fortuna Düsseldorf last year and has now returned, the team from Baden was promoted to the Bundesliga this year. 104: 52 goals in the 2nd league south, which has been increased to 21 clubs, were only enough for second place behind 1. FC Nürnberg, but in the relegation games against Rot-Weiss Essen , the Krafft protégés retained thanks to a clear 5: 1- First leg victory, to which Raimund Krauth had also contributed a goal, the upper hand.

With an almost unchanged squad - the chronically sluggish financial situation in the wildlife park did not allow any notable reinforcements, in addition to returning students with Fanz , Boysen and Hartung only second division and amateur league players were signed - the Bundesliga newcomer was considered a relegation candidate in the 1980/81 season , and the 0 : 3 opening defeat against Bayern Munich seemed to underpin this prognosis. But the eleven from the fan-shaped city surprised the football experts, after a bumpy start the team improved and worked their way up to 10th place by the 23rd matchday. Center forward Günther also proved his scoring risk in the Bundesliga, and midfielders Stephan Groß and Gerhard Bold also met regularly. Raimund Krauth, on the other hand, only made 22 appearances, his four goals this season were the result of two "double packs", a 3: 3 in Frankfurt and a 7: 2 win against 1860 Munich at the end of the season, the Karlsruher's highest Bundesliga home win to date.

The Bundesliga season 1981/82 brought KSC coach Manfred Krafft his surprising and probably premature replacement on November 26, 1981 - with 11:17 points, KSC was 12th after 14 games - and his successor on November 27 in the person of Max Merkel in the wildlife park. In the KSC debut of the "starter" who lost 1: 4 goals on November 28th in Karlsruhe in front of 32,000 spectators against 1. FC Cologne, Raimund Krauth stormed on the wing at the side of center forward Günther. On March 16, 1982, he completed his last Bundesliga game at 1: 5 in the catch-up game at VfB Stuttgart. Months earlier, a torn knee ligament had not been properly diagnosed and Krauth had struggled for weeks before the ligament finally tore. His contract expired in 1982 and the KSC showed no goodwill towards the ailing attacker, as they did not want to have a convalescent in the squad in preparation for the 1982/83 season. The knee dictated the end of professional footballer Raimund Krauth.

After seven seasons, four of them in the first and three in the second division, Raimund Krauth had played a total of 168 league games for KSC and scored 50 goals, 64 (10 goals) in the Bundesliga and 104 (40 goals) in the second division League South. In the club statistics of the goal scorers he ranks 9th together with Stephan Groß.

After the active career

Eintracht Frankfurt old stars at the benefit game

After retiring from professional football, Krauth, a trained insurance salesman, was a player- coach - attempts at comeback at SC Pfullendorf and ASV Durlach had failed - at the Baden-Württemberg amateur clubs SV Langensteinbach and SV Altschweier, before becoming a coach (Krauth was the owner of the coach -A license) at ASV Hagsfeld , FC 21 Karlsruhe, KSC-Amateure, FC Neureut 08 (youth area), again SV Langensteinbach (A-youth, 2nd and 1st team) worked. Most recently, he was Gerd Komorowski's assistant at the regional league team Fortuna Kirchfeld until 2009 and worked in the youth department and looking after the second team.

KSC team at the benefit game with numerous former teammates

Since the spring of 2009, Krauth had been in a vegetative state after knee surgery, after the 57-year-old had suffered a heart attack during this routine operation. On July 30, 2010, a benefit game was held in Karlsruhe in the stadium of SV Beiertheim, which should enable the Krauth family to restart and provide important help for the upcoming care needs. In front of 2,200 spectators, the traditional team of Eintracht Frankfurt - led by delegation leader Jürgen Grabowski and on the pitch by his world champion colleague of 1974, Bernd Hölzenbein - won 6: 4 goals against a selection of former teammates and other former KSC professionals - Rolf Dohmen , Stephan Groß , Wolfgang Trapp , Gerhard Bold , Emanuel Günther , Ove Flindt-Bjerg , Michael Künast , Wilfried Trenkel , Wolfgang Schüler , Roland Vogel , Michael Harforth , Günther Fuchs , Hermann Kohlenbrenner , Hermann Bredenfeld , Gerd Komorowski , Andreas Görlitz . Two days after death Krauth played the first football team of KSC with black armbands .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Mourning for Raimund Krauth. Frankfurter Neue Presse , November 25, 2012, accessed on November 28, 2012 (last change November 26, 2012). 
2. ↑ Match report FC Liverpool - Eintracht Frankfurt at eintracht-archiv.de
3. ↑ Ulrich Matheja: Schlappekicker and Himmelsstürmer. The story of Eintracht Frankfurt , Göttingen 2007, p. 219
4. ↑ ^{a b} Werner Skrentny: When the Horeb of the Southwest was football summit. In: The fear of the devil in front of the pea mountain. The history of the Oberliga Südwest , Essen 1996, p. 75
5. ↑ 100 Years of the Karlsruhe Sport Club , Karlsruhe 1994, p. 94
6. ↑ see z. B. Peter Putzing: Back from the valley of tears. History and stories about the Karlsruher SC , Karlsruhe 2007, p. 98
7. ↑ Up, heroes! Magazine for Football Time Stories, No. 17, page 52
8. ↑ Raimund Krauth passed away. (No longer available online.) KSC, November 23, 2012, archived from the original on December 30, 2012 ; Retrieved November 28, 2012 .