Roland Endler

Roland Endler (born June 18, 1913 ; † August 27, 2003 in Munich ) was a German entrepreneur and sports official . The manufacturer from Neuss in the Lower Rhine region , who had his private center of life in the Bavarian capital Munich, held the office of President of FC Bayern Munich from 1958 to 1962, which he saved from possible bankruptcy through his patronage . Among other things, he made a contribution to the Brazilian world-class club FC Santos at the time and was a personal friend of its world star Pelé . His support on his first honeymoon made headlines worldwide in 1966.

Live and act

The wealthy entrepreneur Roland Endler was associated with the Neuss-based companies Elektro-Schweiß-Industrie GmbH and Neue Schweißtechnik Roland Endler GmbH , which fell victim to bankruptcy proceedings in 1987 and 1988 respectively (whether he still had anything to do with the companies remains to be determined). However, by the 1950s at the latest, the Bavarian capital, Munich, in which he was to settle down, became the focus of his private and social activities.

Help for Hermann Graf

Endler's long-standing passion for sport, especially football, was well known. At the request of Sepp Herberger , for example, he hired Hermann Graf , who had returned from prisoner-of-war captivity - a highly decorated fighter pilot from the Second World War who founded the military soccer team Rote Jäger , trained by Herberger in 1943 , where Fritz Walter and Hermann Eppenhoff played alongside others - in his Stuttgart office one where he ultimately rose to the ladder. Due to his political views, Graf was not accepted into the usual ropes.

Presidency at FC Bayern

Under Alfred Reitlinger's presidency since 1955 , the upper division FC Bayern Munich , then a club with around 2500 members, rose again in 1956, after a year in the second division, and won the DFB Cup for the first time in 1957 and was most recently seventh in the upper division . But the financial situation of the club was precarious, in 1957 they did not want to take part in the cup competition even because of the travel expenses, and the word insolvency was in the room.

Roland Endler, who had previously worked on the club's gaming committee, offered to provide substantial assistance in clearing up the emergency and was elected president in absentia in April 1958, against Reitlinger's resistance, against whom massive accusations were made at the stormy annual general meeting. Endler accepted the election by telegram. As a personal side note, it was worth mentioning the appointment of tax advisor Willi O. Hoffmann , who had only just joined the association and later became president himself, as secretary. In a soon-to-be-scheduled audit, an overpayment by players in the past years contrary to the contract player statute was found and the club itself reported it to the DFB in order to exclude possible legal consequences for the current management of the club, which in the end resulted in a fine for the club and a deduction of effectively resulted in four points in the 1959/60 season.

In place of Willibald Hahn , the Austrian Adolf Patek , previously cup winner and runner-up with Karlsruher SC , took over training in Munich from the 1958/59 season . The team was won over by the 1954 world champion Karl Mai , the Hungarian exile Jozsef Zsamboki , who was supposed to score 24 times in 43 league games, and the talent Peter Grosser , who came from within his own ranks , who scored 24 of Scored 15 goals in 30 games this season, reinforced. The team finished the season in fourth, which was their best finish since 1949. For the next season, Willi Giesemann , who was supposed to be the only Bayern representative at the 1962 World Cup, came from Volkswagen Club VfL Wolfsburg . Volkswagen used to be a big customer for Endler's welding machines. At the end of the season, FC Bayern would even have finished third if the aforementioned point deduction had not come into play. So Bavaria was only fifth.

For the 1960/61 season, the team was won by the youth national player and later Bayern captain Werner Olk from SV Arminia Hannover , B national player Karl Borutta from Schalke 04 and the 35-time Yugoslav national striker and top scorer in the European Cup of National Champions 1955/56 Miloš Milutinović - to which he financed the treatment of a life-threatening lung disease. Bayern only finished eighth that season. At the end of the season, the world-class club FC Santos made a guest appearance in the stadium on Grünwalder Straße . In the 2-3 defeat, goalkeeper Árpád Fazekas gave his farewell performance and on the bench sat for the first time the new coach Helmut Schneider , with Borussia Dortmund 1956 and 1957 German champions, who replaced Patek, who was not loved by the audience. The encounter with Santos was also exemplary for the numerous international club games that Bayern played under Endler.

FC Bayern ended the 1961/62 season with a 3: 3 at VfR Mannheim (after a 3-0 half-time lead) on April 15, 1962, just three points behind the first, 1. FC Nürnberg , and thus reached its best end of the season after the war. Roland Endler's tenure as President of FC Bayern ended on April 27, 1962 with the election of the building contractor Wilhelm Neudecker , under whose aegis the club was to achieve international recognition in the following decade and a half. Endler, who did not make himself available for the election, also became Honorary President of Bavaria in recognition of his services.

It is said that Endler, who may have felt certain limitations at FC Bayern, wanted to take a year off in which, apart from business projects, he could devote himself to more extensive interests. A return to office, in which he invested considerable resources to ensure its existence, is said to have been an essential aspect of his resignation. Accordingly, Neudecker was often seen as a temporary solution. Soon there was an irreversible rift and in November Endler announced his departure from FC Bayern and renounced the honorary presidency. Reasons were not announced by Endler or the association. The matter went so far that it was speculated that Peter Grosser was refused the contract extension because he was employed by Endler's company in the Munich distribution center. He then went to TSV 1860 for 50,000 marks, with whom he was to celebrate great success, and was also a national player there.

Pelé and Santos

After the end of his presidency at Bayern, Endler represented the interests of the then world-leading Brazilian club FC Santos for years and allowed the club to use its star ensemble led by Pelé , which also included players like two-time world champions José Ely de Miranda "Zito" , José Macia "Pepe" and goalkeeper Gilmar were part of holding together. FC Santos made him honorary president in April 1964. Soon afterwards he also became an honorary citizen of the city of Santos .

On numerous other trips to Brazil, however, he did not only devote himself to his football passion. In São Bernardo do Campo in the state of São Paulo he founded a branch of his company. As part of his broad commitment in the country, for example, in 1963 he sent two German-made sports boats as a donation to SC Corinthians Paulista , one of the three large clubs in the city of São Paulo . One of them was named after his daughter, Eva. At that time, Endler was valued as a "sportsman" in Brazil and was also regularly on the invitation lists of the national football association CBD .

His contact with FC Santos led to a friendship with Pelé early on. When he married his first wife, Rosemeri dos Reis Cholbi, in March 1966, he wanted to give him an expensive gift, but Pelé refused. But he did not oppose the invitation to a honeymoon in Europe. Pelé lived in Endler's private house in the Munich district of Solln . After a trip to the Wieskirche , he spent some time in Endler's house in Garmisch-Partenkirchen . In his Oldsmobile, Endler also chauffeured the bride and groom to his house in Riccione, Italy . On Pelé's trip to Europe, which also took him to Austria and France and also to a private audience with Pope Paul VI. he was accompanied by Endler's friend Helmuth Bendt , a sports journalist at ZDF at the time . Other highlights of the trip were a visit to Endler's factory in Neuss and a meeting arranged by Endler with the German national player Willi Giesemann at the Hotel Atlantic in Hamburg , who broke his shin the year before during a foul in an international match in Rio de Janeiro.

At that time, Pelé was considered to be the potential head of the Endlers company's Brazilian branch. That is why he traveled to Germany again in December of that year to familiarize himself with Endler's company in Neuss. It was speculated that Pelé could possibly play for a German club for a limited period of time. Borussia Mönchengladbach was one of the favorites, but 1. FC Köln are also said to have put out feelers.

But there was neither a guest appearance in the Bundesliga, nor should Pelé, who was to end his career with New York Cosmos in 1977 , become a business partner. Roland Endler gave Pelé a new sky-blue Mercedes from the Tailfin Series on the occasion of his thousandth goal, which he scored in November 1969 at the Maracanã Stadium .

In 2012 it made headlines around the world when Pelé announced in a talk on the TV station Sky90 that Roland Endler had once made him an offer to join FC Bayern. "I had offers from Milan and Madrid, but the most concrete offer was from Bavaria. The then President Roland Endler addressed me directly: 'If you want to come to Munich, we'll do it.'" But "I felt at home in Brazil . I didn't want to leave there, "explained Pelé. The Brazilian trade journal Placar reported on this offer in its July 3, 1970 issue. It should be noted that in that era there was speculation about the rejected four million mark transfer offers for Pelé.

Demise

Largely forgotten, Endler died on August 27, 2003, two months after his 90th birthday, in Munich. For FC Bayern, which he once secured the existence of, it was worth a short message, without reference to any merits for the club, under the "news of the day" on its website.

Quote

"It is simply unimaginable how many top-class players there are in Brazil. During my visit to South America in a small town in the middle of the jungle, I saw a game between two teams whose club names nobody in Europe knows. But: The last man of each of the two Teams would have been a star in my Bayern team. " Endler in July 1961.

Awards

• Honorary Citizen of the City of Santos, São Paulo, Brazil.
• Honorary citizen of the Technical University of Munich
• Honorary President of Santos FC
• Honorary member of the Salzburg Football Association

Endler became an honorary member of the Salzburg Football Association in 1959. The honorary presidency at FC Santos was given to Endler in April 1964. He received honorary citizenship of the city of Santos shortly afterwards.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Carles Viñas Gracia: Red Hunters: El victorioso equipo de fútbol de la Luftwaffe (III) , Blog de Carles Viñas, February 17, 2012.
2. ↑ Christer Bergström, Vlad Antipov, Claes Sundin: Graf & Grislawski-A Pair of Aces , Eagle Editions Ltd., Hamilton MT, 2003. ISBN 0-9721060-4-9 . P. 269.
3. ↑ Slavko Stojković: Miloš i bolest pobedio , Novosti.rs, July 11, 2014.
4. ↑ Diário Oficial da União, Brasília, March 7, 1963, p. 41, section 1.
5. ↑ Ruhm ohne Reue , Der Spiegel , 13, 1966, pp. 138–9.
6. ^ Pelé, Robert L. Fish .: My Life and the Beautiful Game: The Autobiography of Pele , Skyhorse Publishing, New York, 2007. pp. 202 ff.
7. ↑ It posible que Pelé juegue una corta temporada en Alemania , Madrid (newspaper), December 30, 1966. S. 27th
8. ↑ Pelé: Primeiro Tempo , Veja , November 6, 2011.
9. ↑ Photo: Pelé & Mercedes-Benz W111 Limousine , Auto Clasico (on Flickr).
10. ↑ Pelé received an offer from the FC Bayern Abendzeitung , Munich, September 17, 2012.
11. ^ Pelé: Todos querem levá-lo. Ele nicht quer sair , Placar , July 3, 1970, p. 10.
12. ↑ Inside: Hitzfeld clearly sees Kahn in front of him Lehmann , FC Bayern, September 3, 2003. (No longer available.)
13. ^ Annual report 2008–2011, Salzburg Football Association .