Rudolf Hertzsch

Rudolf Hertzsch (born February 21, 1924 - † November 5, 2011 ) was a German football player who was mainly active in the GDR . In the 1950s he played in the GDR league for Empor Lauter and Motor Zwickau .

Athletic career

Hertzsch played football in Lauter, western Ore Mountains , when he was a school student and at the age of 16 was already part of the men's reserve of SG Lauter. When the SG became district champions with a 5-3 win over Aue in 1942, Hertzsch was part of the first team's player base. During the Second World War he was taken prisoner, from which he did not return until 1948. He rejoined the SG Lauter, with which he became Saxon runner-up in 1950 and qualified for the newly created second-class DS league . In the 1951/52 season he was one of the players on the successor team BSG Empor Lauter, who fought for promotion to the GDR league. Of the 32 league point games in the 1952/53 season, Hertzsch played 29 games in which he was used as a stopper . When Kurt Zapf came to the team for the 1953/54 season and took over the stopper position, Hertzsch moved to the left defender and played all 28 point games that season. Hertzsch was also scheduled for this position in the 1954/55 season and played the first eight championship games there.

In October 1954, the upper league players of the BSG Empor Lauter were asked to join the new sports club Empor Rostock , which should take over the upper league place of the Lauterer. While nine regular players followed the request, Hertzsch moved together with his teammates Walter Espig and Johannes Friedrich to the neighboring BSG Motor Zwickau, which also played in the major league. In Zwickau Hertzsch was used at the beginning of the top division back round, played there on the usual left side of the defender and played ten of the 13 back round matches. In the fall of 1955, a transition round with 13 matches was held to switch to the calendar year game rhythm. Hertzsch now moved to the position of right defender and played ten games in the transition round. At the beginning of the 1956 season, Hertzsch was 32 years old and was tackling his last league season. Until the 21st championship game, he played 17 more games as a right defender. On September 26, 1956 he was in the game Motor Zwickau - Lokomotive Leipzig (1-0) for the last time as a league player on the field. It was his 92nd first division game (including transition round) within five seasons. As a defensive player, he had not scored any goals.

Hertzsch was married and had a daughter. He was buried in the Lauter cemetery in November 2011.

literature

• Hanns Leske : Encyclopedia of GDR football . Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89533-556-3 .
• Andreas Baingo, Michael Horn: The History of the GDR Oberliga. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2003, ISBN 3-89533-428-6 .
• German sport echo . Born 1952 to 1956.
• Freie Presse from February 21, 2011, p. 7: "Ascent is one of the most beautiful moments."
• Freie Presse, local edition Schwarzenberg from November 18, 2011: "Lauterer stayed true to his homeland - football: Rudolf Hertzsch is buried today."