Wilhelm Bergstein

Wilhelm Bergstein (born August 4, 1939 in Baesweiler - Oidtweiler ) is a former German football player . As a center forward for Alemannia Aachen , the striker completed 70 league games from 1960 to 1963 in what was then the first-class West German football league and scored 59 goals. Bergstein then played for Aachen in the Regionalliga West for two years . There he came to ten missions and four goals.

career

With his hometown club SV Baesweiler 09 , the sturdy goalgetter won the championship in the Verbandsliga Mittelrhein in the 1959/60 season ahead of Siegburger SV 04 with 80:48 goals and 44:12 points. In the WFV championship, however, BV Osterfeld prevailed and the two outstanding offensive forces of the green-whites from Baesweiler, center forward Bergstein and half-forward Alfred Glenski , moved to Alemannia Aachen in the Oberliga West for the round in 1960/61. With the association selection of the Middle Rhine, the two Baesweiler players had previously won the state cup with a 3-0 win against Hessen. The successful storm formation of the Middle Rhine was composed of the attackers Karl-Heinz Thielen , Karl-Heinz Ripkens , Willi Bergstein, Alfred Glenski and Willibert Kremer .

"Willi" Bergstein's debut season, 1960/61 , was very successful for the new Aachen storm leader. He scored 25 goals in 24 league games in the black and yellow attack formation and thus took second place in the West goalscorer list behind Jürgen Schütz (27 goals) from runner-up Borussia Dortmund. He started with six hits in the first two rounds of the league round. On August 14, 1960, he scored three goals in a 4-0 home win against VfL Bochum and a week later in a 6-4 win at Viktoria Köln, thus underlining his scoring qualities against the contract footballers of the Oberliga West. In the second half of the season he was again successful as a triple goalscorer against the same two opponents. After his three goals on December 26, 1960 for a 3-0 home win against Viktoria Köln - Viktoria was trained by Hennes Weisweiler - Franz Joseph Küsters noted in the match report:

“ In addition to a spirited game by both teams and a splendid victory for Aachen, the impression that Aachen had made an incredibly lucky deal with ex-Baesweiler Willi Bergstein was simply overwhelming. But this "Uwe Seeler des Westens" had the four goals in Bochum now followed by three against Viktoria. "

Under coach Helmut Kronsbein, Aachen finished eighth in the league with 61:61 goals.

In his second league season, 1961/62 , he was able to prove his final qualities again with 20 hits in 28 missions. This despite the negative goal difference of 50:56 Alemannia gates, bringing the yellow and black of the stadium Tivoli in World Cup 1962 could only occupy the 11th place in the Western league. In the list of goalscorers, he was tied with Jürgen Schütz, behind Manfred Rummel (26 goals) and Karl-Heinz Thielen (25 goals), in third place. On October 8, 1961, the Aachen goalscorer had scored two goals in the DFB junior national team U-23 , in the 5-0 win in Gelsenkirchen against Poland at the side of the storm colleagues Thielen, Werner Ipta , Jürgen Schult and Oskar Lotz . A week later he was four times goalscorer in the 4-1 success in the league in the league game against Duisburger SV. The game year ended for the man from Baesweiler on May 6, 1962 with his second appearance in the junior national team. In their home stadium in Aachen, the DFB-Elf won 3-0 goals against France and Bergstein was again one of the goalscorers.

In the last year of the old first-class league system, 1962/63 , the goal-scoring center forward only made 18 league appearances due to injury. He scored 14 goals and his club landed level on points with fourth-placed Prussia Münster in 5th place in the final table, one point behind Meidericher SV in 3rd place. The striker was only able to play his first competitive game on matchday 13, November 11, 1962, in a 2-2 draw against 1. FC Köln. Alemannia traveled to Cologne in 11th place with 9:13 points. He then distinguished himself as a double goal scorer in the successes against Borussia Dortmund (4: 0) and Hamborn 07 (5: 1), as well as a triple goal scorer against Viktoria Köln (6: 4) and Westfalia Herne (3: 1) and carried himself out also on the final day of the round, May 11, 1963, in the 2-1 home win against Bayer Leverkusen in the scorers list. With 58:42 goals and 37:23 points, Alemannia Aachen finished the round in 5th place.

Since Aachen was not included in the 16-man squadron of the newly installed Bundesliga , the attacker, plagued by injuries, continued his career in 1963/64 in the Regional Football League West , which was introduced as the foundation of the Bundesliga . Alemannia won the western championship with 105:37 goals and 59:17 points ahead of Wuppertaler SV and Fortuna Düsseldorf, but various injuries (muscles, knees) only allowed Bergstein six appearances in the regional league season. The first two round games he completed in August 1963, the next two games in February 1964, before two league games were possible again in April 1964. In the promotion round to the Bundesliga he only ran in the home game on June 10, 1964 against the southern champion Hessen Kassel, in the other matches Christian Breuer and Josef Martinelli had to do without the striker. Aachen disappointed and only came in 3rd place with 4: 8 points behind the surprising newcomers Hannover 96 and Kassel.

But in the following season, 1964/65 , things didn't go any better for Bergstein either. Aachen came three points behind the surprise champion Borussia Mönchengladbach for the runner-up and thus moved back into the promotion round. In the preliminary round he played only three and in the second half - on January 31, 1965 against Wuppertaler SV - only one competitive game. In the promotion round - from May 29 to June 26, 1965 - he played all six games against Bayern Munich, 1. FC Saarbrücken and Tennis Borussia Berlin after a break of almost four months, but he was unable to match the form from the Oberliga West tie in.

From the summer of 1965 he tried to continue his playing career at MVV Maastricht in the Netherlands , but in 1967 he had to end his playing career for good. After that, the former goalscorer, who lived in Baesweiler, was still active in the amateur field at various clubs - SV 07 Setterich, Eschweiler SG , Oberbrucher BC 09 , SV Baesweiler 09.

In Franz Creutz's book, he retrospectively explains the special Tivoli atmosphere and the reason for the successes from his point of view:

“ The Tivoli atmosphere was unique. As a player, you always had the feeling of support from the audience, even when things weren't going well. Many games that already seemed lost were turned over as a result. [...] There was unconditional fighting. The corset of the team was formed by many players from Aachen and the surrounding area, who tore themselves apart from the mentality for the team. Sometimes we are still friends today. "

literature

• Hardy Grüne , Lorenz Knieriem: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 8: Player Lexicon 1890–1963. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2006, ISBN 3-89784-148-7 .
• Harald Landefeld, Achim Nöllenheidt (ed.): Helmut, tell me dat Tor ... New stories and portraits from the Oberliga West 1947–1963. Klartext, Essen 1993, ISBN 3-88474-043-1 .
• Franz Creutz (Ed.): Games you will never forget! Alemannia in the 60s. Meyer & Meyer. Aachen 1996. ISBN 3-89124-373-1

Individual evidence

1. ^ Football data: Willi Bergstein
2. ^ Franz Creutz: Games that you will never forget! P. 17
3. ↑ Franz Creutz (ed.): Games that you will never forget! P. 20

Web links

• Alemannia Aachen player archive