For Germany's first honorary captain Fritz Walter († 81), the most important game of his life took place in a camp near Sighetu Marmatiei. There he was taken prisoner by the Soviets in the summer of 1945 after the end of the Second World War. At that time, hundreds of German soldiers were transported from Romania towards Siberia after the surrender of the Nazi Empire. Daily.
The date had already been set for Walter too. But when he was counted, he was first in the hundredth and was allowed to stay until the next day. His luck - and probably the decisive moment for him to later have a world career as a footballer. The highlight: the miracle in Bern, when he sensationally led Germany to their first World Cup title as captain in 1954.
"The hours crept by. It was evening. I couldn't believe my eyes when five camp police men appeared in the immediate vicinity of us with a football. They threw two hats on the ground and started shooting at the improvised goal. Football. I felt magically drawn," Walter later described the miraculous story that makes you believe that there must be a football god.
The then 24-year-old, malnourished by the war and visibly scarred after contracting malaria, went to see the guards playing. When he got the ball at his feet, he let it dance over his heavy boots and did a few tricks. The camp police were fascinated. “Are you a soccer player too?” asked a Slovakian in broken German. Walter nodded.
“Then play along,” said the guard. An order that Walter loved to hear this time and followed immediately. "How was I supposed to realize so quickly that such an incredible turn of events had occurred as a result of a football game? Through a football game of which I don't even remember the result?" he asked years later, in disbelief at this event.
Walter made a big impression, he enchanted the guards and later revealed to them that he came from Kaiserslautern and had played international matches for Germany. A camp police officer remembered him. From then on his life changed. He also missed the next train to the labor camp in Siberia. And also the following ones. For the Soviet captain Zhukov in charge, Walter was no longer a prisoner of war, but a famous footballer. With privileges.
"From now on he got his own cot and good food. The better treatment meant he should quickly regain his strength in order to lead the camp team to victories against Romanian provincial teams," said his former companion Horst Eckel († 89) later in an interview with SPORT BILD. “But Fritz didn’t have to stay there for long to return from captivity.” To Kaiserslautern.
Walter's great career began here. As a child he was a fan of FC Schalke 04, which became German champions six times between 1934 and 1942 and was the measure of all things in Germany, but his life became FCK. His father Ludwig Walter worked as a landlord in the club restaurant of 1. FC Kaiserslautern.
Even as a small boy, Fritz Walter thrilled hundreds of fans when Lautern's youth teams played their games before the seniors' home games. They had come specifically for Walter. Little Fritz's special skills were already reported in the local press when he was 13 years old.
In the 1937/38 season, Walter made his debut in the first men's team as a 17-year-old. By the end of his career in 1959, he played 384 games for FCK and scored 327 goals. Walter led Kaiserslautern to the final of the German championship four times in the early 1950s, and he won it twice with the Palatinate team: in 1951 and 1953.
His greatest triumph, however, was winning the World Cup nine years after his return from captivity. Would the “Miracle of Bern” have happened in 1954 if the guards of the prisoner of war camp had not played football that evening? "An idle speculation. But the fact is: some of his comrades never returned from captivity," said Eckel. “And it’s also a fact: without Fritz we would never have become world champions.”
Walter was already a world star at that time. In 1951, three years before the World Cup in Switzerland, Spain's flagship club Atlético lured Madrid with an immoral offer: the captain of the FCK and the national team was to receive a monthly salary of 10,000 D‑Marks, plus a bonus of 250,000 D‑Marks. The contract was supposed to last for two years. Plus bonuses, an apartment and a car.
In comparison: For winning the World Cup a few years later, Walter - like every other player - received a bonus of 1,000 marks. There were also 200 marks for each use. For a total of six games, there was a total of another 1,200 marks in run-up bonus.
“Guess what am I doing?”
Walter, who was considered quite sensitive and was occasionally given a small glass of champagne during a game to calm himself down at half-time, sought the advice of his wife Italia († 80) after the Atlético offer. He blindly trusted his true love. “I guess, what am I doing?” asked the football star in the typical Palatinate dialect. "Here is your Betze, your FCK, your national team. What else do you need?" she answered. And so Walter turned down the Spaniards and continued playing for the “Red Devils” – for 320 marks a month. Professional footballer status did not yet exist in Germany at the time.
Walter's decision against the money was extremely important for German football. Because a move to Madrid would have meant being eliminated from the DFB selection. Because legionnaires were not tolerated back then. And Walter was the best German player - and the extended arm of his foster father Sepp Herberger († 80). The Lauterer always respectfully called the national coach “boss”.
As early as 1940, Herberger nominated Walter, who was then 19 years old, for the national team for the first time. He scored three goals in the 9-3 win against Romania in Frankfurt. Germany's press celebrated the Lauterer as a new hero, who played 60 more games for the DFB team before retiring in 1958.
The most famous game of his career was the 1954 World Cup final in Switzerland. Walter led the national team to a 3-2 win against Hungary after they had lost the group game against the top favorites 3-8 and were 0-2 behind in the final. In “Fritz Walter weather”.
That was also part of the wondrous story of the exceptional talent. And again his time as a soldier played a role. Walter suffered from the effects of malaria from the war. He preferred playing in cooler temperatures and rain - rather than in the heat. When the final was played in Bern on July 4, 1954, it rained. This wet weather went down in sports history as “Fritz Walter weather”.
Like the report by Herbert Zimmermann († 49). Around 60 million Germans sat in front of the radio at the moment the final whistle blew and listened to his words. Completely beside himself, he shouted into the microphone: "Out! Out! Out! The game is over! Germany is world champion, beats Hungary with 3-2 goals in the final in Bern." The sensation was perfect.
There are many pictures of Fritz Walter, but the photo during the award ceremony in the Wankdorf Stadium is the most memorable: he bends over and accepts the World Cup from the hands of the then FIFA President Jules Rimet († 83). A symbolic scene for millions of people around the world. Walter presents a humble, modest and remorseful Germany after the terrible reign of terror of Nazism between 1933 and 1945.
The triumph in Bern is glorified as the secret birth of the new Federal Republic. In Germany, people gained additional hope and the feeling of optimism increased. And Walter became the superstar he didn't want to be.
He was awarded the Silver Laurel Leaf and the Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic several times and trains were named after him. There was a special postage stamp from Deutsche Post. And: To this day, Walter is the only German world champion to have a stadium named after him during his lifetime: the Lauterer Betzenberg has been called the Fritz Walter Stadium since 1985.
Eckel, who was the fifth Lauterer member of the 1954 World Cup team alongside Fritz and Ottmar Walter († 89) as well as Werner Liebrich († 68) and Werner Kohlmeyer († 49), says: “For Fritz, all the players were his sports mates.” "I have rarely seen such a selfless person as Fritz. Generous, open-hearted, sensitive, helpful - and above all: my friend," said the legendary Uwe Seeler († 85) about his idol.
Walter was also a role model for 2014 world champion Miroslav Klose (48), even though he never saw him play. "As a child, teenager and young adult, I often stood as a fan in the west corner at 1. FC Kaiserslautern games. You quickly understand: Fritz Walter is a myth. And I not only had the great fortune of becoming a professional at FCK myself, but also the great honor of being able to get to know Fritz Walter personally," says Klose.
And further: "The modesty that Fritz Walter exuded despite all his successes captivated me. Fritz always said: 'It wasn't me that was important, only the team.' He had so much to tell and I wanted to find out so much about the game and his life as a footballer. I learned values from him."
Like many others. One sentence from Walter in particular remains in my memory: "Heroes fall in war. I am not a hero."
