Lutz Eigendorf
Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Date of birth | 16 July 1956 | ||
Place of birth | Brandenburg, East Germany | ||
Date of death | 7 March 1983 | (aged 26)||
Place of death | Braunschweig, West Germany | ||
Height | 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in) | ||
Position(s) | Midfielder | ||
Youth career | |||
1964–1970 | BSG Motor Süd Brandenburg | ||
1970–1974 | BFC Dynamo | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
1974–1975 | BFC Dynamo II | 5 | (1) |
1974–1979 | BFC Dynamo | 100 | (7) |
1980–1982 | 1. FC Kaiserslautern | 53 | (7) |
1982–1983 | Eintracht Braunschweig | 8 | (2) |
International career | |||
1978–1979 | East Germany | 6 | (3) |
*Club domestic league appearances and goals |
Lutz Eigendorf (16 July 1956 – 7 March 1983) was a German professional footballer who played as a midfielder.
East German career
Eigendorf was born in
International career
He made his debut for the East Germany national football team in an August 1978 match against Bulgaria, immediately scoring his first two goals in a 2–2 draw. He went on to collect six caps, scoring three goals.[2] His final international was a February 1979 friendly match against Iraq.
Defection to the West
BFC Dynamo travelled to
This was not the first time an East German athlete had fled to the west, but it was a particularly embarrassing defection. Eigendorf's club BFC Dynamo was under the patronage of the Stasi, East Germany's secretive state police, and subject to the personal attentions of the organisation's head, Erich Mielke. After his defection Eigendorf openly criticised East Germany in the western media.
His wife Gabriele remained behind in Berlin with their daughter and was placed under constant police surveillance. Lawyers working for the Stasi quickly arranged a divorce and Gabriele Eigendorf remarried. Her new husband was eventually revealed as a Romeo agent codenamed Lothario. A Romeo agent was an agent of the state police whose role it was to spy on a suspect while romancing them.
Death under suspicious circumstances
In 1983, Eigendorf moved from Kaiserslautern to join Eintracht Braunschweig, all the while under the scrutiny of the Stasi who employed a number of West Germans as informants. On 5 March of that year, he was badly injured in a suspicious traffic accident in which he had driven his car into a tree. Apparently, a large truck had blinded him by turning on its main headlights just as Eigendorf was approaching a curve. He died at the hospital within two days. An autopsy indicated a high blood alcohol level despite the testimony of people he had met with that evening which indicated that Eigendorf had only drunk a small amount of beer. The police ruled the case an accident and Eigendorf was buried without autopsy.
Supporters of BFC Dynamo started a fan club named after Eigendorf.[5] They unfolded a banner in honour of Eigendorf with the text "Iron Foot, we mourn you!" (German: Eisenfuß, wir trauern um dich!) during a match at the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark in April 1983.[6][7] This event was considered particularly alarming by the authorities.[6][7] The Stasi assigned a group of two full-time officers from the district administration to the supporter scene of BFC Dynamo during the 1982–83 season.[8][6] From that point on, supporters of BFC Dynamo were accompanied, observed and documented by the Stasi.[6]
Investigation into suspected assassination
After German reunification and the subsequent opening of the files of the former East Germany's state security service, the public prosecutor's office in Berlin started an investigation into the possible murder of Eigendorf by the Stasi, but in 2004 the case was closed. In 2011, despite public pressure, the prosecutor's office did not see any objective evidence of third-party involvement, and suspicions of a contract killing could not be corroborated, so the case was not reopened and the allegations lingered.[9] Filmmaker Heribert Schwan investigated the events surrounding Eigendorf's death and presented the results in the documentary Tod dem Verräter (Death to the Traitor) broadcast on German television on 22 March 2000.[10] A former East German spy alleged in 2010 that the Stasi had ordered him to kill Eigendorf, which the spy claimed not to have personally done.[11][3] The thesis that an angry Erich Mielke arranged for the murder of Eigendorf is merely speculative, and it is unsupported by the facts.[12]
References
- RSSSF.com. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
- RSSSF.com. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
- ^ a b Petrossian, Shahan. "Tales of Defection: The Cold War's Impact on the Game". theantiquefootball.com. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
- ^ Krauss, Martin (28 July 201). "Das Spiel mit der Geschichte". Die Tageszeitung (in German). Berlin: taz Verlags u. Vertriebs GmbH. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
- ^ Schwermer, Alina (15 May 2019). "Der Ost-Ost-Konflikt". Die Tageszeitung (in German). Berlin: taz Verlags u. Vertriebs GmbH. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
- ^ a b c d Hahn, Anne (31 August 2007). "Hooligans in der DDR: Feuerwerk am hellichten Tag". Der Freitag (in German). Berlin: der Freitag Mediengesellschaft mbh & Co. KG. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
- ^ ISBN 978-3-00-039788-2.
- ^ Leue, Gunnar (22 January 2015). ""Was macht die Staatsmacht jetzt?" – Ein ehemaliger Stasi-Mann über Berliner "Fußballrowdys"". 11 Freunde (in German). Berlin: 11FREUNDE Verlag GmbH & Co. KG.
- ^ "- Die politische Brisanz falsch eingeschätzt". Deutschlandfunk (in German). Retrieved 14 April 2019.
- ^ Clark Kent (4 December 2016), "Tod dem Verräter" - Der Fall des Lutz Eigendorf, archived from the original on 14 December 2021, retrieved 14 April 2019
- ^ "Mordauftrag von der StasiDer Fall Lutz Eigendorf" (in German). bild.de. 10 February 2010. Retrieved 7 February 2011.
- ISBN 978-1-107-05203-1.
Gallery
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Lutz Eigendorf (right) in a duel with Harald Irmscher (left) of FC Carl Zeiss Jena during match on 1 March 1975.
See also
External links
- Lutz Eigendorf at WorldFootball.net
- Lutz Eigendorf at National-Football-Teams.com
- The curious case of Lutz Eigendorf – Part 1 Archived 21 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine – writer: Uli Hesse, from ESPN Soccernet
- The curious case of Lutz Eigendorf – Part 2 Archived 21 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine – writer: Uli Hesse, from ESPN Soccernet