Otto Nerz

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Otto Nerz
Personal information
Date of birth 21 October 1892[1]
Place of birth Hechingen, German Empire[1]
Date of death 19 April 1949(1949-04-19) (aged 56)[1]
Place of death NKVD special camp Nr. 7, Sachsenhausen, Allied-occupied Germany[1]
Position(s) Forward
Youth career
0000–1910 FG Hechingen
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1910–1919 VfR Mannheim
1919–1924 Tennis Borussia Berlin
Managerial career
1924–1926 Tennis Borussia Berlin
1926–1936 Germany
Medal record
Men's Football
Representing  Germany
FIFA World Cup
Third place 1934 Italy
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Otto Nerz (21 October 1892 – 18 April 1949) was a German footballer player and manager and the first head coach of the Germany national team between 1923 and 1936.

Biography

Nerz was born in

Eastern Front in Galicia and being invalided as a Vice-Sergeant in the reserve. In 1919 he became qualified as a gymnastic and sports teacher at the Badische Landsturnanstalt. In 1922 he entered the German University for Physical Education in Berlin where he lectured alongside studying. His interest in the treatment of sport injuries led to him also entering the medical profession, qualifying as a medical doctor by 1934.[2]

Nerz played as an amateur for VfR Mannheim and Tennis Borussia Berlin before being appointed as Germany's first national manager and selector in 1923. At the time, football was not a major sport in Germany, and German football was seen as considerably inferior to that played by other central European countries such as Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Italy. Nonetheless, under Nerz the team — initially considered one of the weakest in Europe — gradually developed some consistency towards the end of the 1920s and early 1930s. Nerz studied many league and cup games in England, as well as in Austria and Italy, and sought advice on coaching and tactics from internationally respected coaches such as Jimmy Hogan, Hugo Meisl and Vittorio Pozzo in a quest to improve the standards of the Germany national team.[2]

Germany declined to participate in the inaugural

Sweden; a semi-final defeat to Czechoslovakia was followed by a win over the hitherto heavily fancied Austrians to secure a third-place finish. This would be Germany's best international performance until the 1954 World Cup, and it provided a huge boost to the popularity of the sport in Germany.[2]

Nerz had joined the

Second World War. This, combined with his success in the World Cup, meant that the German government placed a high level of expectation on Nerz's team for the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, for which he was team coach.[1] However, Germany was eliminated early in the tournament after a shock defeat to rank outsiders Norway. Shortly thereafter, Nerz was relieved of his duties as coach and replaced by assistant coach Sepp Herberger.[2]

Following his dismissal from the Germany national team, Nerz took an administrative and coaching position with the football association of Berlin. In 1936 he became lecturer at the Reich Academy for Physical Exercise and in 1938 he was appointed by

Berlin-Britz. In December 1944 he introduced daily exercise regimes for military hospital patients.[2]

Due to his Nazi Party membership, he was arrested as a prisoner of war by the British after the Battle of Berlin, then handed over to the occupying Soviet authorities who later interned him in a camp in Sachsenhausen; after four years of imprisonment, he died of cerebral edema on or around 18 April 1949 and was buried in a mass grave on the site of the camp.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f [1] Otto Nerz at Olympedia.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Article by Erik Eggers, "..as it corresponds to his blood and race". Tennis Borussia website (in German).

External links

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