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New York Times
5 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
How West Germany won the 1954 World Cup: Herberger tactics, injured Puskas, group stage mind games?
This is the fifth in a series on The Athletic looking back at the winners of each men's World Cup. The previous four articles have looked at Uruguay in 1930, Italy in 1934 and Italy again in 1938, before Uruguay themselves won it for a second time in 1950. So it's about time someone else stepped up… There are two clear examples in World Cup history of the most exciting team at the tournament, and the neutral's favourites, being foiled by West Germany in the final. The most obvious example is the Netherlands in 1974, but two decades beforehand, Hungary experienced almost exactly the same thing. Advertisement If anything, it was even more egregious because this legendary Hungary side had previously destroyed West Germany 8-3 in the group stage — a huge victory, even by the standards of a World Cup that featured a record goals-per-game tally of 5.38. At that point, there seemed little chance anyone would stop the Olympic champions Hungary, let alone the Germans. But this was a remarkable triumph for West Germany, less than 10 years after the end of the Second World War. It was the first tournament they'd entered since then, having been banned from FIFA leading up to World Cup 1950. While overt demonstrations of nationalism had been avoided going into the tournament, the shock success (half the teams were seeded going into the tournament, and West Germany weren't among them) brought a newfound sense of national pride as West Germany rebuilt itself after the war. A talented striker who played three times for his country, Sepp Herberger is perhaps more notable for having served in both World Wars, although according to his own testimony he was never involved in armed conflict. In keeping with other German managers in the 20th century, he served as assistant before becoming the outright manager, leading Germany at World Cup 1938, and then having a 14-year second spell in charge from 1950 onwards. Herberger was both a good tactician and a canny man-manager. He used to motivate his players by reading out critical press reports from back home, telling them to prove journalists wrong. He thought as much about which players should room together as he did his side's formation. He was variously depicted as both a strict disciplinarian and also an emotionally intelligent father figure to the players. When he returned home after the tournament, he found that his home had a new address — he now lived on 'Sepp-Herberger-Strasse'. The WM formation was on the way out. Hungary were the poster boys for the shift away from that system. But Herberger was canny too, and his approach for that final was first and foremost based around stopping Hungary. West Germany's formation in the final started to resemble something like the systems we would recognise in the modern era, with left-half Karl Mai performing a man-marking job on Sandor Kocsis and ending up as more defender than midfielder. Kocsis had scored 11 goals in the tournament, but was relatively quiet in the final. The job of tracking Nandor Hidegkuti — whose drifts into deep positions had flummoxed England in Hungary's famous 6-3 win at Wembley the previous year — was handed to midfielder Horst Eckel rather than a defender. In turn, captain Fritz Walter and Max Morlock played deep and were regularly involved in build-up play. There was an impressive level of fluidity in the side, with right-winger Helmut Rahn tending to stick to his role, but the others rotating within matches. Rahn was an explosive and unpredictable winger, somewhat out of keeping with what Herberger wanted from his players. His quality, though, was impossible to ignore and he scored twice in the final, when Herberger encouraged his players to attack down the flanks rather than through the middle. Advertisement But the most-discussed element of Herberger's tactics was his team selection for the 8-3 group stage defeat to Hungary, where he made seven changes from the opening day win over Turkey. Clearly, this was not a tactical decision in the traditional sense, and there was such anger from the hordes of travelling German supporters that some called for him to resign midway through the tournament (not an entirely unlikely concept — in this World Cup, Scotland manager Andy Beattie resigned after his side's first game). What was the reason for his selection? It seems clear Herberger was resting his best players as he didn't think his side had much chance of beating Hungary. Some suspected he was also trying to engineer his side coming second in the group, to be on the easier side of the knockout stage bracket. And, once West Germany had prevailed in the final, the story became that Herberger had fielded a weakened side to lure Hungary into a false sense of security. Maybe that was the outcome, but was it really the intention? While centre-halves had been the dominant figures in international football before the Second World War, their retreat into central defence meant the inside-forwards became the stars in the middle part of the 20th century. This West German side was no different. Fritz Walter, whose brother Ottmar played as the side's centre-forward, was a prodigiously talented inside-left who was adored by Herberger, who gave him special treatment and handed him the captain's armband. This was despite Walter coming in for particular criticism in the years before this success, especially after a 3-1 loss to France in 1952. He offered to retire from the national side, but Herberger insisted he remained the side's main man. That paid off in 1954. Although criticised for his sluggishness in the group stage, he came alive in the 2-0 counter-attacking quarter-final victory over Czechoslovakia, and scored two penalties in the 6-1 semi-final win against Austria. But it was about more than just goals — he was the side's creative force, roughly their equivalent of Puskas. Advertisement Walter had contracted malaria during his time as a prisoner of war, and found it difficult to play well in hot conditions. Most of World Cup 1954 was not to his liking, but in the final week the temperatures cooled, and the final was played on a damp day. Walter was the first person to be awarded honorary citizenship of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate — the award has never been handed out again. West Germany tended to come on strong in the second halves of matches. Immediately after the tournament, plenty of credit was given to cobbler-turned-entrepreneur Adi Dassler — the founder of Adidas — for designing innovative new boots featuring screw-in studs, allowing the players to choose short or long ones according to the weather, supposedly a major advantage when the conditions changed midway through the final. But there may have been a less glamorous explanation. After the final there were reports of used syringes being found in the West Germany dressing room. The team officials insisted the players had been injected only with vitamin C, an explanation later ridiculed by medical experts, who said it would have been no more effective than eating an orange. Several players contracted jaundice in the aftermath, experienced further health problems, and many later admitted receiving injections at the tournament. Investigations into this continued for over half a century. A 2013 report from Humboldt University suggested the syringes contained methamphetamine, as detailed further by The New York Times. A genuinely thrilling game that featured two goals for either side in the first 20 minutes. Both continued to play good football, until the game was won in the closing minutes. The real story was that Puskas was back in the Hungary side for the first time since getting injured against West Germany in the group phase, and despite not being fully fit, he opened the scoring with a calm finish after a loose ball in the box fell his way. Hungary quickly made it two after a terrible mix-up between left-back Werner Kohlmeyer and goalkeeper Toni Turek. But 2-0, of course, is a dangerous lead. Max Morlock got one back with — it must be said — the third scrappy goal of the game, turning home a deflected cross. Then Rahn arrived at the far post to fire home a deep corner, after Hungarian goalkeeper Gyula Grosics tried to claim, but was blocked off by Hans Schafer. Grosics always claimed he was fouled, but by the standards of 1950s refereeing it's not a surprise the goal was given. Hungary had the better chances. Hidegkuti hit the post, Kocsis headed against the bar, Turek made some fine saves, and Kohlmeyer made up for his earlier error with a couple of goal-line clearances. Comprehensive statistics aren't available, but it's fair to suspect that Hungary won on the xG. In West Germany, the defining moment was Rahm's winner in the 84th minute, when he surprised the Hungary defence by cutting inside onto his left foot and firing into the far corner — a goal that feels very modern in this age of inverted wingers. In Hungary, the defining moment came in the 86th minute, when Puskas squeezed home what he thought was an equaliser, only to be denied by an offside flag from Welsh linesman Sandy Griffiths. There are no clear television pictures to show whether the decision was correct. Advertisement But maybe the defining moment came in the group stage meeting between the sides, when Puskas was kicked in the ankle by German centre-back Werner Liebrich — the third time he'd attempt to foul Puskas — which meant he missed the subsequent games up until the final, when he played despite clearly being short of 100 per cent fitness. No. The final was Hungary's only defeat in a long run of 49 matches. They'd thrashed the (second string) West Germany side 8-3 in the group stage. They'd defeated the two 'finalists' from World Cup 1950, Brazil and Uruguay, 4-2 in quarter-final and semi-final respectively. They'd coped for most of the tournament without Puskas, the world's best player. Throw in the doping allegations, and Hungary's loss must be considered one of football's greatest injustices. Hungary never made it past the quarter-finals again, and on their most recent three appearances — 1978, 1982 and 1986 — didn't make it past the group stage. The boost to West Germany shouldn't be underestimated, both in pure footballing terms and as an important moment of renewed optimism in the post-war period. Few others around the world, though, shared their joy. (Top picture: Getty Images, design Eamonn Dalton)
Wall Street Journal
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
The Alienated ‘Knowledge Class' Could Turn Violent
In the 1970s, Western democracies faced a wave of political violence. In the U.S., a radical left-wing group called the Weather Underground bombed federal buildings to protest the Vietnam War. In West Germany, the Red Army Faction waged armed resistance against what it saw as a fascist state. Italy's Red Brigades kidnapped and assassinated public figures, including former Prime Minister Aldo Moro. These groups shared a trait: Many members were highly educated, middle- or upper-middle-class young people. These weren't the oppressed proletariat of Marxist theory, but the disillusioned children of privilege and university lecture halls. A similar dynamic could take root in the U.S. As the Trump administration downsizes public agencies, dismantles DEI programs and slashes academic research funding, it risks producing a new class of people who are highly educated but institutionally excluded. History suggests this group may become a source of unrest—and possibly violence.
Bloomberg
21-05-2025
- General
- Bloomberg
How Can Europe Deter Putin? Revive the ‘Reforger'
When I was a junior officer during the Cold War, the biggest North Atlantic Treaty Organization military training exercises — perhaps the largest in history — were annual drills called Exercise Reforger. The goal was to ensure NATO's ability to deploy troops rapidly to West Germany if war broke out between the alliance and the Soviet Union's Warsaw Pact nations. 'Reforger' was a loose acronym of 'Return of Forces to Germany.' The first Reforger was held in 1969, and they ran annually through 1993, just after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. Forces from every country in the alliance participated, although the bulk of them were American — drawn from the 400,000 US troops stationed in Europe at the height of the Cold War.
The Independent
12-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Richard von Weizsäcker: Germany's President who served in Hitler's army but later promoted tolerance and became his country's conscience
Richard von Weizsäcker was a former soldier in Hitler's army who used his largely ceremonial office as president of Germany to denounce his country's Nazi past and to condemn intolerance toward immigrants and other minorities. Von Weizsäcker was elected president of West Germany in 1984 and held the office as the country's formal head of state for 10 years. During that time he helped oversee reunification with East Germany in 1990. In the German parliamentary system, the Chancellor is the head of government and exercises more authority over the policies of the government than the President (Helmut Kohl was Germany's Chancellor throughout von Weizsäcker's tenure as president). But the aristocratic, white-haired von Weizsäcker became, perhaps, the most country's popular political figure. He was, in essence, his country's chief ambassador and used his presidential office as a platform to promote important matters of national and moral principle. In an address to the Bundestag, the German parliament, on 8 May 1985 – the 40th anniversary of Germany's surrender at the end of the Second World War – von Weizsäcker directed a cleansing spotlight on the country's greatest shame when he challenged his compatriots to take responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. He dismissed the commonly held notion that ordinary German citizens were not aware of the actions of the Nazi regime. "There were many ways of not burdening one's conscience, of shunning responsibility, looking away, keeping mum," he said. "When the unspeakable truth of the Holocaust then became known at the end of the war, all too many of us claimed they had not known anything about it or even suspected anything. Who could remain unsuspecting after the burning of the synagogues, the plundering, the stigmatisation of the Star of David, the deprivation of rights, the ceaseless violation of human dignity?" Von Weizsäcker, who spent seven years as an infantry officer during the war, was a potent symbol of national reflection and reconciliation. "Anyone who closes his eyes to the past," he said, "is blind to the present." He called on Germans to view 8 May not as a day of national surrender but as, he suggested, "a day of liberation. It freed us all from the system of National Socialist tyranny." Von Weizsäcker's forthright speech echoed around the world, and he was hailed as his country's moral conscience. He travelled to Israel in 1985, attended the German premiere of the film Schindler's List with the Israeli ambassador and in 1993 visited the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. "President Weizsäcker has had a major, positive influence in enhancing Germany's role and reputation on the world stage," the US ambassador to Germany, Richard Holbrooke, said in 1994. He repeatedly spoke out against intolerance toward immigrants and other minorities and attended memorial services for Turkish victims of neo-Nazi violence. He also took a leading role in preparing Germany for reunification. As mayor of West Berlin in the early 1980s he had been the first leader from the democratic western part of the country to cross the border and conduct talks with his counterparts in communist-controlled East Berlin. Throughout the 1990s he travelled extensively round eastern Europe, assuring his country's neighbours that Germany was no longer, as he put it, "haunted by Teutonic dreams of national power". As early as 1985 he had urged Germans on both sides of the divide to think of themselves as one nation, and he was among the first leaders to call for the national capital to return to Berlin. During a four-day state visit to Britain in 1986, he addressed a joint session of the Houses of Parliament, the first German to be accorded that honour. Richard Karl von Weizsäcker was born in 1920 in his family's castle in Stuttgart. He was from an aristocratic family of statesmen, theologians and scholars and had the inherited title of Freiherr, or Baron. His father Ernst was a senior official in the Nazi foreign ministry and served as German ambassador to the Vatican. An older brother, Carl Friedrich, was part of a team of German scientists that tried unsuccessfully to develop a nuclear bomb during the Second World War. Von Weizsäcker studied at Oxford and the University of Grenoble, his time in England highlighting in his mind the difference between a fully-functioning democracy and the authoritarian regime he had left behind. He joined the German army in 1938 and took part in the invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939. Two days later his older brother Heinrich was killed in battle, which deeply affected von Weizsäcker's view of the war. Stationed on the eastern front in Russia in 1943, von Weizsäcker later recalled, he and other German officers shot holes in a portrait of Hitler, and several of his friends took part in the failed plot to assassinate Hitler in 1944. After the war von Weizsäcker studied law at the University of Göttingen and when his father was charged with sending French Jews to Auschwitz he joined his defence team during the Nuremberg trials. His father was sentenced to seven years' jail, which was later reduced to five, and was released in 1950; Winston Churchill had described his sentence as "a deadly error". Richard received a doctorate in law and worked for the Mannesmann steel conglomerate before being elected to parliament in 1969; he was mayor of West Berlin from 1981 to 1984. He wrote several books about history and politics in which he advocated a moderate, centrist approach for Germany as it entered the 21st century. When he left the presidency in 1994, he reflected on the powerful speech he had delivered nine years earlier, in which he asked Germans to own up to the legacy of the Holocaust. "I wouldn't take back a single word of that speech today," he said. µ MATT SCHUDEL Richard Karl von Weizsäcker, soldier, lawyer, politician and statesman: born Stuttgart 15 April 1920; married Marianne von Kretschmann (three children); died 31 January 2015.
Times
23-04-2025
- Sport
- Times
Leo Beenhakker obituary: football manager who revived Real Madrid
When Bobby Robson took England to the World Cup semi-final in 1990, he first had to outwit his charismatic Dutch counterpart Leo Beenhakker. Stalking the touchline and smoking a cheroot, Beenhakker had a face like thunder as a Paul Gascoigne-inspired England had the better of a 0-0 draw and went on to top the group. Holland were the European champions with a glittering array of talent, including Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard, Marco van Basten and Ronald Koeman, but they were soon dumped out of the World Cup in the second round after a bad-tempered defeat to West Germany. When Beenhakker had agreed to become coach before the tournament, players were already bickering about who would play in which position and reportedly wanted Johan Cruyff to be appointed coach. Not even Beenhakker's famed motivational skills could bring harmony. Yet his pedigree as a coach was not in doubt. Between 1987 and 1989 Beenhakker had won three consecutive La Liga titles for Real Madrid, doing so in a style and swagger that earned him the sobriquet 'Don Leo' in the Spanish press. A slightly professorial figure with long fair hair, he studiously built a team around the five young homegrown players Emilio Butragueño, Manolo Sanchís, Rafael Martín Vázquez, Míchel and Miguel Pardeza, who became known as the 'La Quinta del Buitre' (the Vulture's Cohort). They were augmented by the Mexican goal machine Hugo Sánchez, and Beenhakker added the temperamental but gifted German midfielder Bernd Schuster to create a team good enough to win the European Cup (now the Champions League) for the first time in two decades. Yet in each of his seasons there the club was knocked out in the semi-final. In his final year at the club he dropped the talismanic Butragueño (nicknamed 'the Vulture'). 'Will the Madrid public and the press accept this from me, a foreigner?' asked Beenhakker, a man of dry, knowing humour. 'Emilio is one of the untouchables here yet what I did was the best for the team. It was my risk.' The gamble did not pay off. Beenhakker left the club in April 1989 after Real lost 6-1 on aggregate to AC Milan. As a young coach in Holland, Beenhakker had been a student of Rinus Michels, the father of 'Total Football', characterised by fluid movement and interchanging of positions and perfected by the great Ajax side of the early Seventies and the Holland team that reached the final of the World Cup in 1974 and 1978. Beenhakker would go on to manage Ajax and win the Dutch title in 1980. Despite success he had to deal with sniping from Cruyff, Holland's most celebrated player, who was critical of the fact that Beenhakker had never been a top-level player. Beenhakker produced one of his characteristic aphorisms in response, 'You can be a very good milkman without having ever been a cow.' Leo Beenhakker was born in Rotterdam in 1942 after the city had been all but obliterated by German bombs, and what was left of it was under Nazi occupation. After the early death of his father Hendrik from leukaemia, Leo trained as an electrician to support his mother Neeltje. His playing career as a right winger at amateur level in the Netherlands ended when he was forced to retire aged 26 because of a knee injury. Beenhakker would manage smaller Dutch clubs. After a spell as the youth coach at Feyenoord, he was surprisingly given his chance at Ajax in 1979. He would go on to manage Real Zaragoza in Spain for three years before being appointed coach of a faltering Holland side in 1985, failing to steer them to qualification for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. In his second spell at Ajax from 1989, he nurtured a young Dennis Bergkamp, who would go on to become a Premier League legend at Arsenal. Ajax won the title again under Beenhakker in 1990. For much of the Nineties he coached around the world, and was notably sacked as the coach of Saudi Arabia before the World Cup in 1994 after the players rejected his demand that they train every day. That year he nearly realised his dream of managing in Premier League. He was reportedly close to agreeing to take charge at Tottenham Hotspur, but unable to commit himself to the club immediately. Beenhakker, who was divorced and is survived by a son, Erwin, and a daughter, Mariska, went on to win his third Dutch title, this time with Feyenoord, in 1999. In 2000 he returned to Ajax as technical director and signed a young striker called Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Of all his 30 or so managerial posts, arguably his greatest achievement was with Trinidad and Tobago. When he arrived in April 2005, the small Caribbean nation of 1.3 million people sat last in the North American, Central American and Caribbean qualifying group. By giving a squad of mostly modest talents belief in themselves, Beenhakker moulded them into a competitive team that became the smallest nation to qualify for the Fifa World Cup when they beat Bahrain 1-0 in November 2005, prompting wild celebrations in the capital, Port of Spain. At the finals in Germany in 2006, the 'Soca Warriors' held Sweden to a 0-0 draw. They then prevented England from scoring for 83 minutes until Peter Crouch scored a contentious goal and Steven Gerrard added a second in the last minute to make the result seem more comfortable than it was. Trinidad and Tobago exited the tournament with honour; Beenhakker was awarded the Chaconia Medal (Gold Class), the second highest state decoration of Trinidad and Tobago. Asked if it had taken a miracle to get Trinidad and Tobago to the World Cup, he replied: 'No, we just came by plane.'
