Bert Trautmann

Bert Trautmann OBE (born October 22, 1923 in Bremen, Germany, real name: Bernhard Carl Trautmann) is a German football goalkeeper who played for Manchester City for many years.

Related Topics:
OBE - October 22 - 1923 - Bremen - Germany - Football - Goalkeeper - Manchester City

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He was born in Bremen. It was a time of much troubles in this German city, but he had a good life at that time. When he was ten he joined the football club Tura Bremen, in the early years he played on the left side of the midfield. From 1933 he had to join the Hitler Youth.

Related Topics:
Bremen - 1933 - Hitler Youth

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In the Second World War he was a paratrooper in western Russia. He was captured by the Russians and escaped, but was finally captured by the British. The English greeted him with the words "Hello Fritz, fancy a cup of tea?". He was brought to POW Camp 50 at Ashton, near Manchester. In football matches between two camps he always played on the right midfield, but one day they had no goalkeeper and so Bert tried it and performed very well. It was during this time he became known as 'Bert,' as the English had trouble pronouncing 'Bernd,' the abbreviated version of his name.

Related Topics:
Second World War - Paratrooper - Russia - Ashton - Manchester

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After the war he stayed in Britain and played for the Liverpool County Combination club St Helens Town. During a friendly match against Manchester City, club officials were so impressed by him that they signed him to a lucratve contract. The fans of City, however, were not happy about having a former member of the Luftwaffe on the team. Season ticket holders threatened a boycott and various groups in Manchester and around the country bombarded the club with protest letters. Twenty thousand people demonstrated against the signing, holding banners like "Off with the German". Besides the issues with his nationality, Trautmann also was replacing Frank Swift, one of the greatest goalies in the club's history. After his first matches for City, however, the protests died when the fans discovered his talent.

Related Topics:
St Helens Town - Luftwaffe - Boycott - Frank Swift

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One of Bert Trautmann's greatest matches was the legendary 1956 FA Cup Final between Manchester City and Birmingham City at Wembley Stadium. In the 75th minute Manchester led 3–1 and Trautmann, diving at an incoming ball, was knocked out in a collision with a Birmingham attacker when he was hit in the neck. For the remaining 15 minutes he defended his net, because at the time there were no substitutions possible. Manchester City held on for the victory, and the hero of the final was Bert Trautmann, due to his spectacular saves in the last minutes of the match. Three days later, an x-ray revealed he had a broken vertebrae in his neck.

Related Topics:
1956 - FA Cup - Birmingham City - Wembley Stadium - Substitution - X-ray - Vertebrae

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He appeared in 545 matches for City during a 15 year period between 1949 and 1964. He had no caps for Germany, because the German manager Sepp Herberger did not call up German players who were playing in other countries. He won the FWA Footballer of the Year Award in 1956 for his FA Cup heroics, and was also in the FA Cup final in 1955. In 1964 he finished his career with a testimonial in front of a crowd of 60,000 people, quite a change from the crowd that initially didn't want a Nazi. At this testimonial Bobby Moore, the captain of the English national team, called him one of the greatest goalkeepers ever. Russian 'keeper Lev Yashin had this to say: 'There have only been two world-class goalkeepers. One was Lev Yashin, the other was the German boy who played in Manchester — Trautmann.'

Related Topics:
1949 - 1964 - Cap - Sepp Herberger - FWA Footballer of the Year - 1956 - 1955 - Testimonial - Nazi - Bobby Moore - Captain - English national team - Lev Yashin

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He married a Manchester woman in 1950, with whom he had a son, who was born in 1951 and was killed in a car accident a few months after the FA Cup Final in 1956. He was divorced from his wife in the 1960s. After leaving City Trautmann played briefly for Wellington Town before an unsuccessful spell as general manager of Stockport County in 1965/66. After this, the German Football Association sent him as a development worker to countries like Liberia, Nigeria and Yemen. Since 1990 he has lived with his second wife in a small bungalow on the Spanish coast near Valencia. He visits his old club Manchester City several times a year, and is still an idol for all generations of City supporters.

Related Topics:
1950 - 1951 - 1960s - City - Stockport County - Liberia - Nigeria - Yemen - 1990 - Spanish - Valencia

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On 28 October 2004 it was announced that Trautmann was to be awarded the Order of the British Empire for promoting British-German understanding through football.

Related Topics:
28 October - 2004 - Order of the British Empire

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