[BITList] Goalkeeping with a broken neck

[John Feltham]

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Trautmann,  Bernhard Carl  [Bert]  (1923-2013), footballer, was born on 22 October 1923 in Bremen, Germany, the elder of two surviving sons (another, older, brother died shortly after birth) of Carl Trautmann, an engineer who worked at the docks in Bremen, and his wife, Frieda, nee Elster. A keen sportsman from a young age, he excelled at handball, football, and volkerball (a version of dodgeball). He was a bright student but lost interest in academic study, concentrating instead on sport and other outdoor activities. At eight he joined Blau and Weiss (later part of Tura Bremen), a local amateur football club. Two years later, in 1933, he became part of the Deutsches Jungvolk, a branch of the Hitler Youth for ten- to fourteen-year-olds, joining the organization proper in 1937. Tall and athletic, with blonde hair and good looks, he shone in his time in the Hitler Youth. Among other achievements, he finished second in the national Youth Olympics in three separate disciplines-the 60 metre race, long jump, and grenade throwing-at Berlin's Olympic stadium in 1938.

Following a short period as an apprentice motor mechanic, Trautmann enlisted with the Luftwaffe in March 1941. He failed a course to become a radio operator, but when Hitler's invasion of Russia began in the summer of 1941 he was sent to the eastern front as a mechanic in a motorized unit. He spent time in a military prison after a prank involving a car engine went wrong and a colleague was injured. In October 1941, after being cut off from his unit during a patrol, he witnessed a mass shooting of civilians by Einsatzgruppen troops. It was an episode he chose not to talk about until late in life. In 1942 he retrained as a paratrooper and was sent to fight Russian partisans. He was later transferred, in May 1944, to France to help construct the 'Atlantic Wall', intended to repel an anticipated allied invasion. He narrowly escaped death when he was buried for two days after a bomb hit a local school where he was sheltering. In March 1945 he was captured by a British signals unit in Belgium and shortly afterwards was moved to a prisoner-of-war camp in Ashton in Makerfield in Lancashire.

Assigned as a driver for officers at the camp, Trautmann established cordial relations with the guards and the civilians he met. Originally playing matches among themselves, the POWs soon established a strong football team which was allowed to compete against local sides. Trautmann first played as a centre-half but then after an injury moved to goal, where his talent was immediately evident. He attracted the attention of the local amateur club St Helens Town, whom he joined in 1948 shortly after his official release from prisoner-of-war status. He thrived at St Helens, where he was mentored by club secretary John Frederick (Jack) Friar. He moved into the Friars' house for a short time, establishing a close relationship with the whole family. On 30 March 1950 he married Margaret Friar (b. 1929/30), Jack's eldest daughter, at St John's Church, Ravenhead, St Helens. They had three sons, John (b. 1950), Stephen (b. 1958), and Mark (b. 1960). John was killed while crossing the road in 1956.

A number of professional clubs became interested in buying Trautmann and in October 1949 he agreed to join first division Manchester City. The signing of a former German prisoner of war so soon after the conflict, and for a club based in a city with a large Jewish population, proved controversial. Hundreds of letters of protest were sent to the club, local newspapers, and Trautmann himself. 'When I think of all those millions of Jews who were tortured and murdered, I can only marvel at Manchester City's crass stupidity', wrote a 'Disgusted season ticket holder'  (Steppes to Wembley, 45). But there were letters of support too, and the public interjection of the communal rabbi in Manchester, who stated that it was wrong 'to punish an individual German ... out of hatred', helped to quell the storm  (ibid.,  46). So too did the publicized comments of City captain Eric Westwood (who had taken part in the D-day landings and been mentioned in dispatches) that there was 'no war in this dressing room'  (Rowlands, 91); though privately Westwood had expressed his reservations about Trautmann's arrival. The quality and courage displayed during his early appearances in goal also helped. A particular turning point was his first match in London, when he ignored the insults of the Fulham crowd to produce a masterful goalkeeping performance in a 1-0 defeat. At the end of the match he was applauded by the whole crowd and players from both teams.

Trautmann soon established himself as an important player in a struggling Manchester City team. During the early 1950s, according to teammate Don Revie, Trautmann 'stood between City and heavy defeat more times than I care to remember'  (Rowlands, 246). He was a tall, athletic, and imposing figure with excellent positioning, good reflexes, and a reputation for anticipating where the ball was going to be shot. His record of stopping 60 per cent of the penalties he faced throughout his career was extraordinary. He was also known for the accuracy, distance, and speed of his throwing, distributing the ball not with the over-arm method favoured by most English goalkeepers but an unusual straight-arm technique which 'pushed' the ball through the air. This became central to the so-called 'Revie Plan', based on the system developed by the great Hungary side of the time, which City employed to great effect during the 1954-5 season.

Because he played outside Germany, Trautmann was never considered for selection by the West German national side. On two occasions, in 1952 and 1953, he seriously contemplated moving to West German football; in the first case, he travelled to Germany, met representatives from Schalke 04, and wrote an open letter to fans in the Manchester Evening Chronicle declaring his desire to leave City so that he could look after his family in Bremen. But neither his wife nor the City directors wanted him to go and the deals fell through.

Trautmann's greatest achievements came in the FA cup. In 1955 he reached the final with Manchester City but, forced to play most of the match with ten men when Jimmy Meadows was injured, they were beaten 3-1 by Newcastle United. The following season was Trautmann's most successful. City finished fourth in the first division, Trautmann was named footballer of the year (the first goalkeeper and foreign player to receive the honour), and another cup final appearance at Wembley ended in a 3-1 victory against Birmingham City. However, the match is best remembered for an incident in the seventy-fourth minute, when Trautmann dived at the feet of Birmingham's Peter Murphy and was knocked unconscious after colliding with the forward's leg. He recovered and finished the match. Only later was it revealed that he had in fact broken his neck. The incident confirmed Trautmann in the public mind as a man of unusual courage, and established him as a hero on the terraces at Maine Road for many decades.

Trautmann recovered from injury and remained first choice goalkeeper at Manchester City for another seven seasons, finally retiring in 1964. He had wanted to stay on at City as a coach but was disappointed when the club showed no interest in keeping him. In October 1964 he became manager of Stockport County but fell out with the chairman two years later. By this time he had renewed his connections with German football. He acted as attache for the West German team during the 1966 world cup in England and managed two clubs in the German regional leagues. In 1972 he began working as a coach through the German Football Association's overseas programme. His greatest success was during his first engagement in Burma, where he coached the national side at the 1972 Olympic games in Munich and won the president's cup for South-East Asian nations twice. He divorced Margaret in 1971 and while in Burma met Ursula (Ushi) von der Heyde, a German national working for the industrial firm Fritz Werner. They married in 1973 and moved together when he took up further coaching positions in Tanzania, Liberia, and Pakistan. But the relationship broke down and they divorced in 1982.

Further postings to North Yemen and Malta followed before Trautmann retired from his position with the German FA in October 1988. He had married again on 4 July 1987, to Marlis Winau, like Ursula from Rudesheim, near Koblenz, a divorcee who owned a printing business. In 1990 he was reunited with Freda (b. 1948), a child from an early relationship with a local Ashton in Makerfield girl, Marion Greenall, before he married Margaret. In 2003 he set up the Trautmann Foundation, designed to improve Anglo-German relations through sporting camps and exchanges for young people, and he was made an OBE the following year for his work in encouraging better understanding between Britain and Germany. He was voted by the Football League as one of the best 100 players of the century in 2000 and remained a popular figure in Manchester, even being invited to open the rebuilt Kippax stand at Maine Road in November 1995. He suffered two heart attacks early in 2013 and died at home in La Llosa, Valencia, Spain, on 19 July 2013. He was survived by his wife, Marlis, and three children.

Matthew Taylor 

Sources  B. Trautmann and E. Todd, Steppes to Wembley (1956) + D. Downing, The best of enemies: England v. Germany (2000) + P. Lanfranchi and M. Taylor, Moving with the ball: the migration of professional footballers (2001) + N. Harris, England, their England: the definitive story of foreign footballers in the English game since 1888 (2003) + J. Ramsden, Don't mention the war: the British and the Germans since 1890 (2006) + C. Clay, Trautmann's journey: from Hitler Youth to FA cup legend (2011) + Daily Telegraph (20 July 2013) + The Guardian (20 July 2013) + m. cert. [1950]
Likenesses  photograph, 1953, Rex Features, London [see illus.] · Popperfoto, photograph, 1955, Getty Images, London · P. Popper, photograph, 1956, Getty Images, London · photograph, 1959, Allsport Hulton Archive · Popperfoto, photograph, 1962, Getty Images, London · P. Grover, photograph, 2010, Rex Features, London



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