Bert Trautmann: From enemy to football hero

[TomS]

Just came home from this evening: http://www.weser-kurier.de/Artikel/Bremen/Stadtteile/Oestliche-Vorstadt/532245/Vom-Feind-zum-Fussballidol.html
English born journalist and translator Martin Rooney talked about the live of Bert.
An interesting evening where he talked nearly an hour about Bert´s growin up and his becoming of a footballer in the UK, afterwards there was a german 30 min. film about Bert from around year 2000.
A group of Bremen habitants try to persuade the Bremen mayor to honour Bert as a "Ehrenbürger" of the town by his 90th birthday....

Enjoyable evening!

[john68]

It is very sad that Bert is quite unknown in his own country. I have spoken to tons of football maqd Germans over the years, even some from Bremen who have never heard of him,

They can't quite believe that a German they have never heard of could have been such a huge legend in England, especiallyso soon after WW2.

He should have a statue in the main square...a fuclin great big one with a massive City flag waving in the breeze behind him.

[Trautmann]

It is very sad that Bert is quite unknown in his own country. I have spoken to tons of football maqd Germans over the years, even some from Bremen who have never heard of him,

They can't quite believe that a German they have never heard of could have been such a huge legend in England, especiallyso soon after WW2.

He should have a statue in the main square...a fuclin great big one with a massive City flag waving in the breeze behind him.

One thing to point to was how quickly the fans took to him after getting over their natural antipathy to a German POW--magnificent spirit and generosity of the City supporters. Welcome to Manchester, Herr Trautmann.

[Mikhail Chigorin]

Heard one story about Bert but I don't know if it's true, or not; perhaps someone can confirm/reject it ??

Allegedley, when Bert was captured in Normandy, in 1944, it was initially by an American unit. It looked as though they were going to shoot him so he hared off across a field to escape. Apparently, he crashed through a hedge and landed in the middle of a group of British 'Tommies' who were just brewing up. One of the soldiers calmly said to him words to the effect of "fancy a cuppa, Fritz ??"

If the story is true, it's frightening to think that Bert could have been shot after being captured and the history of City could have been measurably different; in my own case, it was Bert Trautmann who kicked off my lifelong love affair with this Club and can anyone even begin to imagine the 1956 Cup Final without Bert's courage and heroics, or his great performance in the 1955 Cup Final, even though we lost that particular game ??

On that basis, can anyone confirm this story ?? Part of me hopes it's not true, but the other part of me just shudders at the thought.

[john68]

Story confirmed Mikhail.
The other story about shooting that is relevent to City fans is that just before the Cup Final, he had received a threat that he would be shot during the game. The threat was taken seriously by the police and the club.

[Mikhail Chigorin]

Story confirmed Mikhail.
The other story about shooting that is relevent to City fans is that just before the Cup Final, he had received a threat that he would be shot during the game. The threat was taken seriously by the police and the club.

Thanks for confirming the story John; a very unsettling one all round.

Thank goodness our troops had the ingrained decency to act like human beings and thanks to the heavens for Bert Trautmann.

[Blue Since 76]

Thanks for confirming the story John; a very unsettling one all round.

Thank goodness our troops had the ingrained decency to act like human beings and thanks to the heavens for Bert Trautmann.

That story is in his biography. An interesting read, although there's not a lot about his time at City in it.

One tale, in Russia I think, where he's hiding from bombing in a house with other troops. He turns the wrong way and ends up in a small cupboard with another soldier. When he comes out the rest of the unit he was going to hide with had been killed by a direct hit. Wonder how many other future stars didn't make it through the war?

[john68]

Story confirmed Mikhail.
The other story about shooting that is relevent to City fans is that just before the Cup Final, he had received a threat that he would be shot during the game. The threat was taken seriously by the police and the club.

Thanks for confirming the story John; a very unsettling one all round.

Thank goodness our troops had the ingrained decency to act like human beings and thanks to the heavens for Bert Trautmann.

or maybe....even wars have to have tea breaks for our lads....:-)