World War 2

Wonder, death and rebirth – Austria Vienna in the 1930s

Posted on by gerrytastic

A simple photograph of four teammates, stars for club and country, in their homeland they are viewed as part of a footballing golden age, central to the rise of one of the strongest national teams in Europe. For their club they regularly challenged for trophies and beat the best that Europe had to offer. The photo shows the men in the jersey of the Austrian national team rather than their club FK Austria Vienna. It is taken around the early to mid-1930s with the players wearing thick white jerseys with lace-up collars, their hair slicked and brushed back in the style of the time. They look confident, at ease, a hint of a smile plays on more than one of their faces. By the end of that decade two of those men would be dead, one under mysterious circumstances that still provokes discussion to this day, and the other two? One would have to flee the newly arrived forces of Nazi Germany and escape the country with his Jewish wife, partly as a result of the actions of the man standing next to him; a committed fascist who helped overthrow the management of Austria Vienna. This is an attempt to tell the story of these four men – Matthias Sindelar, Karl Gall, Hans Mock and Walter Nausch and that of the club Austria Vienna, in their journey from triumph to tragedy in the 1930s.

In 1936 an Austrian side dubbed, the Wunderteam beat England 2-1 in Vienna. It was only the second time ever that the English had been beaten by Continental opposition after a defeat to Spain some seven years earlier. This was a special side, one born out of a vibrant and developing footballing culture. The Austrians were among the most progressive footballing nations in Continental Europe. Their league centred around the capital city of Vienna was the first on the Continent to go professional in 1924 and only a few years later the visionary Austrian coach and administrator Hugo Meisl helped create the Mitropa Cup or Central European Cup. This was one of the first international club tournaments and it began in 1927 and featured two top professional teams from Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, and later teams from Italy, Switzerland and Romania would enter as the tournament expanded.

By the 1930s the Austrians were a major force in European football, in 1931 they trounced Scotland 5-0 in Vienna, that result was sandwiched between a 0-0 draw with England (also in Vienna in 1930) before an unlucky 4-3 defeat to them in Stamford Bridge in 1932. And it wasn’t just the hapless Scots who the Austrians were racking up the goals against. Right after that win against Scotland the Austrians put six past the German national team in Berlin and five in the return fixture in Vienna. The following months would see them put eight past Switzerland in Basel and another eight past Hungary in Vienna. In 1932 and 1933 there were wins over Italy, Sweden, France and Belgium (twice) and the Netherlands as the Austrians geared up for the 1934 World Cup.

In qualification Austria had been drawn in a group with Hungary and Bulgaria but only had to play a single game, dispatching the Bulgarians with ease 6-1. Bulgaria had also suffered two defeats against Hungary and withdrew from qualifying which guaranteed Austria a spot in the World Cup in Italy after just a single game.

The 1934 tournament ran on a simple knock-out cup format without any group stages. Austria were drawn in the first round against France. Now, the Austrians had comfortably beaten the French 4-0 just a year earlier but faced a different proposition in the opening game of the World Cup. The French looked to curb the influence of the Austrians, centre-forward, talisman and playmaker Matthias Sindelar by man-marking him with their half-back Georges Verriest. Though Sindelar opened the scoring in the Stadio Benito Mussolini in Turin, it was a much tighter game and Austria only prevailed 3-2 after the French had taken the game into extra-time.

Austria defeated neighbours Hungary in the quarter finals by a margin of 2-1 in a bad-tempered game and were drawn against hosts Italy in the semi-finals. The hosts won the match 1-0 thanks to a controversial first-half goal in the San Siro. For the 3rd place play-off the Austrians made numerous changes, which included dropping Sindelar and having to wear a borrowed set of blue Napoli jerseys as their white and black kit clashed with their opponents Germany. Despite high-scoring wins over the Germans in the previous years it was the Austrians’ larger neighbours who would prevail. Austria seemed cocky with full-back Karl Sesta (sometimes written as Szestak) taunting German attacker Edmund Conen by sitting on the ball when Conen tried to dispossess him. On the second occasion he did this Conen managed to dispossess him and scored a vital goal. Sesta did make some amends in the second half by scoring himself but it was not enough, the Germans had won 3-2.

Of the squad that went to Italy for the World Cup three players were on the books of FK Austria Vienna; forward Rudolf Viertl, the young, skilful attacker Josef “Pepi” Stroh, and the team’s star, Matthias Sindelar, while directly after the World Cup they were joined by Karl Sesta who moved from Wiener AC.

Two years later when that famous win against England rolled around the contingent of FK Austria Vienna players had risen; Sindelar started against England at centre-forward, with Viertl at outside left, young Stroh played at inside-right while the team was captained by Walter Nausch another Austria Vienna player. Two more players from the club featured, Johann (Hans) Mock at centre-half and Karl Sesta at right-back while it was Viertl that opened the scoring in the 2-1 win for the Austrians.

The high concentration of players from Austria Vienna was not to be unexpected, the club were enjoying one of their most successful periods, winning the Austrian Cup in the 1934-35 and 1935-36 seasons and would finish runners-up in the league in 1936-37. During the 30s they also won two Mitropa Cups in 1933 and again in 1936 with final wins over Inter Milan (then styled as Ambrosiana after St. Ambrose of Milan, the Italian fascists deemed their original name too “international”) and Sparta Prague respectively. They had a genuine claim to be one of the strongest club sides on central Europe. While the second leg of the 1933 final has gone down in history as one of the finest ever performances by Mattias Sindelar – with Austria Vienna trailing 2-1 from the first leg he scored a hat-trick of spectacular quality to win the match 3-1 and secure the trophy would return with him to Vienna.

However, one cannot write about the FK Austria Vienna team of this era and ignore what came next. 1936 had seen them win both the Austrian Cup and Mitropa Cup and supply numerous players to the Austrian National team, but less than two years later there would not be an Austrian national team, and there very nearly was not an Austria Vienna at all. The Anschluss, the effective annexation of Austria into a greater Germany ruled by Adolf Hitler took place in March 1938. This was an especially dangerous time for Austria Vienna as they were viewed as a “Jewish club” and featured many members of the city’s large Jewish community among their players, board and fans. The club’s first president, Erwin Müller was Jewish, as was their president at the time of the Anschluss, Emanuel “Michl” Schwarz.

The club faced huge upheaval after March 1938, they were initially suspended for not being under “Ayrian management” until a former amateur player, and leading member of the local SA (Sturmabteilung, commonly known as the Brownshirts), Hermann Haldenwang was installed as the new head of the club. He arrived at the club in full SA uniform, accompanied by first team player Hans Mock, who was similarly attired. Haldenwang wanted to change the club’s name to SC Ostmark as the use of the name Austria was considered too nationalistic. Jewish players and officials were no longer allowed at the club, and the clubs stadium was taken over by the German army for training purposes.

By the summer Haldenwang had been transferred and the club were unique in being able to return to the use of their former name. By this stage most of their board and many of their players had fled. Emanuel Schwarz initially hoped that he would be protected by virtue of his “mixed marriage” to a non-Jewish woman and he stayed in Vienna and waited for a visa for the United States. Ultimately, he was forced to divorce to try and protect his wife and son. When his visa failed to materialise, he decided to flee, first to Bologna, which he managed through his contact Giovanni Mauro within the Italian FA. And then with the support of FIFA President Jules Rimet, he obtained an entry permit for France in 1939, where he was forced into hiding after the German invasion. In 1945 at the War’s end he was reinstated as Chairman with the club recognising him as their only legitimate leader stating that the role remained his despite his absence.

Hans Mock who had effectively helped to oust Schwarz, had been an Austrian international, however with no Austria in existence to compete at the 1938 World Cup he was representing a newly enlarged Germany at the competition. He had been a member of the SA even when the organisation was illegal in an independent Austria, he surely was happy to get the chance to represent the Reich. He even got the opportunity to captain Germany in their opening game at World Cup against Switzerland. The match finished a 1-1 draw and Mock was dropped for the replay which the Swiss won, eliminating Germany in the first round. Mock would continue at Austria Vienna until 1942, playing his last game for them at the age of 36. Mock survived the War and after dabbling in coaching ran a wine bar in Vienna until his death in 1982 aged 76.

Hans Mock Germany v Switzerland 1938

Hans Mock captains Germany v Switzerland at the 1938 World Cup photo

While Mock may appear an obvious villain of the piece, selling out teammates and club members he must have known would have to be removed from the club and likely flee the country, the decisions made by other Austria Vienna players less obviously sympathetic to the new regime bare further scrutiny. One result of the Anschluss was that all sport was to return to being notionally amateur, thus at a stroke the entire professional playing staff of Austria Vienna was out of a job. While some had trades to fall back on others sought to leave the club for other professional leagues, notably the French league, while still others tried their hands at new business ventures.

By the time of the Anschluss Austria’s star footballer Sindelar was already 35 and increasingly injuries were taking their toll on him, by 1938 he was featuring less-regularly for Austria Vienna and when he did play he was pushed out to the right wing and not afforded as central an attacking role. He decided to follow a route well-trodden for footballers coming to the end of their careers and go into the hospitality business, running his own café, the Annahof Coffee House in the district of Favouriten, somewhere that Sindelar knew well in his local neighbourhood. Most reports note that Sindelar got a café at an attractive price as it was owned by a man named Leopold Drill, because Drill was Jewish he was no longer permitted to own a business and was forced to sell. Sindelar, an ageing footballer coming to the end of a career for which he could no longer legally be paid was the clear beneficiary of this transaction.

Sindelar was not alone in this, his teammate Karl Sesta similarly bought a Jewish owned bakery and it took until 1953 for the bakery’s rightful owner, Josef Brand to get the business returned to him. While Sesta survived the War and continued playing until 1946, earning a living from the bakery throughout, Sindelar did not get to benefit from ownership of the café for long. One night after drinking with friends in January 1939 Sindelar left to go to the apartment of his girlfriend Camilla Castagnola, it was the last time he was seen alive. Friends worried about Sindelar the next day broke down the door to Castagnola’s apartment to find her unconscious on the bed with Sindelar already dead beside her. Castagnola would later die in hospital and both deaths were judged to have been as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Despite this judgement theories abounded that Sindelar had been killed by the Nazis, with various reasons put forward to justify this suspicion: Sinderlar’s supposed Social Democratic leanings (despite his calling for Austrians to ratify the Anschluss in a referendum), his refusal to play for a Greater Germany side, supposed Jewish heritage either in Sindelar’s family or in that of Castagnola. Even today many still point to these theories and as a result for many, Sindelar has been cast as a symbol of resistance to Nazi rule. While his personal life and legacy remain complex his role at the heart of one of the greatest players in Austrian history remains more safely uncontested.

The death of Sindelar’s teammate Karl Gall was more brutally straightforward, the skillful winger had 11 international caps to his name. He had spent three years playing in France for Mulhouse until the outbreak of War had prompted his return to Austria Vienna in 1939. By 1942 he was still playing at the age of 37 when he was conscripted into the Wehrmacht and sent to the Eastern front. On February 27th 1943, in the harshness of the Russian winter a landmine tore apart one of the most elegant players ever to represent Austria Vienna.

He was not the only member of Austria Vienna to die violently during the War years. Josef Adelbrecht, like Gall, died on the Eastern Front, while a young player named Franz Riegler died in an air-raid on Vienna. Robert Lang, an early player, then later coach and board member of the club fled after the Anschluss, first to Switzerland and later to Yugoslavia, rightly fearing for his safety as a Viennese Jew. He continued coaching, but after Belgrade fell to the Nazis in 1941 he was imprisoned and murdered.

The final member of our foursome was Walter Nausch. A talented, cerebral midfielder, Nausch was a born leader, he had been a captain of Austria Vienna and key to many of their successes. While Nausch was not Jewish, his wife was, and he was “advised” that he should seek a divorce. Rather than do so Nausch and his wife fled across the border to neutral Switzerland where he began his coaching career. After the War Nausch was able to return to Vienna and in 1948 he became national team coach of Austria. In 1954, some twenty years after being part of the Wunderteam that reached the semi-finals Nausch was able to lead the Austrians to another World Cup semi-final, while they lost heavily against eventual winners West Germany they would do slightly better than Italy 1934 by beating the Uruguayans 3-1 in the third place play-off. It remains Austria’s best-ever World Cup performance.

With special thanks to Clemens Zavarsky for his assistance. A version of this article appeared in issue 3 of View Magazine.

Bohemians v Austria Vienna

The tail-gunner at full-back

Posted on by gerrytastic

Bohs during the War years

At the outbreak of the Second World War League football ceased in Britain almost immediately, the 1939-40 League season was only three games old when it was suspended and a full league season wouldn’t be completed until the end of the 1946-47 season. This robbed many talented players of the peak years of their careers. However, in neutral Ireland football continued as usual, or as usual as possible in the midst of a bloody and truly global conflict. There may have been food and petrol rationing but the early and mid-40’s gave the League of Ireland one of it’s most dominant ever sides, Cork United, who won the league five times between 1940 and 1946.

For Bohemian F.C. the 40’s weren’t to be their most successful era, victory in the League of Ireland Shield in 1939 and an Inter-city cup win in 1945 were pretty much all that the era provided in terms of silverware but as always the club was developing players who would rise to prominence elsewhere. While I’ve written previously about the likes of the famous O’Flanagan brothers perhaps a less well known story is of Paddy Ratcliffe, a talented full-back for Bohemians who enjoyed a good career in the English League, but by even having a career at all he had cheated death and defied the odds.

From the printers to Dalymount

Patrick Christopher Ratcliffe, better known simply as Paddy Ratcliffe was born in Dublin on New Years Eve 1919. Paddy was the son of Bernard and Bridget Ratcliffe. Bernard was a postman but he had also served in the British Army, joining at the age of 18 in 1904 and serving in the Royal Artillery. He later rejoined to serve during World War I.

Patrick first appears on the footballing radar as a player for Hely’s F.C. which was likely the works team of Hely’s stationers and printers of Dame Street. Hely’s were a large and prominent business in Dublin at the time and as well as selling stationery they also had a line in sporting goods, so you could buy a tennis racquet or fishing rod along with your pens and ink. Hely’s is also mentioned in Ulysses as a former place of employment for Leopold Bloom.

Paddy Ratcliffe is mentioned as having left Hely’s F.C. to sign for Bohemians in August 1939, he made his first team debut the following month in a 2-1 win over Jacob’s in the Leinster Senior Cup. The League season began in November of 1939 and Paddy was an ever-present as Bohs playing all 22 games at left-back games as Bohs finished eighth that year. He was also part of the Bohemians side that defeated Sligo Rovers to win the league of Ireland Shield for 1939-40. The following season saw significant improvement in the league with Bohemians finishing third, Paddy played 25 games across all competitions but only 10 in the league, the reason for this fall in appearance numbers had nothing to do with a loss of form however, because in 1941 Paddy Radcliffe joined the RAF to fight in the Second World War. Newspaper reports announced in April 1941 that Paddy had played his last game for Bohemians, and like his father before him he was off into the violent theatre of global conflict.

 

Paddy the POW

Paddy joined the RAF and became the tail gunner on a Lancaster bomber, Paddy’s role as a tail-gunner saw him sit in an exposed turret at the very rear of the plane, operating four heavy machine guns which would play a crucial role in the defence of these heavy bomber planes. It was also an incredibly dangerous job, the tail-gunner was a particularly vulnerable target to lighter, more maneuverable, fighter plans, there were risks of frostbite from flying at such high altitude often with open panels, and the small, cramped rear turret could be awkward to escape from in the event of an emergency.

Lancaster_tail_gunner_IWM_CH_12776

A tail-gun turret from a Lancaster bomber (source wikipedia)

Not everyone came home from the Lancaster bombing raids over Germany,  for example the Lancaster was the main bomber used in the famed Dambusters attacks of Operation Chastise in May 1943. Of the 19 Lancaster bombers deployed eight were shot down over Germany. A similar fate befell Flight Sergeant Paddy Ratcliffe during one of those bomber missions when his plane was shot down over Germany. Paddy was lucky to survive as he had two Nazi bullets in his leg but he was destined to see out the War as a POW in Stalag 357 in North-western Germany. In these particular POW camps over 30,000 prisoners (the vast majority of them Soviet prisoners) died over the course of the War.

Irish newspaper reports from September 1943 even went so far as to express remorse at his death as it must likely have been assumed that Paddy and his crew had perished over Germany.  We don’t know if even his family knew he had survived. But thankfully Paddy did survive the war and after hostilities had ceased he was straight back into the Bohemians team for the 1945-46 season. While playing usually in the position of left-back he also lined out as both an inside left and scored his only goals for Bohemians in a Shield game from that position.

Lancaster_VR-A

A Lancaster Bomber ( source wikipedia)

A return to football

Ratcliffe’s performances in the early part of the season were impressive enough to secure a move across the water to Notts County as they prepared for a return to post war football. Notts County’s manager was Major Frank Buckley who had known Ratcliffe’s first manager at Bohemians, George Lax. Like Ratcliffe, Lax had also joined the RAF during the War. Perhaps it was on the recommendation of George Lax that Ratcliffe was signed? Paddy may also have come to their attention from playing wartime matches as there are reports of him lining out for the likes of Rochdale during 1942.

Either way, his spell with Notts County was short, by the time the first full, post-war league season was underway in 1946-47 Paddy had signed for Wolverhampton Wanderers. He joined Wolves as part of a deal that also brought forward Jesse Pye to Moulineux for a combined fee of £10,000. Pye would enjoy great success at Wolves scoring 90 times for them, including a brace in the FA Cup final which brought the cup to the black country. He was even capped for England in the famous Goodison Park game when they were defeated 2-0 by Ireland. Paddy, however, would only make two appearances in the English top flight before moving to Plymouth for the 1947-48 season.

This meant that Paddy had to drop down to Division Two to ensure more first team football. He made his Plymouth debut on the opening day of the season in August 1947 against Newcastle in front of a crowd of more than 50,000 in St. James’s Park. Paddy’s first two seasons were ones of mixed fortunes, he played only 25 league games in his first two years, and while he got a better run of games in the 1949-50 season (playing 21 games) Plymouth finished second bottom of the Second Division and were relegated to Division Three South.

Success and a first taste of the Big Apple

Despite the relegation the following seasons were some of Paddy’s best, he became the undisputed first choice as a right-back and began to contribute goals as well, becoming a regular penalty taker for the side. In the 1951-52 season Plymouth Argyle finished as Champions in Division Three South and kept clear of relegation when back in the Second Division. In fact Plymouth came fourth in the second tier in 1952-53 with Paddy as a regular. This remains Plymouth’s best ever league finish.

In the 1953-54 season there were greater challenges for Plymouth, they finished in 19th place in Division Two, only three points clear of relegation but they did take part in an ambitious end of season tour to eight cities across the the USA. Paddy boarded the Ile de France at Southampton on the 27th April 1954 and set sail for New York. The Plymouth Argyle tour would see them face local sides like Simpkins of St. Louis, the Chicago Falcons and various “All-Star” teams, as well as randomly playing two games against Borussia Dortmund in Chicago and then Los Angeles. The games against Dortmund were the only games which Plymouth lost on their tour where they racked up easy wins including a 16-2 trouncing of a supposed “All-Star” team in Denver. The tour ran through to the beginning of June when the Argyle signed off their visit with a 1-0 win over a New York All-Stars team in Astoria, Queens.

A short quote from “Irish soccer player” Paddy Ratcliffe appeared in the Big Spring Daily Herald of West Texas in June of 1954 where he asked what his impressions were of the United States. A somewhat wide-eyed Paddy described his experiences as follows: “Every city I’ve seen is like London at rush hour. Life here is a bit too strenuous for me. You Americans don’t take holidays. You don’t relax and lounge around. But you seem to have more fun. At home we’re in bed by 11. That’s when you people are going out”.  An interesting first impression as we’ll later see.

The 1954-55 season was another tough one for Plymouth. They escaped the drop by a single place. The 1955-56 season was to be Paddy’s last in English football, he had been a regular up until this point but by the start of the season he was 35 years old and new manager Jack Rowley (a superstar as a player in his time with Manchester United) preferred others in the full-back berths. Paddy would only make 8 appearances that season as Plymouth were again relegated from Division Two. In all he had made 246 appearances and scored 10 goals for the Pilgrims.

Despite spending most of his career playing at a decent standard Paddy was never selected for Ireland, this is especially surprising given his versatility in either full back position. There were some suggestions that he should be called up aired in the newspapers, in the Dublin Evening Mail in 1953 and from “Socaro” the football correspondent in the Evening Press.  The Irish selectors had the chance to watch Paddy in the flesh when he lined out one final time for Bohemians in May 1952. He was playing in a memorial match for the Jimmy Dunne, the legendary Irish striker who died suddenly in 1949. Dunne had played and coached Shamrock Rovers but had also been Paddy’s coach during his last spell with Bohs in 1945.  A Rovers XI played a Bohs XI in Dalymount just before a national squad was picked for the upcoming game against Spain but Paddy never got a call up. Guesting for that Bohs XI were the likes of Tom “Bud” Aherne and goalkeeper Jimmy O’Neill who did feature in the heavy 6-0 defeat to Spain just two weeks later.

In America

While he may never have gotten that cap for Ireland and his career in England had come to an end with Plymouth this wasn’t the final act in Paddy’s footballing career. The tour of the United States had obviously made a big enough impact on Paddy and he decided to up sticks and move to the United States with his young family. Paddy had married a Dublin woman named Olive Privett in 1946 and they set off for a new life in Los Angeles in 1957. They moved to the Lawndale area of Los Angeles with their four children (two girls and two boys) and Paddy began a career in the printing business, becoming print foreman of Palos Verdes newspapers and occasionally penning articles in its pages about the beautiful game. Paddy also continued playing for a Los Angeles Danish side well after his 40th birthday, only hanging up his boots in 1962. He was also involved in coaching young American talent in football of the association variety. He even took time to catch up with former professional colleagues when they visited the United States, entertaining his old adversary Stanley Matthews when he was on a tour of America.

paddy-as-california-danes.png

Paddy going for a header on the soccer pitches of Los Angeles

Despite being somewhat of an evangelist for soccer in the States, Paddy’s son Paul shone as a varsity American football player, lining out as a quarter back for his high school. When quizzed about the American variant of the sport, Paddy described it as “a daffy game –  they call it football but a specialist comes on to kick it maybe ten times in a 60 minute game. How can they call it football?”

Paddy passed away in October 1986 at the age of 66 and was buried in Los Angeles. He had begun his career with Bohs before the War, lived a perilous existence as a rear-gunner on an Allied Bomber, survived the deprivations as a prisoner-of-war in Nazi Germany and returned to have a successful footballing career in Britain, despite having a pair of German bullets in his left leg. Even after his playing career had ended he began a new life and trade in the United States believing it presented the best opportunities for his young family but never forgetting where he came from or the sport he loved.

 

Once more, thanks to Stephen Burke for his assistance on Paddy’s early life and Bohs career, and for more on Paddy’s career at Plymouth check out the excellent Vital Argyle website. Featured image is from the profile of Paddy in the Greensonscreen website.

 

 

Paddy – bottom right in the Bohemian team

Playing football with a battleship

Posted on by gerrytastic

In February 1937 Seán Lester, the noted Irish diplomat became Deputy Secretary of the League of Nations, a forerunner organisation to the modern-day United Nations. As a result of his promotion he left his role as High Commissioner in the Free City of Danzig (modern day Gdansk in Poland) and moved to the Swiss city of Geneva where the League’s headquarters were based.

His time living in Danzig had been fraught, he had witnessed first hand the rise of Nazi Germany and clearly understood the threat it could pose to the independent port city of Danzig and to wider Europe in general. When speaking about his biography of Lester, his son in law Douglas Gageby described him as “the first western diplomat to receive the full force of Hitler’s hatred” due to his opposition to the Nazi regime. Lester spent the remainder of his time before and during the War trying to stop the League of Nations falling under the the control of the Axis powers. The efforts of this brave Irishman seem to have gone virtually unnoticed by Irish football’s governing body (and many others) however, just months before the outbreak of War the Irish national team played the German national side (which now included players from post-Anschluss Austria) in Bremen and performed a Nazi salute prior to the game in an infamous moment in Irish sport.

Perhaps less well-known is another game that took place in Dublin just two months after Lester’s departure from Gdansk. It was a match between Bohemian F.C. and the crew of the German battleship, Schleswig-Holstein. This was this same battleship that in September 1939 sailed to Gdansk under the pretext of a diplomatic engagement before firing the first shots of the Second World War, attacking the city that Lester had known so well, as German marines over-ran the once Free port city.

This is a brief account of the visit of the Battleship Schleswig-Holstein (pictured above) to the port of Dun Laoghaire in April 1937 and the huge popular reception they received from the Irish people. Among the film-screenings, dinners, tours and parties that were undertaken to welcome the ship to Dublin there was even time for that game of football.

The battleship itself was launched in 1906 as an early part of Kaiser Wilhelm II’s plan to develop and modernise the German navy and make the nation a world naval power. By the time of the ships’ completion the German navy had already seen further technological development as they had begun the roll out of the German dreadnought class of even larger battleships. However the Schleswig-Holstein still saw action during World War I, taking part in the Battle of Jutland where it was damaged and had three of its men killed after being struck by a British shell.

After the First World War the Schleswig-Holstein was one of the ships that the German navy sought to retain under the terms of their disarmament agreements and when Hitler came to power and began to redevelop the German military machine the Holstein became a training vessel for the many new German cadets recruited for a growing Navy. As part of one of these training missions the ship went on a seven month voyage into the Caribbean and south Atlantic calling at ports in Brazil, Venezuela, Costa Rica and Bermuda among others. Their stop at Dun Laoghaire was their first stop-off back in Europe before their return to the naval base at Wilhelmshaven. On board were 31 officers and 785 petty officers and crew which included over 170 naval cadets.

The Schleswig-Holstein arrived into Dun Laoghaire on the 9th April 1937. Due to heavy fog the ship was two hours late in arriving but was still greeted by a 21 gun salute from an artillery battery near Dun Laoghaire’s East Pier. The battleship returned the salute by blazing its cannon in reply and soon after hoisted the Irish tricolour from its mast-head where it fluttered next to the German standard emblazoned with the Nazi swastika at its centre. Several hundred people were gathered at the harbour to see the ship berth, including a sizable contingent from the German legation in Ireland, there to welcome their fellow countrymen. Among them was Erich Schroetter, the head German diplomat in Ireland. Schroetter later fell foul of the influential Dublin-based, Nazi Adolf Mahr and would be replaced within months of the ship’s visit by Eduard Hempel. Mahr, as well as being the Director of the National Museum of Ireland was also head of the Nazi party in Ireland. He was represented on Dun Laoghaire pier that day by his Dutch wife Maria.

This welcoming party was only the first in a cavalcade of social engagements for the ship’s officers and crew. On the afternoon of their landing a deputation from the Schleswig-Holstein, along with members of the German legation visited with the Irish Army Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Michael Brennan and the Minister for Defence, Frank Aiken in Army Headquarters before stopping off at the Mansion House to drop in on the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Alfie Byrne. The Lord Mayor would pay a return visit to see the German battleship in Dun Laoghaire before the end of their stay and even Taoiseach Eamon De Valera took time out on the Saturday after the battleship’s arrival to meet it’s Captain Günther Krause along with the aforementioned Erich Schroetter.

During their brief stay the crew were not left short for entertainment. While members of the Dublin public were allowed to take tours around the battleship the German sailors quickly became a common sight in both Dun Laoghaire and Dublin City Centre. During the week of their visit they were invited to the Pavillion Theatre in Dun Laoghaire for a special showing of a German film production of the popular opera The Gipsy Princess. Afterwards there was a screening of an Irish tourism short, painfully entitled Top of the Morning. They visited Portobello Barracks (now Cathal Brugha Barracks) where they were introduced to the Irish Army’s own German officer, Friedrich Wilhelm “Fritz” Brase. “Fritz” was the head of music for the Irish Defence Forces and had also briefly been Chairman of the Nazi party in Ireland until advised to step down by his Irish military superiors, at which point he was replaced by Mahr.

Apart from their musical engagements there were excursions arranged for crew members to Dublin’s most prominent tourist attractions, many would still be on most tourists’ itinerary today, namely, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Trinity College and the Guinness brewery.

Other excursions meant travelling slightly further from the city which allowed Adolf Mahr to indulge his passion for ancient Irish history. He lectured the visiting Germans on monastic Ireland at Glendalough and also provided guided tours to Newgrange and the historic ruins of Monasterboice. Several of the ship’s compliment even climbed the 168 steps up the column of that British naval hero Horatio Nelson to get a better view of O’Connell Street from the top of the pillar.

Somehow among this myriad of social engagements, tours, parties and public concerts by the ship’s band, a selection of the crew also got to squeeze in a football match against Bohemian F.C. in Dalymount Park. There was a good sized crowd in the ground for a Tuesday afternoon as Bohs fielded a fairly strong side against the visiting Germans. Some 120 of the German officers and sailors attended the game among thousands more local spectators. When one considers that contemporary reports stated that over 10,000 locals visited the battleship at berth in Dun Laoghaire it is no exaggeration to say that perhaps more than 20,000 Dubliners must have been to see the German’s either aboard ship or at another event such as the football match during the six days of their visit.

Despite the fact that Bohemians had a league fixture against Shamrock Rovers the following day they named a competitive side including some veterans and “B” team players. Among the starting XI were Irish internationals like Harry Cannon (who was a Captain in the Irish Army and who would work through “The Emergency”), Kevin O’Flanagan and Fred Horlacher (himself the Irish-born son of German immigrants).  Despite the pedigree of the Bohs side the German XI put on a good display and only lost by the odd goal in three. Their goal was scored by their midfielder Bischaf while a Barry Hooper goal and a header from Kevin O’Flanagan had given Bohs the victory. The match had been refereed by Johnny McMahon, a former Bohemian player and a member of An Garda Siochána.

After the game the Germans put on a display of “field ball” which by photographs and reports seems like an 11-a-side version of Olympic handball played with a full sized football. It was reported to be a sport favoured by the German armed forces as a way of keeping fit and developing muscle mass.

German sailors photo

Image and caption from The Irish Times

The teams on the day were as follows: Bohemian F.C. – Capt. Harry Cannon, Kevin Kerr, Jack McCarthy, Barry Hooper, Ivor Hooper, Fred Horlacher, Kevin O’Flanagan, Billy Dennis, Paddy Ennis, Tommy Fitzpatrick, Joe Mullen

Schleswig-Holstein XI: Haas, Gobel, Grosser, Bischaf, Lux, Kaiser, Nowack, Hinneberg, Brix, Gronert, Bucker

Four of that side (Kerr, Barry Hooper, O’Flanagan and Horlacher) would play against Rovers the following day and, perhaps not unexpectedly given the circumstances, lost 3-0.

The Germans left for their home port of Wilhemshaven on the Thursday after the game. Large crowds gathered to see off the German battleship from port and  “Deutschland uber alles” was played followed by the Irish national anthem, which were both greeted by cheers from the quayside. The previous afternoon Captain Krause had entertained several guests at a farewell lunch aboard ship. Along with members of the German legation in Ireland were Free State Government Ministers, Frank Aiken and Seán Murphy. The coverage of the battleship’s visit was overwhelmingly positive. Captain Krause praised the hospitality of the Irish and he and his crew seem to have been viewed as minor celebrities during their week in Dublin.

Captain Krause upon returning to Germany was replaced in command of the Schleswig Holstein by Captain Gustav Kleikamp, and Krause was soon rising up the naval command chain. Krause had always seem blessed with his timing, he had been a U-boat commander during the First World War and had twice been awarded the Iron Cross. During his period in command of the submarine UB-41 in 1917 he had sunk eight enemy ships but less than a month after his transfer the submarine was sunk by a mine with the loss of all hands. The Captain who had so charmed the Dublin public would end the Second World War as a Vice Admiral in the Kriegsmarine and survived the War unscathed, living to the grand old age of 93. He was well departed from the Schleswig-Holstein by the time its crew had to scuttle it in the waters of the Baltic sea in 1945 in order to stop it from falling into the hands of the advancing Soviet Armies.

This couldn’t save the ship from its ultimate ignominious fate however. Once a flagship of the German Navy, the Schleswig-Holstein that so impressed the crowds who had gathered to see her in Dun Laoghaire was raised by the Soviet Navy in 1946 and spent the next two decades off the coast of Estonia being used for Soviet target practice. What became of the eleven sailors who played a match in Dalymount, or their colleagues who climbed Nelson’s pillar to gain a bird’s eye view of Dublin we don’t yet know.

During their Dublin visit criticism of the sailors or of the violently repressive Nazi regime and military that they represented was non-existent in the press reports of the major papers. This is interesting to note as on the same pages that gave over considerable column inches to photos and articles about the German sailors there were also articles detailing the escalating tensions between Nazi Germany and other nations including the United States and the Vatican. The Irish people could not realistically claim complete ignorance of such matters. But such issues do not seem to have bothered the general public who flocked to see what by naval standards was already an old and somewhat obsolete battleship, or the newspapers (particularly The Irish Times and Irish Press) who lavished coverage on the German visitors.

Perhaps the only nod to any controversy or discomfort surrounding the emergence of the Nazi state was when one columnist in The Irish Times noted that whatever-

“views the citizens of Saorstát Eireann may have upon the political philosophy of contemporary Germany – and we do not think that there is much doubt on that score- they demonstrated in the clearest possible way that politics are not permitted to interfere with the cordial – even enthusiastic – reception of our German guests.”

The only other qualm that seems to be expressed in relation to the German visit was that O’Connell Street was a trifle too dirty and that the visiting sailors may have been unimpressed with the levels of litter in Dublin City Centre. There were however some protests a year later when two ships from the Fascist Italian navy docked in Dublin, although again on this occasion the visiting parties were offically treated as honoured guests and were shown hospitality by both Taoiseach Eamon De Valera and Lord Mayor Alfie Byrne.

By the close of August 1939, just two years after her Dublin visit, the Schleswig-Holstein sailed to Danzig under the pretext of a courtesy visit, but this one was very unlike the one she had enjoyed at Dun Laoghaire. On September 1st at 4.45am she began to shell the Polish garrison at Westerplatte with its 15cm cannon from near point-blank range as the shock troops hidden in her hold spilled forth to attack the Polish garrison.  World War II had begun.

As often is the case, thanks again must go to Bohemian F.C. historian Stephen Burke for his assistance in identification of several players involved for Bohs on the day of the match. For more on Adolf Mahr it’s worth checking out Gerry Mullins’ biography of him entitled “Dublin Nazi Number 1”.

Ireland v Germany and the gathering storm of World War II

Posted on by gerrytastic

Jimmy Dunne stood on the pitch at the Weser Stadium, Bremen, May 1939, as the German anthem, complete with Deutschland über alles verses, echoed around the arena. The Swastika fluttered next to the Irish tricolour. Dunne was captaining Ireland that day and as a committed socialist, as a Republican who had been interned as a teenager, the fact that he has been told by his Association to give the Nazi salute grated deeply.

His teammate Joe O’Reilly recalled Dunne shouting to the rest of the side “Remember Aughrim, Remember 1916!” as they raised their arm. The packed stadium had heard a full two hour programme of stirring music and political speeches and were whipped into the appropriate delirious ferment. Further along the Irish team line, giving an awkward salute stood 20-year-old Dubliner, Johnny Carey of Manchester United.

Within months Carey had joined the British army and would be at combat against the Axis powers. As part of the Queen’s Royal Hussars he would see active duty in the Middle East and Italy. On his decision to enlist he stated that “a country that gives me my living is worth fighting for”. The match against Ireland was to be the last match that Germany would play before the outbreak of World War II less than four months later.

Ireland Germany 1

The Ireland team give an awkward fascist salute in Bremen.

So as Ireland prepare for their daunting challenge against the reigning World Champions in Gelsenkirchen let us remember this game that brought Ireland both praise and shame.

First it is important to note that the side that took on Ireland was not just a German team in the modern sense, as since the Anschluss of Austria the previous year that nations’ players were also called on to represent ” Greater Germany”. Among those in the German side that day was Wilhelm Hahnemann, born in Vienna he represented SK Admira a popular club in that city.

The FAI at the time were still in dispute with the IFA over the selection of players with both Associations selecting players from the whole island which in this case included Northerners like Sheffield Wednesday’s Willie Fallon born in Larne and Dundalk’s Mick Hoy from Tandragee lining out for the Free State.

The match in Bremen was to be the fourth that Ireland would play against German opposition in just four years. The Free State Association, still effectively ostracised by the Football Associations of the United Kingdom had to look to further shores in search of quality opposition, and this was regularly provided by the Germans.

In fact, given the massive political upheaval that took place throughout Europe during the 20s and 30s, it was not surprising that Ireland would find themselves competing against nations with far right and fascist governments. The Free State’s earliest games took place against Italy when they were under the rule of Mussolini, while the two games that preceded the game in Bremen were home and away fixtures against a talented Hungarian side; Hungary at the time was ruled by Miklós Horthy and his right-wing parliament which increasingly featured prominent anti-Semites.

When the Germans had last played against Ireland, in 1936 in Dalymount Park they had been well beaten. The Free State select running out comfortable 5-2 winners, with Oldham’s Tom Davis scoring a brace on his debut and Paddy Moore playing a starring role. On that occasion the Germany side had made the fascist salute and were joined by what can best be described as misguided members of the Irish sporting public (and perhaps some ex-patriot Germans?) who appear to have made the same gesture as a confused mark of respect to the visiting side.

By that stage there were already reports of the persecution taking place in Hitler’s regime but some felt that such reports were of dubious origin. Many Irish people remembered the fictional atrocities hyped by the British press that were attributed to German soldiers during the First World War and used as a recruiting tool in Ireland to get men to enlist, or indeed invented triumphs by Crown Forces during the Irish War of Independence. This was also the year of that grand Nazi propaganda exercise the Berlin Olympic Games; the view of the majority of the world seemed to be that sport should be wholly separate from politics. All the while Hitler wielded the global profile of the Games as a colossal example of Nazi soft power.

Theodor Lewald, a German protestant but one with well-known Jewish ancestry had been a key man in preparing Berlin for the Olympic Games. He had been head of the organising committee well before the Nazis cottoned on to the idea that the Games could be a great propaganda coup. When they decided to support the games with massive financial backing, Lewald’s Jewish ancestry became a useful defence to calls for boycotts of the games on the grounds of Germany’s discriminatory practices, even so he was eventually forced to step down from his role.

Avery Brundage, the head of the American delegation and later President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), had strongly objected to any boycott stating that he had been “given positive assurance in writing … that there will be no discrimination against Jews. You can’t ask more than that and I think the guarantee will be fulfilled”.

Only Spain (then on the brink of Civil War) and the Soviet Union (who had never participated up to that point anyway) would boycott the Games. Ireland, due to complex wrangling over the border issue could not field a team at the 1936 games. In this context it is perhaps somewhat understandable that Ireland would be so happy to play Germany in 1936.

However, by 1939, with Europe on the brink of war, and Germany being slowly ostracised after its 1938 conquest of Austria and the Sudetenland it is more difficult to ignore the political dimensions of the decision to play Germany and offer the Nazi salute.

Commemorating victors at the 1936 Olympics. Theodor Lewald's name is shown on the central panel.

Plaque commemorating the 1936 Olympic games featuring the name of Dr. Theodor Lewald

In his official report to the FAI Council the General Secretary Joe Wickham noted:

In Bremen our flags were flown though, of course, well outnumbered by the Swastika. We also, as a compliment, gave the German salute to their Anthem, standing to attention for our own. We were informed this would be much appreciated by their public which it undoubtedly was.

The German Sports Minister [Reichssportführer Hans von Tschammer und Osten] at the Banquet paid special tribute to our playing the match as arranged despite what he described as untrue press reports regarding the position in Germany and their intentions.

The Football Association were not the only ones to view the stories of German abuses with a certain measure of scepticism. The Irish Government held certain doubts as well, inherently distrustful as they were of British media reports, they were also being fed misinformation and racially motivated lies by their man in Germany, Charles Bewley.

Born into the famous Bewley coffee family whose iconic Grafton Street café still trades today, Charles was raised as a Quaker. However as a young man he went against his illustrious family and converted to Catholicism and became involved in politics, standing unsuccessfully for Sinn Féin in 1918.

By 1933 he had been appointed as Irish envoy to Berlin where he became an outspoken admirer of National Socialism and Adolf Hitler. He regularly reported back to Taoiseach Éamon de Valera that Jews in Berlin were not under threat but instead libelled the Berlin Jewish community, accusing them of all manner of vices.

Bewley’s actions also meant that those German Jews seeking a visa to come to the Irish Free State in order to escape the Nazi regime were generally refused, with fewer than one hundred Jews being granted visas during his time in Germany. De Valera finally dismissed Bewley in August 1939 but by then it was too late for many to escape.

The actions of men like Bewley can go some way to explain the certain level of scepticism which some in Ireland viewed reports of Nazi outrages. Joe Wickham as noted above seemed more concerned with showing due courtesy to their German hosts and was happy to repeat the line about the “untrue press reports” at the following Council meeting.

There is perhaps a certain obsequious Irishness evident here. With few international games available for the Free State association, who were effectively boycotted in senior internationals by the “Home Nations”, matches against a significant team like German were important for the Irish side and also for the association’s finances. A small, still fledgling association like Wickham’s was too beholden to the German.

It is also worth remembering that England playing in Berlin only a year earlier had given a Nazi salute before the game, although this was apparently done under protest from the players, especially from Eddie Hapgood of Arsenal who was England captain at the time. The English players only agreed when the British Ambassador to Germany Sir Neville Henderson informed them that a refusal to perform the salute could be the “spark to set Europe alight”. Interestingly Aston Villa, touring in Germany at the same time, refused to give the salute after their game against a German XI. The English side had also given a fascist salute again just days prior to Ireland’s match in Bremen ahead of their own game in Milan against Mussolini’s Italy.

While England would go on to win their game 6-3 the game against Ireland would end as a one all draw. The Irish lined out with Southend’s George McKenzie in goal and a standard WM formation with a back line featuring William O’Neill, Mick Hoy (both Dundalk), Joe O’Reilly (St. James’s Gate), Matt O’Mahoney (Bristol Rovers), Ned Weir (Clyde) and a front five of Kevin O’Flanagan (Bohemians), Willie Fallon (Sheffield Wednesday), Jimmy Dunne (Shamrock Rovers), Johnny Carey (Manchester United) and Paddy Bradshaw of St. James’s Gate at centre forward.

The Germans apart from having the Austrian, Hahnemann in their ranks also featured world class players like their captain Paul Janes, rated as one of the world’s finest defenders, prolific goal-scorer Ernst Lehner was part of the forward line along with the man who would coach Germany to the 1974 World Cup, Helmut Schön. Organising things from the touchline was that legendary manager and creator of bon mots Sepp Herberger, who would eventually lead Germany to World Cup victory in 1954.

As described above over 35,000 people had crammed into the Weser Stadium from early on for the pre-match “entertainment” and had been suitably roused for the forthcoming match. While the German anthem and various martial airs had been blared out, the band present on the day had no sheet music for the Irish Anthem, according to journalist Peter Byrne, it was Joe O’Reilly who had once been a member of the Irish Army Band who stepped into the breach and sketched down the music for Amhrán na bhFiann from memory. The crowd was a then record attendance for the stadium and their enthusiasm seemed to have had the desired impact with Germany hitting the post through Hahnemann early on.

Ireland responded with some good play of their own as their “accurate passes and their head-work aroused the admiration of the crowd”, Dunne and Bradshaw were combining well and both forced good saves from keeper Hans Jakob. Disaster would strike though in the 34th minute, Jimmy Dunne, Irish captain and record goalscorer, was injured in a collision with defender Hans Rohde and had to be carried from the pitch. This misfortune was compounded only four minutes later when Helmut Schön scored the opening goal.

Ireland trailed one nil at the break and were forced to begin the second half with only ten men (still no substitutes in those days) and the Germans nearly grabbed a second goal through TuS Neuendorf forward Josef Gauchel. On the 55th minute Jimmy Dunne returned to the fray, going in at outside right meaning a move to centre forward for Kevin O’Flanagan, the 19-year-old was studying medicine in UCD and playing as an amateur for Bohemians, and was remembered as possessing one of the hardest shots in football , this move also allowed Paddy Bradshaw to withdraw to inside right.

The return of Dunne and the reshuffle in the forward line seemed to throw the Germans and the Irish improved in the volume and quality of their attacks, Carey came close to scoring before Bradshaw restored parity in the 60th minute with a powerful header from a Fallon cross. For the remaining half hour it was Jakob in the German goal who was the busier of the two keepers as the Irish pressed for the winner. The influential Kicker magazine stated “from a competitive point of view, there was no weak point in the Irish team, their only deficiency being a lack of precision in passing”.

A more than credible draw for the Irish in ominous circumstances, they were feted after their game by the German public, obviously impressed by the Irish play, and they were received by Nazi top brass at a banquet that night. The result would mark the best ever season of results in the short history of the Free State side and strange as it may seem they would probably have been looking forward to the following year’s fixtures.

Joe Wickham, flushed with the success of the Irish tour to Hungary and Germany was keen to organise fixtures for the coming seasons including matches against Spain, Italy and Romania. Of course war was to intervene and while the League of Ireland would continue the Free State would not play another international for seven years.

Young men like Carey and O’Flanagan would return for Ireland in the 1940s but the other nine men who took the field would never wear the green again. The greatest of these was Dunne, captain on the day and he had defied injury to finish the German game, his goalscoring record of 13 would stand for nearly 30 years. On the return journey to Ireland he was greeted in the port of Southampton and given a rousing salute from that city’s dockworkers, Dunne had played for Southampton for a year and his goals had saved them from relegation. Not something quickly forgotten by the working men of that town.

Because of those careers cut short, the ignominy of being required to make the salute, Johnny Carey’s desire to fight and the intermittently dangerous power of sport as propaganda do spare a thought for those men in Bremen when Martin O’Neill’s side line out in Gelsenkirchen.

Originally posted on backpagefootball.com in 2014