Horst Eckel was the last world champion to talk about the “miracle of Bern”. Now the idol of 1. FC Kaiserslautern and Fritz Walter’s once great friend has died.
Last week, Horst Eckel received a special honor. The 1954 world champion was inducted into the Hall of Fame des in the German Football Museum in Dortmund DFB recorded. Eckel was part of the legendary national team around captain Fritz Walter, which became world champion in 1954 and achieved the “miracle of Bern”. The right wing runner from the Palatinate, who celebrated titles and successes with 1. FC Kaiserslautern, played 32 international matches. He died on Friday at the age of 89.
His biggest game was the World Cup final in Bern’s Wankdorf Stadium against the Hungary. At the age of 22, Horst Eckel was the youngest in the national team, but the skinny runner was one of the most important players. In the final against the Magyars, he put the top striker Nándor Hidegkúti cold. Trainer Sepp Herberger had entrusted him with this task.
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Horst Eckel.
Photo: Uwe Anspach / dpa
Horst Eckel’s nickname was “Greyhound”
Around the summer fairy tale 2006, Eckel, who was an unspectacular hard worker with the nickname “Greyhound” in the first team in Bern, became a media star in his old days. Seldom has an ex-athlete over 70 made so many public appearances within a few weeks as Eckel. No organizer wanted to do without the sprightly gentleman who, after his football career, took the second educational path to become a secondary school teacher for works, art and, of course, Sport had qualified.
Retired in 1995, he initially led a peaceful life in Vogelbach. He played Table tennis, Tennis and soccer in celebrity teams. He also liked going “nuff uff de Betze” to his FCK – even when he was relegated to the third division. Eckel himself had never played that far down, not since he left SC Vogelbach at the age of 16.
At 19 he was already in the first championship team in Kaiserslautern. In 1953 the second bowl was added. His career ended at Röchling Völklingen in 1964. He had kicked in Saarland from 1959. But the heart always stayed with FCK, for whom he scored 64 goals in 213 games.
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At 15, Eckel was allowed to play in the first team at his club
His professional attitude in pre-professional times was his luck, he was not highly talented. But ambitious. At the age of 15 he was allowed to play in the first team of the Vogelbach sports club with a special medical permit and scored over 40 goals – as a center forward. In the C-Class.
When he once scored six goals in one half, Richard Schneider happened to be among the spectators, the junior coach and later master coach of 1. FCK. He called him the next Monday and ordered him for a trial session. That was in 1949. Eckel came by bike – and wanted to go home after only five minutes. Because he could only shoot with the pike and the inside and was frustrated: “At that time I didn’t know what a tension stroke was. I thought to myself: Quickly back to Vogelbach, this gimmick is a size too big for you.”
Fortunately, the coach disagreed and soon recommended him for the first team to play in the major leagues. Eckel’s debut in May 1950 was also unsuccessful, but the great Fritz Walter built it up. That drove Eckel. He worked extra shifts after training, also played table tennis in the club, and took the train to Kaiserslautern at six in the morning, where he completed an apprenticeship as a precision mechanic at Pfaff sewing machines. As one of only four heroes of Bern left, he was allowed to come back to Sweden for the World Cup in 1958 (fourth place).
Eckel made his debut in the DFB-Elf at the Rosenaustadion in Augsburg
Eckel maintained friendly contacts with his team colleague from 1954, Uli Biesinger from Augsburg, until Biesinger’s death in 2011. Fritz Walter had already died in June 2002, Eckel took over his duties at the Sepp Herberger Foundation. Together with another Augsburg resident, Helmut Haller, he was involved in charitable causes. They visited prisoners together and tried to prepare them for their post-prison life.
By the way: The boy from Palatinate made his debut in the national team in 1952 at the Rosenaustadion in Augsburg. He was there in the sensational 5-1 win against Switzerland.
Eckel leaves behind his wife Hannelore and two daughters, Dagmar and Susanne.
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