Inscribe Hamburg 1974 on my tombstone…

The time is Berlin in the autumn of 2008. The scene is a football pitch on the edge of the city. A well-established football club in Lichtenberg is inaugurating a new pitch and many of the older members of the club have been invited to this gathering by the Spree.

Two grey-haired gentlemen are sitting at a table having coffee and cakes talking football. People are whispering behind their backs. “Look, that’s ‘Ete’!” someone says. “And beside him that’s ‘Spari’”, his neighbour replies. Both men respectfully approach the table and ask for the autographs of their former idols. For “Ete” and “Spari” are stars of the former East Germany. They are Erich Hamann and Juergen Sparwasser of the former German Democratic Republic, GDR, stars of the 1974 World Cup.

The so-called “Sparwasser goal” became world famous. No other football player in Germany has been so defined by one goal as Juergen Sparwasser, the striker from Halberstadt. Sparwasser himself says: “When I’m dead it will be enough to inscribe ‘Hamburg 1974’ on my tombstone. Then everybody will know who’s in that grave.” The history of the Sparwasser goal is the chronicle of the only international match between two German football teams.”

It was just after 21:00 hrs on a Saturday, June 22, 1974 at Hamburg’s Volkspark stadium. The watch of Uruguayan referee Barreto showed the 78th minute of the match. Substitute Erich Hamann from Frankfurt/Oder passed the ball to Sparwasser, who went around Beckenbauer, Vogts and Hoettges and then also deceived goalkeeper Sepp Maier. What followed was a shot, a goal and a sensational victory that was political dynamite to the team of coach Georg Buschner. For years afterwards this goal was shown, week in, week out, in the credits of the former GDR sports show “Sport aktuell”. Along with all the other GDR players who went on to finish sixth in the 1974 tournament, Sparwasser received about 2,000 East marks plus 2,500 West marks. It was the only time that the GDR qualified for a FIFA World Cup finals but this victory over the “other Germany” compensated for everything. Most players from East Germany did not begrudge the success of their West German brothers, who went on to win the trophy. It made the Sparwasser goal and their victory all the sweeter.

Erich Hamann laid on the winning goal for Juergen Sparwasser for the East German selection against the eventual FIFA World Cup champions. The team of 1974 still meet today now and then. (Photo: Feuer)

Sparwasser won an Olympic medal and the European Cup

The German tabloid newspaper “Bild” was stunned by the hosts’ loss: “1-0 defeat, a setback – That’s not the way Herr Schoen!” it exclaimed. Franz Beckenbauer, the West German captain, said later: “Who knows whether we would have won the FIFA World Cup title without this defeat.” However, it would be totally unfair to define Juergen Sparwasser just by that goal in Hamburg. He was in the GDR junior team that won the UEFA tournament in Essen in 1965. In 1972 he won an Olympic bronze medal in Munich. In 1974, the centre forward with the blistering shot helped to capture the first and only European club trophy a team from the GDR ever won, the Cup Winners Cup, when FC Magdeburg beat AC Milan 2-0 in the final in Rotterdam. This match took place only one month before the Sparwasser goal, which was only finally taken off the GDR TV programme in 1988. Sparwasser had remained in the West after a club match. But he was always a hero in the East. One year later the Wall came down and the team of the German Football Association, DFB, which suffered its only defeat by the GDR in the 1974 FIFA World Cup, and the team of the German Football Federation, DFV, came together, as did the whole country after the reunification.

What became of GDR heroes after their historic victory

Juergen Croy: Honorary citizen of Zwickau, was a coach and sports teacher. He became a commissioner for school, culture and sports and then managing director of the culture, tourism and exhibition company Zwickau

Wolfgang Blochwitz: The former Jena player passed away at the age of 64 after a stomach illness

Werner Friese: Among other things, he was goalkeeping coach in Frankfurt/Main, Leverkusen and coached under Bernd Schuster in Donezk

Gerd Kische: Entrepreneur in Rostock, a keen hunter and author

Joachim Fritzsche: Roofer and coach in Leipzig

Siegmar Waetzlich: Restaurant owner in Rammenau/Dresden

Bernd Bransch: Worked with the City Sports Association, Halle, where he still lives

Lothar Kurbjuweit: Was most recently a scout with coach Hans Meyer’s 1. FC Nuremberg

Ruediger Schnuphase: Junior coach in Thuringia

Juergen Pommerenke: Coach in Magdeburg with a football school

Konrad Weise: CEO of a sports store in Greiz/Thuringia

Erich Hamann: Retired after a coaching job in Vietnam

Wolfgang Seguin: Entrepreneur who owns the glass and building cleaning company “sk”

Hans-Juergen Kreische: The Saxon is scout for Hamburger SV

Harald Irmscher: Assistant coach to Bernd Stange in Belarus

Reinhard Lauck: Worked as a locksmith and coal carrier, but died lonely in Berlin in 1997

Joachim Streich: Columnist for the football magazine “kicker”, works in a sports store in Magdeburg and lives in Moeckern

Wolfram Loewe: Worked with the former East German railway company, later with the Savings Bank Insurance Saxony

Martin Hoffmann: Junior coach in Magdeburg

Eberhard Vogel: Sports teacher, assistant of GDR national coach Ede Geyer until unification, later national coach in Togo and head coach in Hanover

Peter Ducke: Sports teacher at a school in Thuringia and author

Juergen Sparwasser: Lives in Bad Vilbel and Magdeburg, is planning to create a football school at Brieselang/Brandenburg. He is also an author

(As of end of 2008)