Sky – His nickname was “Greyhound” because he was fast and gaunt – and he saw it as his job to make the meters with which midfield director Fritz Walter could not struggle. Together with Fritz and Ottmar Walter as well as Werner Liebrich and Werner Kohlmeyer, Horst Eckel formed the Kaiserslautern block in the 54 world championship as the right wing runner. Eckel was the last survivor of the heroes of Bern. He died on Friday at the age of 89.
At the age of 22 he was the youngest of the team that won the final in constant rain against the big favorites Hungary after falling 2-0 down with 3-2 and managed the so-called miracle of Bern. His death caused deep sadness, with many clubs condoling only a few minutes after the news became known.
The Eckels family, who had only been inducted into the Hall of Fame of German football at the end of November, wanted to celebrate his 90th birthday on February 8th. And it actually looked good that Eckel could celebrate this anniversary after recovering from a hip operation in a rehab clinic in Bühl in Baden in October. “He survived it well, but of course we were all very worried,” said his daughter Dagmar Eckel of the dpa at the time.
“I got to know and experienced Horst Eckel as a wonderful person who always sided with the weaker players out of deep conviction and was a real role model for them,” said Rainer Koch, DFB Vice President. Eckel showed people the way to light in supposedly hopeless situations. “Willpower and ambition, determination and humility have shaped his life and made him a personality that we all sorely miss.”
Signal for the political and economic awakening of the nation
“At the final whistle we knew we were world champions. But we only realized what that means for the people at home when we set foot on German soil again. It was a great reception, ”Eckel once recalled. Nine years after the end of the Second World War, this victory was a signal for the political and economic awakening of the nation. Hundreds of thousands stood cheering on the tracks and streets when the world champions returned home as if in a triumphal procession.
As long as all the world champions from 1954 were still alive, Eckel, who was born in Bruchmühlbach-Miesau, was always overshadowed by the big names: Helmut Rahn, the winning goal scorer, Toni Turek, the goalkeeper, the true “football god”, and above all Fritz Walter, the captain and head of the crew. After the death of Hans Schäfer on November 7, 2017, only the down-to-earth and reserved Eckel remained to represent this team of the century at every opportunity. He also advised the director Sönke Wortmann when he made the film “The Miracle of Bern”.
Eckel’s football career and his life can no longer be compared with today’s world champions. The two-time German champions in 1951 and 1953 only changed clubs once: from 1. FC Kaiserslautern to SV Röchling Völklingen at the end of his career in the early 1960s.
After his time as a footballer, the trained toolmaker studied art and sport on a second education path and worked as a secondary school teacher from 1973. To be called a “hero of Bern” always bothered him. “I have remained a completely normal person,” he said often.
People who saw him personally were deeply touched by the news of his death, especially national coach Hansi Flick. “The person Horst Eckel was a role model for me in every respect. I will miss him personally and German football as a whole. The news of his death makes me very sad, ”he said. Flick highlighted Eckel’s “contagious warm-heartedness” and added: “His social commitment was extraordinary.”
Uwe Seeler, who played for the national team at the 1958 World Cup in Chile with Eckel, also emphasized the special character traits of the deceased. “He was always very comradely and personally a really good guy with a heart,” said Seeler to the SID. (with SID)
This text appeared in the weekend edition of the Berliner Zeitung – every Saturday at the kiosk or here as a subscription.