Sepp Herberger

Sepp Herberger

Personal information
Full name	Josef Herberger
Date of birth	(1897-03-28)28 March 1897
Place of birth	Mannheim, German Empire
Date of death	28 April 1977(1977-04-28) (aged 80)
Place of death	Weinheim Hohensachen, West Germany
Position(s)	Striker
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1914–1921	Waldhof Mannheim	127	(101)
1921–1926	VfR Mannheim	66	(55)
1926–1930	Tennis Borussia Berlin	43	(30)
Total		236	(186)
International career
1921–1925	Germany	3	(2)
Managerial career
1930–1932	Tennis Borussia Berlin
1932–1936	Germany (assistant coach)
1936–1942	Germany
1945–1946	Eintracht Frankfurt
1950–1964	West Germany
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Josef "Sepp" Herberger (28 March 1897 in Mannheim, German Empire – 28 April 1977 in Weinheim-Hohensachsen, West Germany) was a German football player and manager. He is most famous for being the manager of the West German national team which won the 1954 FIFA World Cup – The Miracle of Bern. Previously he had also coached the Breslau Eleven, one of the greatest teams in German football history.

Herberger played three times for the German football team between 1921 and 1925 before becoming assistant to Dr. Otto Nerz in 1932. Herberger succeeded him as national coach after Germany's uninspired loss to Norway at the 1936 Olympics. After the war he had a short club spell with Eintracht Frankfurt before being recalled as national team coach in 1950. He remained national coach until 1964, when he was succeeded by Helmut Schön. He died of pneumonia in Mannheim aged 80.

Controversy

Herberger joined the Nazi Party in 1933. His nomination to the Germany's Sports Hall of Fame in 2008 caused a lot of criticism because of his Nazi past.

References in popular culture

Three of these sayings are quoted in the beginning of the 1998 film Run Lola Run. The first is at the very beginning of the film (Nach dem Spiel ist vor dem Spiel, "After the game is before the game"). Then after a series of intentionally confusing and seemingly innocuous statements and character introductions, a simple minded security guard utters the phrase "Der Ball ist rund und das Spiel dauert 90 Minuten.", which is a commonly used amalgamation of two separate famous quotes.

The 2003 film, The Miracle of Bern, following Herberger and his team's path to victory in the 1954 world cup, also features a number of these quotations including the amalgamation of two of the above, "The ball is round and the game lasts for 90 minutes" (Der Ball ist rund und das Spiel dauert 90 Minuten).

Coaching record

As of 22 January 2014

Team	From	To	Record
			G	W	D	L	Win %	Ref.
Germany	1936	1942	70	42	13	15	060.00
West Germany	1950	1964	97	52	14	31	053.61
total record			167	94	27	46	056.29

Honours

As a player

VfR Mannheim

• South German Championship: 1925

As a manager

Germany

• FIFA World Cup: 1954

Filmography

• Das Große Spiel (1942)

References

• Sepp Herberger at eintracht-archiv.de
• Profile at FIFA website (archived 7 November 2012)

External links

• Sepp Herberger at the Germany's Sports Hall of Fame (in German)