Walther Bensemann

Maybe you will recognize this. I know that I do. You get a team together, inspired by a love of the game that far outstrips your abilities as a player. Having put in so much effort when the fixtures are finally arranged you are determined to play, even though you know your shortcomings will be readily seen. All of your teamamtes are far better than you, there are those on the sidelines who could do far better in your place, but you deserve it, that 90 minutes of glory.
Walther Bensemann did something like this, but whereas you or I might do it in some works or pub side the team that Bensemann formed and led was representing Germany...
Berlin born Bensemann spent six years studying in English public schools. He fell in love with football, and on moving to Switzerland he founded Montreux F.C. when he was just 14.
 Returning to Germany in 1889, he founded International Football Club, the first football club in southern Germany, and two years later Karlsruher F.V. He was still only 18 years old. His associates there thought he was an Englishman. Sometime later Bensemann's enthusiasm for football got him expelled from  Freiburg university. He was considered guilty of inducing pupils of Freiburg secondary schools to play football, and to go drinking in pubs after matches. Bensemann was also instrumental in the formation of Frankfurter Kickers, who would later become Eintracht Frankfurt. In 1900 he was among the founders of the German Football Association.
Bensemann had begun to organize international matches as early as 1893, between teams from Lausanne and southern Germany.

He attempted to set up international matches between German and French teams in 1894. At the time he was based at Strasbourg and was organizing Strasbourg F.C.  The Union des Sociétés Françaises deSports Athlétiques (USFSA)  rejected his overtures.

Undaunted Bensemann put together a combined Berlin / Karlsruher squad in the hope of representing Germany at the 1896 Olympics, but this never came to fruition and there was no recognized football tournament at the Olympiad. 

In 1898, Bensemann  arranged two matches of an All Germany team; one against White Rovers, a team mainly consisting of Englishmen living in Paris, and another against a scratch

team called Tout Paris. Bensemann met the expense of arranging these fixtures and captained the German side. 

So, on the 12th December 1898 a crowd of less than 600 witnessed the first outing of a team representing  All Germany- White Rovers winning by 7-0. The following day 300 people witnessed Tout Paris' 2-1 win over the Germans.  

Andrew Pitcairn-Knowles, the editor and proprietor of Sport im Bild, Germany's first illustrated sporting journal, uncharitably described Bensemann as an international football clown.


Bensemann abandoned any pretensions of being a top level player, but he did launch Germany onto the international football stage. In 1899 he was responsible for inviting the FA to send a team to Germany.

In 1920, Bensemann founded Kicker, which became Germany's leading football magazine, a status which it still enjoys today.

In 1933, the political climate in Germany compelled Benseman to move to Montreux where he died in relative obscurity.