Hirsch and Fuchs

Julius Hirsch and Gottfried Fuchs, the 2 Jewish footballers who represented Germany. During the Third Reich era Fuchs went into exile and Hirsch was murdered at Auschwitz.
The memory of these 2 remarkable men has been kept alive by historian Werner Skrentny, and the city of Karlsruhe has a Gottfried-Fuchs-Platz and a Julius-Hirsch-Straße.  The DFB's Julius Hirsch Prize honours those who promote freedom , tolerance and humanity.

Their finest hour for Karlsruher FV came in 1910- winning the German National Championship.
The Karlsruher FV team who beat Holsten Kiel on 15.05.10 was:
Adolf Dell – Carl Hübner, Ernst Hollstein – Hans Ruzek, Max Breunig, Max Schwarze – Fritz Tscherter, Fritz Förderer, Gottfried Fuchs, Julius Hirsch, Hermann Bosch
Trainer: William Townley

Max Bruenig scored the winner from the penalty spot in the 114th minute at Köln.

It was in 1912 that Hirsch and Fuchs first played together for the German national team.  On 04.03.12 
at Zwolle Netherlands and Germany played a 5-5 draw. Fuchs scored Germany's first goal in the 13th minute, but Juller was the star of the show, scoring 4 goals. 


26.05.12- in a repeat of the 1910 final Holstein Kiel beat Karlsruher FV 1-0 (a penalty) at Hamburg. 

They next featured together in the consolation round of Olympic tournament on 03.07.12, 2 days after Fuchs scored 10 goals in a 16-0 demolition of Russia , Hirsch returned to the side for the match with Hungary. Hungary won 3-1 (an Imre Sclosser hat trick).

Hirsch and Fuchs final appearance together for Germany came  on 23.11.13. at Antwerp. Belgium thrashed Germany 6-2. Fuchs got Germany's second, but Belgium had already scored 5 by then. 

In all Julius Hirsch played 7 internationals, scoring 4 goals.
Gottfried Fuchs played 6 matches for the national team, scoring 14 goals.

                                              Fuchs seated far left, Hirsch far right. 

Fuchs 4th from left Hirsch far right. 

Julius Hirsch- Juller

Karlsruher FV 1909: Hirsch seated far right.

This blog was originally inspired by a comment that a German friend made to me regarding the record win by Germany over Russia in 1912.

Since working on this blog I have had the good fortune to come into contact with a number of German football enthusiasts. Karlsruher FV , through their President, Steffen L. Herberger, have shown an interest, as has Dirk Leu, a lifelong supporter of Hamburg SV. It was thanks to Dirk that I was put in touch with the esteemed German football historian Werner Skrentny.

Werner Skrentny has written extensively on the history of German football. He has kindly sent me a book that he published on the occasion of the Fuchs family reunion in Canada in 2012:

Werner has also written a biography of Julius Hirsch:

The following is the text of a brief post on Julius Hirsch that I was writing before Werner contacted me:

Hirsch (white jersey) in action.

Germany side that played Austria June  1912: Hirsch standing far left.

Julius Hirsch joined the youth of Karlsruher FV as a ten year old. He was a regular in the first team from 1909-1913. In 1910 he was in the National Championship winning side and made his debut for Germany aged 19 in  December 1911. Gottfried Fuchs made his debut in March 1911 so Hirsch is not, as is often stated, 'the first Jew to play for Germany'.
In Hirsch's second international he got 4 goals in a 5-5 draw with Netherlands, the first German player to achieve this. A promising start, but these turned out to be his only international goals in his seven appearances.
Juller was back in the German team for the 1912 Olympics, but missed the game with Russia in which Fuchs scored his 10.
Hirsch moved to SpVgg Fürth in 1913, winning a second National Championship in 1914, but returned to Karlsruher FV  after the end of the war (during which he won an Iron Cross).
Hirsch terminated his membership of  Karlsruher FV in 1933 when southern German clubs were directed to exclude Jewish people.
Whilst his erstwhile teammate Gottfried Fuchs managed to move to Canada, Hirsch remained in Germany  He was interned in 1943 and was killed in Auschwitz.

A brief sketch of a remarkable man.
Readers of the German language who wish to know more about these great men need look no further than Herr Skrentny's works.
http://www.werkstatt-verlag.de/?q=taxonomy/term/101