Today, Bayern Munich are among the world’s elite football clubs, nicknamed “FC Hollywood” and has been the home of some of the sports greatest ever players. But, Germany’s top club hasn’t always had an easy ride, especially just prior to and during the World War II years, and this is a part of their history that remains largely unknown. With Scotsman Jim McPherson at the helm of the side in the late 1920’s to early 1930’s, their toughest opponents in the South German Championship at the time were 1 FC Nurenburg and fellow Bavarians SpVgg Furth, then the best team in the country. Bayern dug deep to defeat them in the dramatic South German Championship final by 4 goals to 3, becoming southern champions for the first time, before going on to the national competition against Fortuna Liepzig to whom they suffered a defeat. A second Southern Championship followed two years later under Leo Weisz, and a semi-final appearance in the national championship became their highest achievement at this point in Bayerns history, but unfortunately for them they were demolished 8-2 at the hands of Hamburger SV.

 

But Bayern kept plugging away toward their goal of becoming champions of Germany and after three failed attempts in  1926, 1928 and 1929, the finally achieved this in 1932 under yet another new coach in the form of Richard Dombi. At Southern German runners-up, the club qualified for the national championship yet again where they defeated Minerva 1893 Berlin and SV Chemnitz before facing the mighty 1 FC Nurnberg, then 5 time German champions, in the semi-final. With goals from Rohr and Welker, the Bavarians prevailed. They went on to the final against the same team they lost to in the Southern German Championship that year – Eintracht Frankfurt. Thousands of Bayern fans journeyed to Nurenberg for the match. The club even forked out on accommodation and match ticket costs for around 400 unemployed supporters who made their way to the stadium by bicycle.

 

On a hot day, 55,000 fans witnessed Bayerns first national title. Bayern were awarded a penalty in the 35th minute, which Rohr converted. Frankfurt pushed hard for an equalizer in the second half but Munich sealed the deal with a Franz Krumm goal. For the first time in their history, Bayern claimed the Viktoria Trophy in a 2-0 triumph. A special celebration was held at the Lauenbreau brewery back in Munich, to which the payers arrived in horse drawn carriages. Bayern however were unable to defend their championship in 1933 with defeats to their rivals 1860 Munich in the South German Championship.

 

The Nazi takeover made matters worse as club president Kurt Landauer had to resign due to his Jewish background. Their manager Richard Dombi fled to Switzerland for the same reason. 1860 Munich were raised on a pedestal by the regime, while Bayern were scorned as a “Judenklub” even though, together with 13 other Southern German teams, they had announced the expulsion of all Jewish club members with the Stuttgart Declaration. They initially tried to stand up to the Nazis, with a number of Bayern players being involved in a brawl with Nazi brownshirts. Bayern winger Willy Simetsreiter then made a point of having his photo taken with Jesse Owens, an African-American athlete who enraged Hitler by winning four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics. Defender Sigmund Haringer almost earned himself a prison scentence for calling a Nazi flag parade a “kids theatre” and their captain Conny Heidkamp and his wife hid all the clubs trophies after Hermann Goerig sent out a call for metal to be donated to the war effort. One of the clubs top players, Oskar Rohr, didn’t want anything to do with this new direction and joined Grasshoppers Zurich. And in 1943 after Germany played a friendly against Switzerland, Germany’s Bayern Munich players lined up and waved to their exiled former president Landauer who was watching from the stands.

 

Bayern led a sad existence throughout the war years, bouncing around the regional Gauligen and having their office and stadium destroyed by Allied bombs. But the club were destined to rise from the ashes and become the powerhouses of European football we know today. Since this era, Bayern’s top brass have largely downplayed the clubs Jewish roots until recent years when the club dontated a sum of money for amateur club TSV Maccabi Munich to build a pitch bearing Landauer’s name, who Karl-Heinz Rumminige called “The father of Modern Bayern Munich”. 

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Achievements:
Southern German Championship – Champions x3
German Championship – Champions x1

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Star player: Ludwig Goldbrunner, dob 5 March 1908, pob Munich, German Empire

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A member of Bayern’s championship winning side in 1932, and a player of theirs from 1927 until 1945, Goldbrunner was a centre-half with 39 German national team appearances under his belt, and the main component of one of Germany’s best ever defensive lines. In 1937, he lined up for the famous “Breslau Elf” German deam that destroyed Denmark 8-0. In his favoured centre-half position, he was responsible for marking some of the greatest centre forwards of the era such as England’s George Camsell, Portugal’s Fernando Peyroteo and Belgiums Raymond Braine, Paul Nicholas from France, Silvio Piola from Italy and Isidro Langara from Spain. Remarkably, out of all these superstars, it was only George Camsell who managed to score against Goldbrunner. He went on to manage both Bayern and 1860 Munich.Today, Goldbrunner ranks amoung the 20 best Bayern Munich players and 30 best German players of all time. Goldbrunner died aged 73 in 1981.