Wilhelm Carl Johann Conrad Koch, commonly known as Konrad Koch (13 February 1846 – 13 April 1911) was a German teacher and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

pioneer.

Early life and career

Koch was born on 13 February 1846 in

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the Nor ...

Duchy of Brunswick The Duchy of Brunswick (german: Herzogtum Braunschweig) was a historical German state. Its capital city, capital was the city of Braunschweig, Brunswick (). It was established as the successor state of the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel ...

. After finishing secondary school in Braunschweig, he studied

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

and

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...

at the universities of

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, and

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

. He returned to Braunschweig in 1868 to become a teacher for

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history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

, and

geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

at the prestigious Martino-Katharineum secondary school.

Football

Koch was a pioneer in introducing

ball game This is a list of ball games and ball sports that include a ball as a key element in the activity, usually for scoring points. Ball games Ball sports fall within many sport categories, some sports within multiple categories, including: *Bat-and- ...

s as part of

physical education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorati ...

in German schools. He was influenced by the ideas of

Thomas Arnold Thomas Arnold (13 June 1795 – 12 June 1842) was an English educator and historian. He was an early supporter of the Broad Church Anglican movement. As headmaster of Rugby School from 1828 to 1841, he introduced several reforms that were wide ...

respectively

Thomas Hughes Thomas Hughes (20 October 182222 March 1896) was an English lawyer, judge, politician and author. He is most famous for his novel ''Tom Brown's School Days'' (1857), a semi-autobiographical work set at Rugby School, which Hughes had attended. ...

' novel ''

Tom Brown's School Days ''Tom Brown's School Days'' (sometimes written ''Tom Brown's Schooldays'', also published under the titles ''Tom Brown at Rugby'', ''School Days at Rugby'', and ''Tom Brown's School Days at Rugby'') is an 1857 novel by Thomas Hughes. The stor ...

''. In 1874 Koch and his colleague

August Hermann Friedrich August Wilhelm Theodor Hermann (14 September 1835 – 20 February 1906) was a German physical education instructor. He, along with Konrad Koch, introduced the game of association football to Germany from England in 1874. He is known ...

organized what is believed to be the first-ever football match in Germany, between pupils from their school ''Martino-Katharineum''. However, according to other sources, earlier games of football might have taken place in other German cities, possibly between members of the

Dresden English Football Club The Dresden English Football Club was a football club founded in 1874 in Dresden, the first in Germany and likely the first outside Great Britain. History Initial foundation The Dresden English Football Club was founded in 1874 and was the fir ...

. In 1875, Koch published the first German version of the rules of football, although Koch's version of the game still closely resembled

rugby football Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league. Canadian football and, to a lesser extent, American football were once considered forms of rugby football, but are seldom now referred to as such. The ...

. The new game was quickly adopted by other schools in Braunschweig and spread to other cities during the late 1870s, including

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, and

. In 1876, a newspaper in Hamburg wrote that Koch had learned about football during a trip to England. This is likely false, as there are no sources that indicate that he had visited England before 1895. Koch did speak English, however, as he had been taught from a young age by his father, an English teacher.

Personal life

Koch was a close friend of

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

Wilhelm Raabe Wilhelm Raabe (; September 8, 1831November 15, 1910) was a German novelist. His early works were published under the pseudonym of Jakob Corvinus. Biography He was born in Eschershausen (then in the Duchy of Brunswick, now in the Holzminden Distr ...

, and like Raabe, C.F. Theodore Steinway and

Heinrich Büssing Heinrich may refer to: People * Heinrich (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) * Heinrich (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) *Hetty (given name), a given name (including a list of peo ...

, among others, a member of the

social club A social club may be a group of people or the place where they meet, generally formed around a common interest, occupation, or activity. Examples include: book discussion clubs, chess clubs, anime clubs, country clubs, charity work, criminal ...

''Die ehrlichen Kleiderseller zu Braunschweig''.

Selected works

* ''De augmento apud Homerum omisso'' (1867) * ''Fußball. Regeln des Fußball-Vereins der mittleren Klassen des Martino-Katharineums zu Braunschweig'' (1875) * ''Fußball, das englische Winterspiel'' (1877) * ''Der erziehliche Werth der Schulspiele'' (1878) * ''Die Geschichte des Fußballs im Altertum und in der Neuzeit'' (1894) * ''Die Erziehung zum Mute durch Turnen, Spiel und Sport. Die geistige Seite der Leibesübungen'' (1900)

In fiction

The 2011 German

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

Lessons of a Dream ''Lessons of a Dream'' (german: Der ganz große Traum) is a German drama film directed by Sebastian Grobler, loosely based on the life of German football pioneer Konrad Koch in the late 19th-century. In the film, Koch is one of the first English ...

'' (german: Der ganz große Traum) is loosely based on Koch's life. In the film, Koch is portrayed by

Daniel Brühl Daniel César Martín Brühl González Domingo (; born 16 June 1978) is a Spanish-German actor and filmmaker. He received his first German Film Award for Best Actor for his roles in '' Das Weisse Rauschen (The White Sound)'' (2001), ''Nichts ...

Bibliography

* Hoffmeister, Kurt (2011). ''Der Wegbereiter des Fußballspiels in Deutschland. Prof. Dr. Konrad Koch 1846–1911. Eine Biografie''. * Oberschelp, Malte (2010). ''Der Fußball-Lehrer. Wie Konrad Koch im Kaiserreich den Ball ins Spiel brachte''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koch, Konrad Sportspeople from Braunschweig People from the Duchy of Brunswick German schoolteachers German non-fiction writers Leipzig University alumni 1846 births 1911 deaths Sport in Braunschweig University of Göttingen alumni Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Writers from Braunschweig

Early life and career

Football

Personal life

Selected works

In fiction

Bibliography

See also

References