Otto Fritz Harder (Nickname: Tull Harder; 25 November 1892 – 4 March 1956) was a

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played for

Eintracht Braunschweig Braunschweiger Turn- und Sportverein Eintracht von 1895 e.V., commonly known as Eintracht Braunschweig () or BTSV (), is a German association football, football and sports club based in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony. The club was one of the founding ...

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three ...

, and

Victoria Hamburg SC Victoria Hamburg is a German association football club from the city of Hamburg. The football team is part of a larger sports club that has departments for badminton, handball, hockey, athletics, tennis, table tennis (playing as SG Victoria ...

. He won two

German football champions The German football champions are the annual winners of the highest association football competition in Germany. The history of the German football championship is complex and reflects the turbulent history of the country through the course of t ...

hips and played 15 times in the Germany national team. Harder was a former SS officer and had been a warder at the Ahlem concentration camp in

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 ...

Career

Harder was born 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 ...

. He spent most of his career with Hamburger SV, scoring over 378 goals. His football fame in Germany was comparable with

Uwe Seeler Uwe Seeler (; 5 November 1936 – 21 July 2022) was a German footballer and football official. As a striker, he was a prolific scorer for Hamburger SV and also made 72 appearances for the West Germany national team. Widely regarded as one of ...

's fame.

Career statistics

Later life

After his football career Harder was an SS-

Untersturmführer (, ; short: ''Ustuf'') was a paramilitary rank of the German ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) first created in July 1934. The rank can trace its origins to the older SA rank of ''Sturmführer'' which had existed since the founding of the SA in 1921. ...

(equivalent

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

) and was a commander (''Schutzhaftlagerführer'') at the Ahlem camp. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Harder was convicted of war crimes by the British military court at the ''Curio house'' in

Rotherbaum Rotherbaum () is a quarter of Eimsbüttel, a borough of Hamburg, Germany. In 2020 the population was 17,114. In German, "roter Baum" means ''red tree''. The "th", which in general was abolished in the spelling reform of 1900, was preserved in name ...

. He was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment. After the trial the Hamburger SV excluded him for a short time. In 1951

His Majesty's Government ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_est ...

pardoned Harder. Harder moved to

Bendestorf Bendestorf is a municipality in Lower Saxony in Germany. It is situated ca. 30 km south of Hamburg and belongs to the Landkreis (district) Harburg and the ''Samtgemeinde'' of Jesteburg. The first mentioning of Bendestorf dates back to the y ...

. Harder died in a hospital in

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

after surgery in 1956. The Hamburger SV published an obituary 'He was (...) always a good friend and faithful comrade.' For the

1974 FIFA World Cup The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the tenth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the first time that the ...

, the

senate of Hamburg The government of Hamburg is divided into executive, legislative and judicial branches. Hamburg is a city-state and municipality, and thus its governance deals with several details of both state and local community politics. It takes place in two ...

published the booklet ''Hamburg '74. Fußballweltmeisterschaft'', which praised among others

Josef Posipal Josef "Jupp" Posipal (20 June 1927 – 21 February 1997) was a German association football, footballer. Born in Romania, he was part of the Germany national football team, German national team that won the 1954 FIFA World Cup. During his club car ...

, Uwe Seeler and Harder as role models for the young. The sheets mentioning Harder were removed.

International career

:''Scores and results list Germany's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Harder goal.''

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Harder, Otto 1892 births 1956 deaths Sportspeople from Braunschweig German footballers Footballers from Lower Saxony Association football forwards Germany international footballers Eintracht Braunschweig players Hamburger SV players SC Victoria Hamburg players Neuengamme concentration camp personnel People convicted in the Curiohaus Trial SS-Untersturmführer Waffen-SS personnel Schutzhaftlagerführer