Rudolf "Rudi" Gramlich (6 June 1908 – 14 March 1988) was a former SS officer, German football player and football club chairman. After the

Second World War 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 opposi ...

he was arrested and investigated for war crimes in Poland but was released without charge. He later was chairman of

Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The team is currently playing in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the Germa ...

during its most successful period. In 2020 the club took action to remove his posthumous titles due to his association with the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

Biography

Career

In pre-war Germany, Gramlich played for

. He also made 22 international appearances for

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

between 1931 and 1936, achieving third place at the

1934 World Cup The 1934 FIFA World Cup was the second edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It took place in Italy from 27 May to 10 June 1934. The 1934 World Cup was the first in ...

in Italy. He was the captain of the German team at the 1936 Olympic Games in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. From 1939 to 1942 he was chairman of Eintracht Frankfurt.

Military service

Gramlich joined the SS in 1936. In 1942 he was stationed as an SS officer in occupied Krakow, where he also headed the football section of the SS Death's Heads Unit. In 1945 he was arrested and held by the American forces in Frankfurt in 1947, because he was suspected of having been involved in war crimes. Finally, the case against him was closed because he was exonerated by former SS personnel.

Post war

Between 1955 and 1970 Gramlich was again the chairman of Eintracht Frankfurt. In 1959 Eintracht won its only German championship and the following year reached the European Cup final, losing 7–3 to Spain's Real Madrid. In 2020, Eintracht Frankfurt stripped Gramlich of his posthumous title of honorary president for his active participation in the Nazi Party and the SS.

References

Sources

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gramlich, Rudolf 1908 births 1988 deaths German footballers Footballers from Hesse Association football midfielders Germany international footballers Olympic footballers of Germany 1934 FIFA World Cup players Footballers at the 1936 Summer Olympics Eintracht Frankfurt players Eintracht Frankfurt presidents Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Waffen-SS personnel Nazi Party members