Heinz Krügel (24 April 1921 – 27 October 2008) was a German

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 ...

player and manager.

Playing career

At age 6, Krügel began his playing career in the youth teams of then

SC Planitz FSV Zwickau is a Football in Germany, German association football club located in Zwickau, Saxony. Today's club claims as part of its complex heritage sides that were East Germany's first champions: 1948 Ostzone winners SG Planitz and 1950 DDR-Ob ...

. During

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 ...

, he served in the 5th SS Panzer Division "Wiking" from 1940 to 1944, was wounded on the Eastern Front, and later transferred to SS Flak Division 509 in the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

. There he was taken prisoner, from which he returned in 1946. He restarted his career in Planitz until 1948 and had his biggest success as a player there, when he won the Championship of the Eastern Zone in the same year. In 1950 he suffered a knee injury and his playing career was over, even though he was only 29 years old.

Management career

Soon after this setback, Krügel began his managing career as the youngest Oberliga manager at the army sports club KVP Vorwärts Leipzig. Later on he managed Einheit Ost/SC Rotation Leipzig and

SC Empor Rostock FC Hansa Rostock () is a German association football club based in the city of Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The club is also called as "the cog" because of its club crest. They have emerged as one of the most successful clubs from the forme ...

. In 1959, he was made national manager of

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

and remained in this position until 1961, coaching the team in 8 matches. From 1961 to 1966, he managed Hallescher FC Chemie, winning the

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wors ...

FDGB-Pokal The FDGB-Pokal (Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund Pokal or Free German Trade Union Federation Cup) was an elimination football tournament held annually in East Germany. It was the second most important national title in East German football aft ...

. His biggest success awaited Krügel at 1. FC Magdeburg. When he arrived, the club had just been relegated to the second-tier

DDR-Liga The DDR-Liga (English: GDR League or ''East German League'') was, prior to German reunification in 1990, the second level of football competition in the DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik or German Democratic Republic, commonly East Germany), bei ...

, but Krügel rebuilt the squad, winning re-promotion immediately. In the following 8 years, Krügel's 1. FC Magdeburg team captured three East German Championships ( 1971/72, 1973/74, 1974/75), came in third four times ( 1967/68, 1968/69, 1972/73, 1975/76) and won the FDGB-Cup twice (

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

). On top of all that, Magdeburg won the

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...

edition of the

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

, beating favorites and holders

A.C. Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 seasons ...

2–0 in Rotterdam. Because of his successes, Krügel had offers from many European clubs, including the likes of

Juventus Turin )''I Bianconeri'' (The White and Blacks)''Le Zebre'' (The Zebras)''La Signora Omicidi'' (The Killer Lady)''La Gheuba'' (: The Hunchback) , founded = as Sport-Club Juventus , ground = Juventus Stadium , capacity = 41,507 , owner = Agnell ...

who offered four million Marks for Krügel's services, if he also brought young forward Martin Hoffmann. However, Krügel declined these offers. He also would not let his work be influenced by the Magdeburg branch of the

SED sed ("stream editor") is a Unix utility that parses and transforms text, using a simple, compact programming language. It was developed from 1973 to 1974 by Lee E. McMahon of Bell Labs, and is available today for most operating systems. sed wa ...

. When Magdeburg played

FC Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which play ...

in the European Champions' Cup in 1974, the

Stasi The Ministry for State Security, commonly known as the (),An abbreviation of . was the Intelligence agency, state security service of the East Germany from 1950 to 1990. The Stasi's function was similar to the KGB, serving as a means of maint ...

had bugged the West Germans' dressing room, but Krügel declined to make use of these devices. In 1976, the East German FA banned Krügel from his managerial duties, citing "insufficient development of the Olympic athletes at 1. FC Magdeburg". After the

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

Krügel was rehabilitated and was given an award by the

German Football Association The German Football Association (german: Deutscher Fußball-Bund ; DFB ) is the governing body of football in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system and is in charge of t ...

. For one year, he was Executive Director (Football) at 1. FC Magdeburg. He later was an honorary member of the club and often watched their matches.

Death

On 27 October 2008 Krügel died in Magdeburg after prolonged sickness.

References

* Volkmar Laube, Roland Uhl: „Heinz Krügel – Der Meistermacher“, MDPrint Mediencenter Magd 2003, * Volkmar Laube, Roland Uhl, Andreas Prill : „Magdeburger Triumph im "Kuip"“, MDPrint Mediencenter Magd 2004,

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Krugel, Heinz 1921 births 2008 deaths People from Zwickau Footballers from Saxony East German football managers East German footballers East Germany national football team managers 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig managers FSV Zwickau players German football managers 1. FC Magdeburg managers Association football midfielders German military personnel of World War II Military personnel from Saxony German footballers World War II prisoners of war Waffen-SS personnel