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Bernhard Carl "Bert" Trautmann (22 October 1923 – 19 July 2013) was a German professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
Born in Bremen in 1923, he joined the Jungvolk, the junior section of the Hitler Youth in August 1933. Trautmann joined the Luftwaffe early in the Second World War, and then served as a paratrooper. He was initially sent to occupied Poland, and subsequently fought on the Eastern Front for three years, earning five medals, including an Iron Cross. Later in the war, he was transferred to the Western Front, where he was captured by the British as the war drew to a close. As a volunteer soldier, he was classified a category "C" prisoner by the authorities, meaning he was regarded as a Nazism. One of only 90 of his original 1,000-man regiment to survive the war, he was transferred to a prisoner-of-war camp in Ashton-in-Makerfield, Lancashire. Trautmann refused an offer of repatriation, and following his release in 1948 decided to settle in Lancashire, combining farm work with playing goalkeeper for a local football team, St Helens Town.
Performances for St Helens gained Trautmann a reputation as an outstanding goalkeeper, resulting in interest from Football League clubs. In October 1949, he signed for Manchester City, a club playing in the country's highest level of football, the First Division. The club's decision to sign a former Axis powers paratrooper sparked protests, and 20,000 people attended a demonstration. Over time, he gained acceptance through his performances in the City goal, playing in all but five of the club's next 250 matches.
Named FWA Footballer of the Year for 1956, Trautmann entered football folklore with his performance in the 1956 FA Cup final. With 17 minutes of the match remaining, Trautmann suffered a serious injury while diving at the feet of Birmingham City's Peter Murphy. Despite his injury, he continued to play, making crucial saves to preserve his team's 3–1 lead. His neck was noticeably crooked as he collected his winner's medal; three days later an X-ray revealed it to be broken.
Trautmann played for Manchester City until 1964, making 545 appearances. After his playing career, he moved into management, first with lower-division sides in England and Germany, and later as part of a German Football Association development scheme that took him to several countries, including Burma, Tanzania and Pakistan. In 2004, he was appointed an honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for promoting Anglo-German understanding through football. In 2013, Trautmann died at home near Valencia, Spain, aged 89.
The young Bernhard had a keen interest in sport, playing football, Field handball and völkerball (a form of dodgeball). To this end, he joined the YMCA and football club Blau und Weiss.Blau und Weiss later became part of the TuRa Bremen club, so some sources list TuRa as the club he played for as a junior. He took to playing for the football club with enthusiasm, but the YMCA activities did not interest him to the same extent.
In August 1933, he joined a new organisation, the Jungvolk, the junior section of the Hitler Youth.Rowlands, Trautmann: The Biography, p. 19. The following year, he won several local junior athletics events and was awarded a certificate for athletic excellence signed by Paul von Hindenburg, the President of Germany.Rowlands, Trautmann: The Biography, p. 22. At the onset of the Second World War, Trautmann was working as an apprentice Auto mechanic.James, The Official Manchester City Hall of Fame, p. 134.
In October 1941, he rejoined the 35th Infantry Division at Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, where the German advance had halted. Over-winter hit-and-run attacks on Soviet Army supply routes were the unit's main focus and in spring, Trautmann was promoted to Unteroffizier (corporal). Gains were made in 1942, but the Soviet counter-offensive hit Trautmann's unit hard, and by the time it was withdrawn from the Eastern Front, only 300 of the original 1,000 men remained.Rowlands, Trautmann: The Biography, p. 49. Trautmann won five medals for his actions on the Eastern Front, including an Iron Cross First Class.
Promoted to Feldwebel (sergeant), Trautmann was part of a unit formed from the remnants of several others that had been decimated in the east, and moved to France to guard against an expected Allied invasion of France. In 1945, he was one of the few survivors of the Allied bombing of Kleve, and decided to head home to Bremen. By this point, German soldiers without valid leave papers were being shot as deserters, so Trautmann sought to avoid troops from either side. However, a few days later, he was captured in a barn by two Allied soldiers. Deciding that Trautmann had no useful intelligence to give them, the soldiers marched him out of the barn with his hands raised.Rowlands, Trautmann: The Biography, p. 57. Fearing he was about to be executed, Trautmann fled. After evading his captors, he jumped over a fence, only to land at the feet of a British Army, who greeted him with the words "Hello Fritz, fancy a cup of tea?" Earlier in the war, he had been captured by the Soviets and later the French, but escaped both times.
He was imprisoned near Ostend, Belgium, then transferred to a transit camp in Essex, where he was interrogated. As a volunteer soldier who had been subject to indoctrination from a young age, he was classified a category "C" prisoner by the authorities, meaning he was regarded as a Nazism.James, The Official Manchester City Hall of Fame, p. 135. Trautmann, one of only 90 of his original regiment to survive the war, was then transferred to a prisoner-of-war camp at Marbury Hall, near Northwich, Cheshire, and interned with other category "C" prisoners. He was soon downgraded to non-Nazi "B" status,Rowlands, Trautmann: The Biography, p. 63. after which he was taken to Fort Crosby in Hightown near Liverpool where he stayed for a short while working on local farms and mixing with the locals; from here he was sent to PoW Camp 50 (now Byrchall High School) in Ashton-in-Makerfield in Lancashire between St Helens and Wigan, where he stayed until 1948.
Football matches were regularly held at the camp, in which Trautmann played outfield. However, in a match against amateur team Haydock, Trautmann was injured while playing centre-half. He swapped positions with goalkeeper Günther Lühr, and from that day forward played as a goalkeeper. During this time he became known as "Bert", as the English were unfamiliar with "Bernd", the abbreviated version of his name.
In August 1948, he started playing amateur football for the non-league Liverpool County Combination club St Helens Town, through which he met the club secretary's daughter, Margaret Friar, whom he later married.Clayton, Everything Under the Blue Moon, p. 196. Over the course of the 1948–49 season, Trautmann's goalkeeping reputation steadily grew and a series of large crowds were attributed to his performances, including a record 9,000 attendance in the final of a local cup competition, the Mahon Cup.Rowlands, Trautmann: The Biography, p. 85. The success of that season elevated the club into Division Two of the Lancashire Combination League for the start of 1949–50.
City's match against Fulham in January 1950 was Trautmann's first visit to London. The match received widespread media attention, as most of the British press were based there; several leading sportswriters watched Trautmann in action for the first time. The damage caused to the city by the Luftwaffe meant former paratrooper Trautmann was a target of hatred for the crowd, who yelled "Kraut" and "Nazi". City were struggling in the league, and widely expected to suffer a heavy defeat but a string of saves from Trautmann meant the final score was a narrow 1–0 loss. At the final whistle, Trautmann received a standing ovation, and was applauded off the pitch by both sets of players.James, The Official Manchester City Hall of Fame, p. 139. The Manchester City team struggled throughout the season, and was relegated to the Second Division.
Manchester City returned to the top flight at its first attempt, and in the following years Trautmann established himself as one of the best keepers in the league, playing in all but five of his club's next 250 league matches. By 1952, his fame had spread to his home country, leading Schalke 04 to offer Manchester City £1,000 () for his services.James, The Official Manchester City Hall of Fame, p. 137. The offer was refused; the club responded that they thought Trautmann to be worth twenty times more.Rowlands, Trautmann: The Biography, p. 118.
In the mid-1950s, the Manchester City manager Les McDowall introduced a new tactical system using a deep-lying centre-forward, which became known as the Revie Plan after Don Revie, who played centre-forward. The system depended on maintaining possession of the ball wherever possible, which required Trautmann to make use of his throwing ability. For goalkeepers of Trautmann's era, it was usual to kick the ball as far as possible downfield after making a save. By contrast, Trautmann, influenced by the Hungarian goalkeeper Gyula Grosics, sought to start attacks by throwing the ball to a wing-half, typically Ken Barnes or John McTavish. The wing-half then passed to Revie to develop the attack.Rowlands, Trautmann: The Biography, pp. 157–158.
Manchester City had a strong season in 1955–56, finishing fourth in the league and reached the FA Cup final against Birmingham City. Trautmann, one of the team's most prominent performers, won the FWA Footballer of the Year Award shortly before the match,James, Manchester City – The Complete Record, p. 159. the first goalkeeper to win the award. Two days later, Trautmann stepped out onto the Wembley pitch for the match that would gain him worldwide acclaim.
During the previous final, nerves had contributed to the opposition scoring an early goal, but the City team was more settled on this occasion. Under the influence of Don Revie who was outstanding on the day, City scored an early goal, a left-footed strike by Joe Hayes. Birmingham equalised on 14 minutes. The match remained level until midway through the second half, when Jack Dyson and Bobby Johnstone scored two goals in as many minutes to give Manchester City a 3–1 lead. Birmingham attacked strongly in the next ten minutes. In the 75th minute, Trautmann, diving at an incoming ball, was knocked out in a collision with Birmingham's Peter Murphy in which he was hit in the neck by Murphy's right knee. No substitutes were permitted in those days, so Trautmann, dazed and unsteady on his feet, carried on. For the remaining 15 minutes he defended his net, making a crucial interception to deny Murphy once more. Manchester City held on for the victory, and Trautmann was the hero because of his spectacular saves in the last minutes of the match. Trautmann admitted later that he had spent the last part of the match "in a kind of fog".
His neck continued to cause him pain, and Prince Philip commented on its crooked state as he gave Trautmann his winner's medal. Trautmann attended that evening's post-match banquet despite being unable to move his head, and went to bed expecting the injury to heal with rest. As the pain did not recede, the following day he went to St George's Hospital, where he was told he merely had a crick in his neck which would go away. Three days later, he got a second opinion from a doctor at Manchester Royal Infirmary. An X-ray revealed he had dislocated five Vertebra, the second of which was cracked in two.Rowlands, Trautmann: The Biography, p. 184. The third vertebra had wedged against the second, preventing further damage which could have cost Trautmann his life.
The 1957–58 season was an unusual one for Manchester City, who became the only English team to both score and concede 100 goals in a season.Wallace, Century City – Manchester City Football Club 1957/58, p. 9. Trautmann played in 34 matches, and though he did not play in the 9–2 defeat to West Bromwich Albion, an 8–4 defeat to Leicester City was a record for the most goals conceded by Trautmann in a match in his career,Rowlands, Trautmann: The Biography, p. 199. and in the entire season he kept only two clean sheets.James, Manchester City – The Complete Record, p. 383.
On 15 April 1964, he ended his career with a testimonial in front of a crowd officially numbered at 47,000,Brandon, A–Z of Manchester Football: 100 Years of Rivalry, p. 220. though the true figure was estimated to be closer to 60,000.James, The Official Manchester City Hall of Fame, p. 142. Trautmann captained a combined Manchester City and Manchester United XI that included Bobby Charlton and Denis Law, against an International XI that included Tom Finney, Stanley Matthews and Jimmy Armfield.
The German Football Association then sent Trautmann as a development worker to countries without national football structures. His first posting was in Burma, where he spent two years as the national coach, qualifying for the 1972 Olympics, and winning the President's Cup, a tournament contested by Southeast Asian countries, later that year.Rowlands, Trautmann: The Biography, p. 234. His work subsequently took him to advisory coaching roles for the national teams of Tanzania, Liberia, Pakistan and North Yemen, where he trained several coaches and helped them obtain the coaching license. Following his retirement, Trautmann settled in Spain.
Trautmann found it difficult to accept criticism, and allowed only close friends to suggest changes to his game. He occasionally dwelt on mistakes to the detriment of his concentration, a tendency his friend Stan Wilson called "picking at daisies".Rowlands, Trautmann: The Biography, p. 162. A short temper also caused occasional problems; he was sent off on more than one occasion.
Trautmann's idiosyncratic style of play also had an influence on budding young goalkeepers at the height of his career. The former Arsenal goalkeeper Bob Wilson named Trautmann as his boyhood hero, and Gordon Banks cited him as an influence on his playing style.Rowlands, Trautmann: The Biography, p. 247.
Media outlets have since recognised Trautmann's reputation. ESPN consider Trautmann as one of the greatest FA Cup goalkeepers, with Trautmann representing Manchester City in two consecutive FA Cup finals in 1955 and 1956 while his lunge at Peter Murphy's feet to grasp the ball in the 1956 FA Cup final is rated as the greatest FA Cup save; a save that broke Trautmann's neck.
In November 1995, Trautmann returned to Maine Road to open the rebuilt The Kippax. However, the stand was gone within a decade: in May 2003 the club moved to the City of Manchester Stadium, Maine Road was closed and was demolished the following year.
Trautmann was portrayed by German actor David Kross in the 2018 biopic The Keeper.
In 2005, he was inducted into the National Football Museum's Hall of Fame. He continued to follow Manchester City and visited Manchester to watch them play, with his last visit in April 2010. In 1999, he had also appeared in the BBC Timewatch programme episode "The Germans We Kept", recounting the experiences of German prisoners of war who decided to remain in the UK.BBC Timewatch episode "The Germans We Kept", 1999.
Trautmann's autobiography Steppes to Wembley was published in 1956.London: Robert Hale.
| + Appearances and goals by club, season and competition | |||
| St Helens Town | 1948–49 | Liverpool Combination | 0 |
| 1949–50 | Lancashire Combination | 0 | |
| Manchester City | 1949–50 | First Division | 0 |
| 1950–51 | Second Division | 0 | |
| 1951–52 | First Division | 0 | |
| 1952–53 | First Division | 0 | |
| 1953–54 | First Division | 0 | |
| 1954–55 | First Division | 0 | |
| 1955–56 | First Division | 0 | |
| 1956–57 | First Division | 0 | |
| 1957–58 | First Division | 0 | |
| 1958–59 | First Division | 0 | |
| 1959–60 | First Division | 0 | |
| 1960–61 | First Division | 0 | |
| 1961–62 | First Division | 0 | |
| 1962–63 | First Division | 0 | |
| 1963–64 | Second Division | 0 | |
| Wellington Town | 1964–65 | Southern League | 0 |
Individual
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