Felix Linnemann (20 October 1882 – 21 March 1948) was the fourth president of the German Football Association, the Deutscher Fußball-Bund (DFB), serving from 1925 to 1945.

Biography

Felix Linnemann was born and grew up at the edge of the Lüneburger Heide and went to the University of

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...

, where he was a student of all four faculties. In 1919, Linnemann was appointed vice-president of the DFB. The upper government and ''Kriminalrat'' exerted influence on the DFB, so that Linneman replaced

Gottfried Hinze Gottfried Hinze (2 November 1873 – 23 August 1953) was a German businessman, athlete, and football administrator. He was President of the German Football Association (german: Deutscher Fußball-Bund, DFB) from 1905 to 1925. Hinze joined the ...

as DFB president in 1925. The move was considered as more penetration, and wanted a more honest, pragmatic, professional soccer in Germany. However, the political reversal made a line for it in 1933 by the calculation. The political sport leaders often wanted to present the football players at the ball in international matches as demonstration of national strength, making sport become an instrument of propaganda.

Otto Nerz Otto Nerz (21 October 1892 – 18 April 1949) was a German footballer player and manager and the first head coach of the Germany national team between 1923 and 1936. Nerz was born in Hechingen, Province of Hohenzollern, son of a rope shopkeep ...

was discovered and appointed by Linnemann as the national team coach. After his resignation, the DFB president appointed

Sepp Herberger Josef "Sepp" Herberger (28 March 1897 – 28 April 1977) was a German football player and manager. He is most famous for being the manager of the West German national team that won the 1954 FIFA World Cup final, a match later dubbed '' The Mir ...

, to become the new coach. The systematic training of Egidius Braunhe began to be used to train both players and coaches at this time. Both Linnemann and Herberger carried the idea of a ''

Reichsliga The Reichsliga (, ''Reich League'') was a proposed nationwide German association football league. First suggested in 1932 by German Football Association (DFB) president Felix Linnemann, the ''Reichsliga'' was essentially a forerunner of the ''B ...

'', but 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 ...

prevented the implementation of a football league in Germany. Linnemann had proposed the league to the regional football associations in 1932 but it had been vetoed.The Bundesliga: a true success story
Official ''Bundesliga'' website, accessed: 5 July 2011''30 Jahre Bundesliga'', p. 6 Felix Linnemann announced the end of the DFB under the rule of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

. Already on 9 July 1933, he authorized the chairman Linnemann to make all personnel and material measures to the integration of the football haven in the program of the Sports office of the Reich (DRL) and the transformation of the DFB. The DFB was dissolved to be integrated into the recently created federation of the Nationalsozialistischer Reichsbund für Leibesübungen (NSRL). DFB president Linnemann was active as a curator at the University of Leibesübungen 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 ...

and as a member of the amateur commission of FIFA. Throughout 1937, Linnemann was transferred as a commander of the ''

Kriminalpolizei ''Kriminalpolizei'' (, "criminal police") is the standard term for the criminal investigation agency within the police forces of Germany, Austria, and the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland. In Nazi Germany, the Kripo was the criminal polic ...

'' from Berlin to Stettin, and was also attached to

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 ...

. In January 2020, the German Football Association announced that Linnemann "was directly involved in the registration of Sinti and Roma as the head of the Hannover Criminal Police control center" which led to the deportation of several hundred to Auschwitz concentration camp, where they died. After the end of the war, he spent six months in the internment camp with Englishmen in Lüneburger Heide; the Nazis had transferred the entire police with appropriate service ranks of the officials during the war to the SS. Linnemann died in 1948 in his home village Steinhorst near Hannover, where he is buried.

References

Sources

* ''30 Jahre Bundesliga'' 30th anniversary special, publisher: '' kicker Sportmagazin'', published: 1993

Biography

References

Sources

See also