Jörg Berger (13 October 1944 – 23 June 2010) was a German football manager and player, who last managed Arminia Bielefeld.

Career

As an active he played for 1.FC Lok Leipzig.

Coaching career

In 1970, Berger was forced to retire due to a muscle injury and started his managing career after the studying at the DHfK Leipzig. Berger was a reputable manager in

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 ...

who was planned to manage the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

as successor of longtime manager Georg Buschner some day. Berger managed the youth team of the GDR. In 1979, he used a match in

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

to flee to West Germany. He signed with Second Bundesliga side SV Darmstadt 98. As a GDR refugee he suffered many threats by the East German secret police Stasi. He survived being poisoned whilst managing

KSV Hessen Kassel KSV Hessen Kassel is a semi-professional German football club based in Kassel, Hesse. KSV competes in the German Regionalliga Südwest, the fourth tier of German football. Nicknamed "Die Löwen" (the lions), the club was founded as FC Union ...

in the mid-1980s. Evidence of the threats to his life were not available until 1990 when Germany was reunified, after which he was able to search his Stasi files. He was renowned as a great motivator, helping clubs threatened with relegation, but with little chance to build up teams over a longer period. Berger became the ’’fireman’’ of the Bundesliga after he twice failed to gain promotion to the Bundesliga with

, ending up in fourth position in the Second division of the Bundesliga (1984 and 1985). His greatest achievements were two third positions with

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 ...

in 1990 and with FC Schalke 04 in 1996. He was replaced as manager of Schalke by Huub Stevens in October 1996 shortly before they won the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

in 1997. Berger's last big success was reaching the

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considered ...

final with Alemannia Aachen, a side from the Second division of the Bundesliga. However his contract was cancelled, by mutual agreement, after they lost to the then current champions ( SV Werder Bremen) and failed to gain promotion to the Bundesliga. From 17 November 2004 until 14 August 2005, he was the manager of

FC Hansa 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 ...

. He was fired after a 1–4 defeat by

TSV 1860 München A tab-separated values (TSV) file is a simple text format for storing data in a tabular structure, e.g., a database table or spreadsheet data, and a way of exchanging information between databases. Each record in the table is one line of the te ...

. On 18 May 2009, was named as the new Head Coach from

DSC Arminia Bielefeld DSC Arminia Bielefeld (; full name: ; commonly known as Arminia Bielefeld (), also known as ''Die Arminen'' or ''Die Blauen'' ), or just Arminia (), is a German sports club from Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. Arminia offers the sports of ...

. His contract ran until 30 June 2009. He left the club on this date.

Personal life

Berger was the father of three children. In 2002, he had to interrupt his time as Alemannia Aachen manager due to an operation on an intestinal tumour. In 2005, he was operated on again, this time on

liver The liver is a major organ only found in vertebrates which performs many essential biological functions such as detoxification of the organism, and the synthesis of proteins and biochemicals necessary for digestion and growth. In humans, it ...

metastasis Metastasis is a pathogenic agent's spread from an initial or primary site to a different or secondary site within the host's body; the term is typically used when referring to metastasis by a cancerous tumor. The newly pathological sites, then ...

. He released his biography ''"Meine zwei Halbzeiten: Ein Leben in Ost und West"'' (English: ''My Two Halves: A Life in the East and in the West'') over the

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

based

Rowohlt Verlag Rowohlt Verlag is a German publishing house based in Hamburg, with offices in Reinbek and Berlin. It has been part of the Georg von Holtzbrinck Group since 1982. The company was created in 1908 in Leipzig by Ernst Rowohlt. Divisions * Kinder * ...

in March 2009. Berger died on 23 June 2010 of an

enteric The gastrointestinal tract (GI tract, digestive tract, alimentary canal) is the tract or passageway of the digestive system that leads from the mouth to the anus. The GI tract contains all the major organs of the digestive system, in humans and ...

tumor A neoplasm () is a type of abnormal and excessive growth of tissue. The process that occurs to form or produce a neoplasm is called neoplasia. The growth of a neoplasm is uncoordinated with that of the normal surrounding tissue, and persists ...

.Keine Rettung für den Retter

References

External links

Jörg Berger at eintracht-archiv.de
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berger, Jorg 1944 births 2010 deaths Sportspeople from Gdynia People from West Prussia German football managers German footballers East German footballers East German defectors East German football managers 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig players Fortuna Düsseldorf managers Hannover 96 managers SC Freiburg managers SV Darmstadt 98 managers Eintracht Frankfurt managers 1. FC Köln managers FC Schalke 04 managers FC Basel managers Karlsruher SC managers Bursaspor managers KSV Hessen Kassel managers Alemannia Aachen managers FC Hansa Rostock managers Arminia Bielefeld managers Bundesliga managers Expatriate football managers in Switzerland Expatriate football managers in Turkey Deaths from cancer in Germany Deaths from colorectal cancer 2. Bundesliga managers East German emigrants to West Germany DDR-Oberliga players Association football forwards

Career

Coaching career

Personal life

See also

References

External links