Hugo Meisl – The Man in the Hat

The Great Austrian coach. Who managed the national side from 1912 to 1937.

The son of a banker who entered the world of football through administration Hugo Meisl is an unlikely football coach; even for the early 20th century. Despite his unusual background he created The Wunderteam out of the ashes of World War I and established the earliest form of international competition between domestic club sides.

Meisl himself was no footballer. He and his family moved to Vienna, the central hub of Austrian football, in the latter years of the 19th century. By 1900 the keen sportsman was involved in the Vienna cricket and football club as both an amateur player and a referee. He even went on to officiate football matches at the Stockholm Olympics of 1912. Later in the same year he took charge of the Austrian national side for the first time; defeating Italy 3-1.

Meisl’s legacy, as a coach, forms part of a tradition of Eastern European football coaching. His great mentor was the Lancastrian pioneer of European football Jimmy Hogan. Hogan was unique. Few, if any, English coaches of his era had such a desire to encourage possession football and praise technique over brute force and pace. Unable to find work in his home country he traveled Europe coaching at various different times in Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

Football and Fascism: The Berlin Olympics 1936

The Olympic Flame enters the Olympic Stadium; surrounded by Swastikas. 1936.

Neither Adolf Hitler nor the Nazi Party had chosen to host the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The games were awarded to the German capital and the alpine resort of Garmisch in 1931 during the tail-end of the Weimar Republic. The games would become a motor for the ever-growing Nazi propaganda machine and an opportunity to exhibit not just the finest German sportsmen and women to the world but also the apparent progress the country had made under the new Nazi led government. The games also produced a number of complications to the leaders of the Nazi Party including the treatment of athletes considered inferior by the party, how to welcome the international community; particularly the free press.

In the build up to the games some of the more extreme Nazi policies were repealed or diluted as the international community descended upon Berlin. Jewish prohibition signs were hidden and replaced with Olympic posters. The aggressively anti-Semitic Nazi sponsored tabloid Der Stürmer was removed from circulation. The regime calmed their harassment of the church and A.J. Ryder found that the number of concentration camp prisoners fell to a third of July 1933 levels. Although the Romany gypsy community of Berlin was forcible removed from the city and as many as eight hundred gypsies were rounded up ‘interrogated, arrested, and then sent to a special concentration camp at Marzahn’ to the east of the city.

While certain aspects of the tyranny were hidden from public view the Nazi’s promoted the areas which they were most proud of. The 1936 games were the first to have an Olympic torch relay that took the Olympic flame from Athens to the host city. Once the flame arrived in Germany the German people lined the streets along with the ever present symbol of Nazism – the Swastika. James Taylor and Warren Shaw described the footage of procession for global newsreels as a sign of ‘the prosperity of Germany and the enthusiasm of the Germans for the new Nazi regime.’ This also gave the party the opportunity to show off their work in the Germany that existed outside of Berlin.

The Nazi’s broke new ground in their coverage of the games. Historian, Ian Kershaw found that over the medium of radio ‘over 3,000 programmes were transmitted to the world in around fifty languages’ including ‘over 100 radio stations in the USA’ as mass media took sport to a wider audience than ever before. The games were also the first to receive television live coverage although the coverage was only available in Berlin ‘gave out only fuzzy pictures.’ The attitude towards the press and the first live coverage represented a significant step in the development of the games towards the global event that it is today.

Football and Fascism: The 1934 World Cup

Filippo Marinetti’s 1934 World Cup tournament poster. Note the fasces, the symbol of Italian Fascism, in the bottom left corner and on the Italian players shirt.

As with all three pre-World War II World Cups the tournament was hindered by the varying availability of competitors. The English FA, who had refused to travel to Uruguay in 1930, were reluctant to attend once again. A friendly game against Italy in 1933 had been arranged without the consent of the British government. The British at this time were keen to  keep sport and politics explicitly separate.  The Italian hosts, however, treated the game as one large propaganda exercise. The game ended 1-1 but FA secretary Frank Wall declared ‘I have no desire to again be a guest of the Italian Football Federation’ and so the 1934 World Cup invite was declined on political grounds by all of the Home Nations.

South American sides were also under-represented. Reigning champions Uruguay had been hit by the Great Depression and were no longer able to afford the Atlantic boat crossing. Only Brazil and Argentina, who sent an under-strength side, could stump up the cash and both lost their first round fixtures, in a straight knock-out format, to Spain and Sweden respectively. The USA also traveled the Atlantic while Egypt made the shorter trip across the Mediterranean but they too lost their opening games.

Despite the depression, the Italians were happy to throw money at the event. As much as 3.5 million lire was spent on the Futurist stadium designs, high quality printed match tickets, Filippo Marinetti’s tournament poster (at the top of this post) and even expenses for foreign supporters. Visiting fans could claim as much as 75% of their travel expenses, but only in lire, and travel within the country was free to all ticket holders. One of the more bizarre expenses was La Coppa del Duce named in honour of Mussolini. The trophy was specially commission and designed to be awarded alongside the Jules Rimet trophy that has been presented in 1930; though La Coppa was six times larger than the original.

Sindelar post updated

Amendments have been made to last Monday’s Matthias Sindelar to reflect what, precious little, I have learned from the BBC Four documentary Football and Fascism regarding the words of Egon Ulbrich and Sindelar’s national pride.

The amended article includes two new passages:

Despite his seemingly ‘foreign’ birth Sindelar was a vigorous Austrian patriot who turned down the opportunity to play for clubs abroad because of his love for Vienna. His national pride, rather than nationalism, certainly played a part in his opposition to the Nazis.

…

In the BBC’s 2003 documentary Fascism and Football, former Austria Vienna club secretary Egon Ulbrich, also a friend of Sindelar, claimed that the verdict of accidental death was reached for political reasons. Nazi laws prohibited state funerals and graves if honour for persons that had been murdered or had committed suicide. Therefore Ulbrich claims that he and his friend pressured a district inspector he describes as a ‘a Nazi, but a nice guy’ to find the death to be an accident and not suspicious. As a result 15,000 Austrian turned out on the streets of Vienna to mourn great striker.

While the changes do not change the overall conclusion of the article I though it did offer some more interesting insight that people might want to see, rather than just edit the article without notice.

The rather sketchy BBC documentary can be viewed here. While the historical nature of the film is patchy, particularly in the narration, there are some interesting images of Sindelar on the football field from the 20 minute mark onwards.

Mathias Sindelar – The Paper Man

Nicknamed der Papierene – the paper man – due to his light frame, Sindelar still is the darling of Austrian football.

Throughout the history of football power, pace and strength have been the default attributes for a centre forward. Matthias Sindelar had none of these. He was reliant upon his poise, balance and trickery to succeed. And, in an age where football formations all followed the set pattern of 2-3-5 it really was the players who made the difference. For Austria, who perfected ‘The Danubian Whirl’, Sindelar was that difference.

Though he was small, it was Sindelar’s size that allowed him to become such an admired player. At 5′ 9″ he was slight, nimble and best known for his dribbling skill. Creativity, rather than brute force, was central to his game. Contemporary journalists described Sindelar as the Mozart of football and he was lauded  for his elegant forward play and took on the nickname Der Papierene; or ‘The Paper Man’.

Looking at the few pictures of him that have survived he really does look like a relic from a by-gone age with his receding hairline and bandaged right knee that protected an old injury. Indeed little moving footage survives of Sindelar on the field so it is in the words of his admirers that we must analyse him. Viennese coffeehouse intellectual and critic Alfred Polgar was certainly a fan:

“In a way he had brains in his legs, and many remarkable and unexpected things occurred to them while they were running. Sindelar’s shot hit the back of the net like the perfect punch-line, the ending that made it possible to understand and appreciate the perfect composition of the story, the crowning of which it represented.”

Introduction: Austria – The Wunderteam

The Wunderteam lines up for a pre-match photo. Date unknown.

Before we go anywhere with Golden Generations perhaps it would be a good idea to look at the terms according to the Dictionary:

golden – adj. – informal very successful or destined for success: the golden girl of tennis.

generation  – n. – the normal or average time between two such generations of a species: about 35 years for humans.

Hopefully we shall see that each Golden Generations is as diverse and interesting as the next but broadly speaking all fit the dictionary definition. Some sides are given the label due to their potential whereas others aren’t seen as ‘Golden’ until they have achieved their success; often seemingly from nowhere. As far as a generation goes in footballing terms 35 years is far too long. A more suitable time frame for a sport with a short career timeframe would be 10 years or perhaps two World Cups. Of course some are much shorter.

At this early stage any attempt to clearly define a Golden Generation is futile. Not until a number of sides have truly been analysed and scrutinised will we begin to see patterns emerge. But it seems sensible to go back to one of the earliest Golden Generations. Not to Hungary of the 1950s, more on them later, but to the Austrian side of the 1930s.

The  Wunderteam, as they were known, emerged largely from Vienna and lay many of the foundations for later Golden Generations. They were coached by Hugo Meisl and on the field their great talisman was Matthais Sindelar. In a 20 year career as manager Meisl created a side worthy of beating England, the dominant powers of pre-World War II football, and by 1934 Austria were considered strong favourites for the World Cup.

Teaser II: Der Papierene

Mattahis Sindelar hits another punch-line.

“In a way he had brains in his legs, and many remarkable and unexpected things occurred to them while they were running. Sindelar’s shot hit the back of the net like the perfect punch-line, the ending that made it possible to understand and appreciate the perfect composition of the story, the crowning of which it represented.”

Austrian coffee house writer and intellectual Alfred Polgar describes Der Papierene – Matthias Sindelar.

Golden Teaser

Hungarian striker Sandor Kocsis scores for Hungary at Wembley during the infamous ‘6-3’ game. 25th November 1953.

Coming soon …