Rote Jäger
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The Rote Jäger (Red Hunters) were a short-lived German military football club active during World War II. The team was assembled by Hermann Graf, a fighter ace and commander of German fighter pilots. It developed into a refuge from frontline service for German national team players. The side did not participate in the regular German league system, but instead played a series of friendly exhibition matches.
The genesis of the team was in a challenge made by an elite Romanian army side to Graf, who managed the German military side in the country. Graf trained with Germany's national side before the war intervened and he decided to contact his former coach, Sepp Herberger, who – to the surprise of the Romanians – brought along several members of the side to take part in the match, which the Germans won 3:2 in front of 40,000 in Bucharest.
By 1943 Graf had decided to act to save as many of the national team's players as he could from frontline service, attaching them to his unit as "technical experts". Among those who played for the Jäger was Fritz Walter who would go onto to fame with 1. FC Kaiserslautern and earn 61 caps with Germany. He wrote the book 11 Rote Jäger about his experiences.
German military clubs were disbanded in September 1944 as Allied armies began their advance into the country.
[edit] Members of the Rote Jäger
- Sepp Herberger, coach (German national coach)
- Hermann Eppenhoff, forward (Schalke 04), later coach
- Hermann Graf, goalkeeper
- Franz Hanreiter
- Alfons Moog, mid-fielder
- Fritz Walter, forward, captain of the side that won the World Cup in 1954
