German handball celebrates its 100th birthday. Birthday. There were at least 100 stories to tell. SPOX concentrates on one of the most memorable battles: The class struggle between the FRG and the GDR for the qualification for the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. It’s a drama of mistrust, political skirmishes and psycho games.
When the draw had resulted in a group with Belgium, the FRG and the GDR, players and officials from both sides of the fright drove into the members. Because of the Belgian inferiority, it was clear to everyone that in the fight for the Olympic ticket everything would end up in a showdown between West and East Germany – in the middle of the Cold War, when relations between the two countries had reached freezing point.
Only one rubbed his hands: Vlado Stenzel. These all-or-nothing situations, these duels under extreme pressure, which ended with only triumphant victory or devastating defeat, and in no way anything in between, were exactly to the taste of the DHB coach.
It was the games in which the magician, as they called him, was able to conjure up all his tricks from the hat – and he had an almost inexhaustible arsenal of them.”That was war. Nobody can imagine that today,”said the now 83-year-old 40 years after the drama in the film “Cold War”: Handball GDR – FRG 1976.
But one thing after another: When the first leg was played in 1975 in Munich’s Olympic Hall, the Croatian, who had just led the Yugoslav national team to the gold medal in 1972, had been in office for about one and a half years.
The roles were clearly distributed: While the handball in the FRG was lying on the ground, and after a rejuvenation treatment under Stenzel, the GDR had only slowly emerged from a low, becoming vice world champion twice before and thus the big favourite.
“These were all players we didn’t even have on our paper,”recalled the former GDR goalkeeper Wieland Schmidt:”But Stenzel had instilled self-confidence in them – that was madness! They all believed in moving forward against us. You could tell.”
20. December 1975, Munich: The GDR players entered the hall and were amazed not badly. Stenzel had already grabbed deeply into the box of tricks for the first time before the game and had a needle felt floor laid. Playing on carpet was absolutely unusual for handball.
The GDR officials were outraged and accused Stenzel of “committing a foul before the kick-off whistle”. Hans Engel later explained:”You have gained an advantage with this carpet. It’s as safe as the amen in church.”
But it wasn’t only the soil that made the GDR selection difficult. The 10,500 spectators (100,000 ticket requests were received) also created a hostile atmosphere. Every action of the East German team was accompanied by a yelling whistle concert, which called players “socialist pigs”.
Led by the strong goalkeeper Manfred Hofmann, who was put in a bright yellow tracksuit by Stenzel to look bigger, and Joachim Deckarm (9 goals) sensationally won the FRG with 17:14. Stenzel was carried by his players on the shoulders through the hall, although three goals ahead meant nothing but a decision.
More than two months remained until the second leg in March 1976. East and West used them to politically exploit the ultimate showdown as they did before the first leg. The GDR actors in particular were under immense pressure.
“There were always functionaries there who taught us how important it is for the GDR to look good, to defeat the class enemy,”recalled GDR keeper Schmidt. And Horst Spengler, who ran the Federal Republic of Germany, added:”It was like a political demonstration. Which system will leave the field as the winner?”
Meanwhile, Stenzel had other worries. The man from Zagreb feverishly considered how he could prepare his team for the nasty atmosphere in the GDR. And he went much further than anyone else would think of.
The national coach called for two test matches against southern German clubs in Dietzenbach, Hesse. When his players disappeared into the cabin just before the kick-off, Stenzel turned personally to the audience and said:”Please whistle us out.”
The spectators obeyed and whistled what they could. The DHB team wasn’t prepared at all, because Stenzel hadn’t let his players in on his plans,”They did a great job of it. It was almost like in the GDR”, the coach praised the spectators in Dietzenbach years later.
But that’s not all, Stenzel had come up with something else:”I agreed with the referees that they would whistle against us. Of course, the crew didn’t know anything about it. Kurt Klühspies came to me during the game, grabbed his head and said,”What kind of referee are they?”
Even when the day had come and the West German delegation left for the GDR, Stenzel left nothing to chance. The magician was afraid that his players in the hotel in Karl-Marx-Stadt would be able to put “sleeping pills in the soup”.
When Stenzel was finally asked by the chef in Chemnitz today what he should prepare, the national coach replied in a nutshell:”Nothing.
“Everyone trusted each other to work with left tricks,”the then DHB player Heiner Brand once described the situation.
6. March 1976, Karl-Marx-Stadt: When the German players entered the redesigned ice rink, they were greeted by 3000 selected spectators in Munich two and a half months earlier by an atmosphere as heated as that of the GDR players. There was a permanent whistle concert, cups flew.
The GDR officials had deliberately chosen the venue. The West German team was supposed to remember the two devastating defeats they had suffered in this arena at the 1974 World Cup.
The starting position: A defeat with three goals difference would be enough for the FRG as long as the GDR would not score more than 16 goals.
Led by Reiner Ganschow, the GDR took a 7:2 lead just before the break, the gap from the first leg was gone. The hall exploded, Stenzel’s instructions were no longer understandable to any player.
But the FRG fought back in an unbelievable defensive battle, seconds before the end the GDR was ahead with 11:8. Then the drama, which was followed by almost all of Germany in front of the television sets, reached its climax.
FRG captain Spengler foulled angels in the last attack. The referee’s whistle sounded – seven meters for the GDR in the last second. Once the seven-metre gap is reached, the GDR heads for Montreal. If he misses, the FRG can go to Olympia.
Stenzel was rummaging in a hectic bag of tricks and delayed the execution of the seven-metre test by two minutes due to all kinds of gimmicks. Suddenly he came up with the idea of appointing substitute Rudi Rauer to Hofmann’s goalkeeper and said,”Hofmann came to me and said:’ Let it go, old man'”, told Stenzel years later and laughed:”He has put himself in a situation where he has to hold this seven-metre gap”.
Angel, who had transformed three times before, started throwing after a long time of feeling. The ball came to the goal from the shooter’s point of view halfway up to the right, Hofmann tore his left leg upwards and fought off with his knee.
While Stenzel, who led the DHB team to the world championship title in Denmark in 1978, described the duels against the GDR as “the most important victory of my life”, Hofmann despaired almost at that moment in the following years:”My whole life is only this one seven meter. It’s driving me crazy.”
For me, a world has collapsed,”said Schmidt:” My dream of Olympia was lost, we lost against the class enemy and were shattered to no avail after the game by GDR sports director Manfred Ewald.
The DHB team went to Canada in the summer of 1976. A defeat in the match for third place against Poland cost the bronze medal.