| Otto Nerz |
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Information AboutOtto Nerz |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT OTTO NERZ | |
| 1892 births | |
| nerz, otto | |
| 1949 deaths | |
| german football managers | |
| fifa world cup 1934 managers | |
| germany national football team managers | |
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A trained medical doctor, Nerz played as an amateur for Mannheim and Tennis Berlin before being appointed as Germany's first-ever national manager and selector in 1923. At the time, football was not seen as a major sport in Germany, and German football was seen as considerably inferior to that played by other central European countries such as Austria , Hungary , Czechoslovakia and Italy . Nonetheless, under Dr Nerz the team - initially considered one of the weakest in Europe - gradually developed some consistency towards the end of the 1920s and early 1930s. Nerz studied a large number of games in Austria and Italy, and sought advice on coaching and tactics from internationally-respected coaches such as Jimmy Hogan , Hugo Meisl and Vittorio Pozzo in a quest to improve the standards of the German national team. Germany did not enter the inaugural World Cup in 1930 in Uruguay , but by the time of the next tournament in 1934 , held in Italy , Germany had become a strong side by European standards. In the event, Nerz guided Germany to victories over Belgium and Sweden; a semi-final defeat to Czechoslovakia was followed by a win over the hitherto heavily-fancied Austrians to secure a third-place finish. This would be Germany's best international performance until the 1954 World Cup , and it provided a huge boost to the popularity of the sport in Germany. Dr Nerz had joined the Nazi Party relatively early, prior to Adolf Hitler gaining power in 1933 , and this combined with his success in the World Cup meant that the German government placed a high level of expectation on Nerz' team for the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin . However, Germany were eliminated early in the tournament after a shock defeat to rank outsiders Norway . Shortly thereafter, Dr Nerz was relieved of his duties as coach, replaced by Sepp Herberger . Following his dismissal from the German national job, Dr Nerz took an administrative and coaching position with the football association of Berlin . Due to his Nazi Party membership, he was arrested as a Prisoner Of War after the Battle Of Berlin and later interned in a camp in Sachsenhausen ; after four years of imprisonment, Dr Nerz died on or around 18 April 1949 and was buried in a mass grave on the site of the camp. |
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