Ernst Wilimowski

Ernest Otton Wilimowski (German: Ernst Otto Wilimowski, born Ernst Otto Prandella; 23 June 1916 – 30 August 1997), nicknamed "Ezi", was a footballer who played as a forward. He ranks among the best goalscorers in the history of both the Poland national team and Polish club football. After re-taking German citizenship following the invasion of Poland, he also played for the Germany national team.

Ernest Wilimowski
Wilimowski (front, with ball) in a 1937 match for Ruch Chorzów against Warta Poznań.
Personal information
Full name Ernest Otton Wilimowski
Birth name Ernst Otto Prandella
Date of birth (1916-06-23)23 June 1916
Place of birth Kattowitz, German Empire
Date of death 30 August 1997(1997-08-30) (aged 81)
Place of death Karlsruhe, Germany
Position(s) Forward
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1932–1933 1. FC Kattowitz 25 (15)
1934–1939 Ruch Chorzów 86 (113)
1939–1940 1. FC Kattowitz
1940–1942 PSV Chemnitz 29+ (68)
1942–1944 1860 Munich 5 (8)
1944 1. FC Kattowitz 1 (2)
1944 Karlsruher SC 4 (6)
1944–1945 PSV Chemnitz 3+ (14)
1946 SC Zwiesel 4+ (4+)
1946–1948 SG Chemnitz-West 27 (65)
1948 BC Augsburg 6 (3)
1949–1950 Offenburger FV 18 (18)
1950–1951 FC Singen 04 30 (16)
1951–1955 VfR Kaiserslautern 75+ (73)
1955–1956 Kehler FV 7 (8)
Total 328+ (413+)
International career
1934–1939 Poland 22 (21)
1934–1939 Silesia 6 (7)
1941–1942 Germany 8 (13)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Wilimowski was the first player to score four goals in a single FIFA World Cup game. According to RSSSF, Wilimowski scored over 1077 total goals in at least 688 total matches, making him the 14th greatest goalscorer of all time.[1] He is the most prolific goalscorer in official matches in one season in recorded history according to RSSSF, with 107 goals scored in 45 matches.[2]

Wilimowski also occasionally played ice hockey for the team Pogoń Katowice.

Early life

Born in Kattowitz (Katowice), Prussian Silesia, German Empire, Wilimowski was raised in a Silesian family, typical of the Upper Silesian Polish-German borderland. After eastern Upper Silesia became part of Poland in 1922, he became a citizen of the Second Polish Republic.

His parents, Ernst-Roman and Paulina, were German. His father, a soldier for the German Empire, died on the Western Front in the First World War. His mother sent him to a German kindergarten, a German primary school[3] and, when he was nine years old, to the German football team 1. FC Kattowitz. At the age of 13, he was legally adopted by his stepfather, who was Polish,[4] and took on the surname Wilimowski. At home, he spoke German for the most part, while in public he often spoke a Silesian dialect of the Polish language. Officially a citizen of Poland, he referred to himself as an Upper Silesian ("Górnoślązak" - Oberschlesier).

Early career

Ruch Chorzów

Wilimowski, who had six toes on his right foot, played on the left side as a forward and showed himself to be a very skilled dribbler as well as a natural goalscorer. He began his career with the ethnically German club 1. FC Kattowitz, then in 1933 at the age of 17, moved to Polish side Ruch Wielkie Hajduki, today known as Ruch Chorzów. "Ezi" quickly established himself as the team's best player: in his first season he scored 33 goals to lead the league. His first Ekstraklasa game took place on 8 April 1934, a few weeks later, he capped for the Poland national team. With a number of excellent footballers besides Wilimowski (for example Teodor Peterek and Gerard Wodarz), Ruch dominated the Polish soccer and was the league champion in 1933–1936 and 1938.

Wilimowski played 86 games for Ruch, scoring 112 goals, and was the league's top scorer in 1934 and 1936. He also led the league in scoring in 1939 until the German invasion of Poland. On 21 May 1939, he scored 10 goals in a single match against Union Touring Łódź as his club won 12–1. That performance still stands as a league record.

Poland national team

Soon after beginning his club football career, "Ezi" earned his first cap for Poland when he debuted against Denmark in Copenhagen on 21 May 1934 in a 2:4 loss: he was just 17 years and 332 days old. In a total of 22 appearances for Poland, Wilimowski netted 21 goals, nearly a goal per game. However, his off field conduct was less than ideal and in 1936 the young man's penchant for drinking and partying led to a one-year suspension imposed by the Polish football association just before the Olympic Games in Berlin. Without his goal scoring touch the Poles managed only a fourth-place finish in the Olympic tournament. Many felt that his presence could have brought the team a gold medal.

Wilimowski's appearances for Poland include two performances that were both historic and memorable.

In a match against Brazil played in Strasbourg, France during the 1938 FIFA World Cup, "Ezi" put on a stunning display by becoming the first player ever to score four goals in a single World Cup match. His continued attacks on the opposition net also drew a penalty as he was fouled to the ground by Brazilian keeper Batatais, which led to Poland's fifth goal scored from the spot by German-born Fritz Scherfke, from Poznań. However, it was not enough - Poland lost the match 6–5 and was eliminated from the tournament. Wilimowski's record was later equalled by other players, but was bettered only 56 years later, when Oleg Salenko scored five goals against Cameroon during the 1994 FIFA World Cup. It still remains the only World Cup match when a player from the losing side scored four goals.

Wilimowski put on another memorable display on 27 August 1939 in Warsaw in an international friendly against what was then one of the best teams in the world - Hungary, the 1938 World Cup runner-up. After 33 minutes of play the Hungarians were ahead 2:0. Wilimowski scored three goals and again drew a penalty through his attacking play which was converted by teammate Leonard Piątek, giving Poland a 4:2 win. The match was the last game played before the start of World War II just four days later.

War years

After the invasion and occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany, Wilimowski as Volksdeutscher re-took German citizenship, like the majority of the inhabitants of the Eastern part of Upper Silesia, among them all the players of the Poland national team coming from this region. It allowed them to continue their football careers as Poles were not permitted to participate in sports under the Nazi occupation. In the early days of the war Wilimowski had to hide from the Nazis because of the enmity of a local Kreisleiter (county leader) of the NSDAP named Georg Joschke who held against Wilimowski the 1933 transfer from the ethnically-German club 1. FC Kattowitz to the Polish Ruch Chorzów.[5] Allegedly, Joschke threatened that Wilimowski would have to wear the letter "P" (for Pole) on his clothes. This never happened, as Wilimowski was too good a player and well appreciated by other German football officials. However, his mother Paulina, was placed in Auschwitz concentration camp, which she survived. Wilimowski's mother was incarcerated because she got engaged in an intimate relationship with a Russian Jew, which was regarded as Rassenschande in Nazi Germany. Ernst, who in later stages of the war became friends with legendary pilot Hermann Graf, managed to save her, with Graf's help.[5]

For propaganda purposes, Nazi sports officials made 1. FC Kattowitz a model side representative of the German Upper Silesia. The region's best players were assigned to the team and besides Wilimowski included Erwin Nyc, Ewald Dytko and Paweł Cyganek. "Ezi" played there until February 1940, before moving on to Chemnitz, where he took up a job as a policeman while playing for the local team Polizei-Sportverein Chemnitz (1940–1942).

Through the course of the war, he also played for TSV 1860 Munich (1942–1944), where he was a member of the Tschammerpokal (German Cup) winning side of 1942. In the final game of the 1942 German Cup, at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, the Munich side won 2–0, with the first goal scored by Wilimowski. In the final years of the war, Wilimowski became a soldier of the Wehrmacht, but he was allowed to play in army football teams, f.e. LSV Mölders in German-occupied Kraków.[6]

Germany national team

Like other officials, Sepp Herberger, manager of the Germany national team, developed an immediate appreciation for Wilimowski's talent. He debuted for Germany against Romania on 1 June 1941, in Bucharest scoring twice in a 4–1 victory. He followed that performance with three goals against Finland in Helsinki on 5 October 1941 as the Germans scored an easy 6–0 win.

The only international match Wilimowski ever played in his native Upper Silesia (in Beuthen, now Bytom, Poland), whether wearing a Polish or German jersey, was on 16 August 1942 versus the Romanian side. He contributed one goal in a 7–0 win (another German star, Fritz Walter, netted three goals in the contest). The match was the biggest sporting event staged there during the war as 55,000 fans came to cheer on their native son.

Wilimowski's most memorable performance for the Germany national side came on 18 October 1942 in Bern, Switzerland as the Germans defeated a well-respected Swiss national team by a score of 5-3. "Ezi" scored four[7] of five goals with the other being netted by Fritz Walter.

Wilimowski was capped a total of eight times for Germany, scoring 13 goals (1.63 per match). His last appearance for Germany was in a 5–2 victory over Slovakia in Bratislava on 22 November 1942. After this match, Germany no longer played international friendlies because of the war.

Postwar career

After the war, Wilimowski, who was regarded by the Polish government as a traitor, was not allowed to visit his Silesian homeland during the Communist regime.[8] He was with SG Chemnitz-West in 1946-47 and had a short spell with RC Strasbourg in 1949.[9] After that, he settled in the Karlsruhe area, opening a restaurant there. Even though he was already in his 30s when organized playing resumed, he continued a career that lasted until 1959 and age 43. During this period he played for, or had talks with, several German club teams including TSV Detmold (in between seasons, no league appearances), FV Offenburg (as a player-coach), BC Augsburg for a short spell in the autumn of 1948, Singen 04, where he had a good comeback scoring 16 Oberliga goals in 1950-51, and VfR Kaiserslautern (including 70 goals in 89 Oberliga Südwest appearances for the latter, all scored when he was over 35 years old). After retiring, together with wife, Wilimowski for a while ran a restaurant, then worked in a Pfaff sewing machine factory, to retire in 1978.[5]

At the 1974 FIFA World Cup in Germany, Wilimowski allegedly wanted to pay a visit to the Poland national team that stayed in Murrhardt near Stuttgart, but was refused permission by PZPN officials. In 1995, he was invited by Ruch Chorzów to come to Upper Silesia and celebrate club's 75th anniversary. Wilimowski, according to his oldest daughter, Sylvia Haarke, wanted to come to Poland, saying that had it not been for the war, he would never have left Katowice. However, his wife Klara (née Mehne) was sick then and he had to stay with her. Wilimowski died in Karlsruhe, Germany, leaving behind four children - three daughters (Sylvia, Sigrid and Ulle) and a son, Rainer.

Sylvia Haarke who lives in Hamburg, and in May 2007 visited Tarnowskie Góry with her husband Karl-Heinz Haarke (author of Wilimowski's biography), presented some interesting facts about her father. She said that Wilimowski was a devout Roman Catholic, always emphasizing the role of religion in his life. After the famous Poland v Brazil (1938) game, Brazilian officials wanted to acquire his services. Wilimowski had signed a preliminary contract, but it did not work out. According to Haarke, one of her father's biggest disappointments was not having been a member of the German team which won the 1954 FIFA World Cup.

Legendary coach of the Poland national team, Kazimierz Górski, met Wilimowski at a hotel in Murrhardt during the World Championship in Germany in 1974. Gorski immediately recognized Ezi, because in the interbellum period, Wilimowski was one of his idols. Whenever Ruch Chorzow came to play in Lwów (now Lviv), Gorski always attended the games, watching Wilimowski. However, being observed by an agent of the Polish secret police SB, the Polish coach greeted his idol very coldly: Mr Wilimowski, if you had not done anything wrong, perhaps you should have come back to Poland, and explain your behavior, cleanse yourself of all charges - said Górski. I was afraid - answered Wilimowski.[10]

Career statistics

Club
Appearances and goals by club, season, and competition. Only official games are included in this table.[11][12][13]
Club Season League National cup Other Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
1. FC Kattowitz 1932–1933 Liga Oberschlesien 25 15 – 1 2 26 17
1944 Gauliga Oberschlesien 1 2 – 1 2
Total 26 17 – 1 2 27 19
Ruch Chorzów 1934 Ekstraklasa 15+ 33 – – 15+ 33
1935 5+85+8
1936 10+1910+19
1937 7+87+8
1938 10+1910+19
1939 9+ 26 9+ 26
Total 86113––86113
PSV Chemnitz 1940–41 Gauliga Sachsen 213661713[lower-alpha 1]414094
1941–42 14+32 1+ 1–15+33
1943–44 2+9 – –2+9
1944–45 1+ 5 1+5
Total 40827+18134165+140
TSV 1860 Munich 1942–43 Gauliga Bayern 586 17–1125
Karlsruher SC 1943–44 Gauliga Baden 465+ 17–923
SC Zwiesel 1946–1947 1.Liga Niederbayern 4+ 4+ – – 4+ 4+
Chemnitz-West 1946–1948 Bezirkliga Chemnitz 27 65 – – 27 65
BC Augsburg 1948–49 Oberliga Süd 6 3 – – 6 3
Offenburger FV 1949–50 Oberliga Südwest 18 18 – – 18 18
FC Singen 04 1950–51 Oberliga Süd 30 16 – – 30 16
VfR Kaiserslautern 1951–52 Oberliga Südwest 16+ 23 – – 16+ 23
1952–53 29 34 29 34
1953–54 24 14 24 14
1954–55 6 2 6 2
Total 75+ 73 – – 75+ 73
Kehler FV 1955–1956 2 Amat. Liga Südbaden 7 8 – – 7 8
Career total 328+413+13+3612365+507+
  1. Appearances in Chemnitz District summer war tournament

International
Appearances and goals by national team and year[14]
National team Year Apps Goals
Poland 1934 5 3
1935 0 0
1936 1 0
1937 4 3
1938 8 10
1939 4 5
Germany 1941 4 6
1942 4 7
Total 30 34
  • Wilimowski's team's score listed first, score column indicates score after each Wilimowski goal.
International goals by Ernst Wiimowski
No. Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
Poland goals
1 May 23, 1934 Stockholm Olympic Stadium, Stockholm, Sweden  Sweden 2–2 2–4 Friendly
2 August 26, 1934 Stadion SK Jugoslavija, Belgrade, Yugoslavia  Yugoslavia 1–3 1–4 Friendly
3 September 9, 1934 Stadion Wojska Polskiego, Warsaw, Poland  Germany 1–1 2–5 Friendly
4 June 23, 1937 Stadion Wojska Polskiego, Warsaw, Poland  Sweden 3–0 3–1 Friendly
5 September 12, 1937 Stadion Wojska Polskiego, Warsaw, Poland  Denmark 1–0 3–1 Friendly
6 October 10, 1937 Stadion Wojska Polskiego, Warsaw, Poland  Yugoslavia 4–0 4–0 1938 FIFA World Cup qualification
7 March 13, 1938 Hardturm, Zurich, Switzerland   Switzerland 1–0 3–3 Friendly
8 May 22, 1938 Stadion Wojska Polskiego, Warsaw, Poland  Republic of Ireland 5–0 6–0 Friendly
9 June 5, 1938 Stade de la Meinau, Strasbourg, France  Brazil 2–3 5–6 1938 FIFA World Cup
10 3–3
11 4–4
12 5–6
13 September 25, 1938 Stadion Wojska Polskiego, Warsaw, Poland  Yugoslavia 2–0 4–4 1938 King Peter II Cup
14 4–4
15 October 23, 1938 Stadion Wojska Polskiego, Warsaw, Poland  Norway 2–2 2–2 Friendly
16 November 13, 1938 Dalymount Park, Dublin, Republic of Ireland  Republic of Ireland 1–2 2–3 Friendly
17 May 27, 1939 Stadion Miejski ŁKS, Łódź, Poland  Belgium 1–0 3–3 Friendly
18 2–0
19 August 27, 1939 Stadion Wojska Polskiego, Warsaw, Poland  Hungary 1–2 4–2 Friendly
20 2–2
21 4–2
Germany goals
22 June 1, 1941 Stadionul ONEF, Bucharest, Romania  Romania 1–0 4–1 Friendly
23 4–0
24 June 15, 1941 Praterstadion, Vienna, Germany  Croatia 4–1 5–1 Friendly
25 October 5, 1941 Helsinki Olympic Stadium, Helsinki, Finland  Finland 2–0 6–0 Friendly
26 5–0
27 6–0
28 August 16, 1942 Hinderburg Stadium, Beuthen, Germany  Romania 7–0 7–0 Friendly
29 October 18, 1942 Wankdorf Stadium, Bern, Switzerland   Switzerland 1–0 5–3 Friendly
30 2–1
31 3–2
32 4–2
33 November 22, 1942 Adolf-Hitler-Kampfbahn, Stuttgart, Germany  Croatia 3–0 5–1 Friendly
34 4–0

Literature
  • Karl-Heinz Harke, Georg Kachel; Fußball – Sport ohne Grenzen. Die Lebensgeschichte des Fußball-Altnationalspielers Ernst Willimowski., Dülmen, Laumann-Verlag 1996, ISBN 3-87466-259-4
  • Thomas Urban: Schwarze Adler, weiße Adler. Deutsche und polnische Fußballer im Räderwerk der Politik. Göttingen 2011, pp. 28–48.

See also

References
  1. "Prolific Scorers Data".
  2. "One season (official matches)". RSSSF.
  3. Thomas Urban: Schwarze Adler, weiße Adler. Deutsche und polnische Fußballer im Räderwerk der Politik. Göttingen 2011, p. 30.
  4. Urban, op.cit., p. 31.
  5. "Dwie ojczyzny Wilimowskiego" [The two fatherlands of Wilimowski]. Wprost weekly. 2009. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  6. Urban, op.cit., p. 43.
  7. "Michael Ballack elfter Spieler mit vier oder mehr Treffern" (in German). DFB. 28 May 2004. Archived from the original on 8 September 2009. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  8. Alex Webber. "Here we go! As Poland heads to Qatar, fans will be hoping they recapture the spirit of 1974". thefistnews. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
  9. Sport-Magazin No. 31 of 1949, p. 4
  10. Urban, op.cit., p. 46.
  11. "willimowski". docs.ufpr.br. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
  12. "Prolific Scorers Data - Ernst Willimowski - Additional Data". RSSSF. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
  13. https://www.historical-lineups.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Strikers-1.pdf
  14. "Ernest Wilimowski, international footballer". eu-football.info. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
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