youthclubs years youthyears death_place death_date birth_place clubs manageryears birth_date managerclubs article_title
fg hechingen 0000 -- 1910 1919 -- 1924 0000 -- 1910 sachsenhausen , germany 19 april 1949 hechingen , german empire fg hechingen tennis borussia berlin 1924 -- 1926 1926 -- 1936 october 21 , 1892 tennis borussia berlin germany otto nerz

otto nerz

otto nerz -lrb- 21 october 1892 -- 18 april 1949 -rrb- was a german football manager , the first head coach of the german national football team between 1923 and 1936 .
nerz was born in hechingen , province of hohenzollern .
a trained medical doctor , he played as an amateur for vfr mannheim and tennis borussia berlin before being appointed as germany 's first national manager and selector in 1923 .
at the time , football was not 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 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 league and cup games in england , as well as 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. otto nerz had joined the nazi party relatively early , prior to adolf hitler gaining power in 1933 ; this , combined with his success in the world cup , meant that the german government placed a high level of expectation on nerz 's team for the 1936 summer olympics in berlin .
however , germany was eliminated early in the tournament after a shock defeat to rank outsiders norway .
shortly thereafter , nerz was relieved of his duties as coach and replaced by sepp herberger .
following his dismissal from the german national job , 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 , he died on or around 18 april 1949 and was buried in a mass grave on the site of the camp .
