The red card in the Bundesliga celebrates its 50th birthday today. On April 3, 1971, Friedel Lutz, the first player to fly off the field after seeing the red box. But this spectacular dismissal was by far not the wildest in the long history of the league!
“That Saturday the devil must have ridden me!” That said the first red sinner in the Bundesliga, Friedel Lutz, exactly fifty years ago a week after his spectacular dismissal in the game of his Frankfurter Eintracht against the team from Braunschweig on April 3rd.
The Bochum referee Wilfried Hilker had no other choice but to send Friedel Lutz off the field after the Frankfurt’s nasty revenge foul on his opponent Jaro Deppe. The special thing about this highlight, however, was not the unusual brutality of the otherwise well-behaved Lutz, but that Hilker drew the red card for the first time in the history of the Bundesliga when he was sent off. Because this was only introduced by the DFB in the second half of the 1970/71 season.
A traffic light was the inspiration
It’s hard to imagine today, but yellow and red cards were actually used internationally for the first time at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. Four years earlier, after a tricky situation at the 1966 World Cup on the lawn of London’s Wembley Stadium, the German referee Rudolf Kreitlein had finally had enough and contacted the English referee supervisor Ken Aston immediately after the end of the game. But what happened?
Shortly before, the 1.62 m small referee had desperately tried to make it clear to the 1.96 m long Argentinian Antonio Rattin that he had to leave the pitch. But Rattin ignored the German master tailor and simply did not leave the field. It was only after eight minutes that the Argentine finally left the field cursing.
Aston and Kreitlein were of the same opinion at the time: there had to be something that showed spectators, players and officials in no uncertain terms what decisions the referee had made on the field. Something with a signal effect. And as luck would have it, the English supervisor needed two hours to get home from the stadium the previous evening and stood at some red traffic lights. Kreitlein was immediately enthusiastic about Aston’s proposal to punish warnings with yellow cards and dismissals with red cards. And that’s exactly how it was actually done – after an implementation phase of more than three years.
“Now again for stupid, you stupid pig!”
The new invention finally arrived in the Bundesliga in January 1971, but it was not until April 3 that a player, Friedel Lutz, actually saw the first red card. And it was completely deserved – there is no doubt about that even fifty years later. Because the Frankfurt had given his opponent Jaro Deppe such a nasty and powerful – pardon me – ass kick that he even fell over. Friedel Lutz was completely shocked by his behavior afterwards, but had an idea why he had acted so roughly: “Perhaps it irritated me that the idiot hit me in the legs immediately before and gave me a challenging grin. Otherwise I can see something like that not, but on April 3rd … ”
Since then, the red card has of course been drawn many, many times in the Bundesliga. Erwin Kremers certainly saw one of the most disastrous. On the 34th matchday of the 1973/74 season, the Schalke player only had to survive the very last few seconds after a rather rough game on the Kaiserslautern Betzenberg, then the season would have been over and the 1972 European champions would have prepared for the German national team the world championship started in their own country.
But with the hopeless score of 4: 0 for the Lauterer, Kremers could no longer control himself in the 90th minute. With a red head he yelled at the referee Max Klauser: “Shut up, you stupid pig!” He turned an imaginary hearing aid a little, patted his ears and then calmly asked the still wild Schalke if he had heard correctly. So the golden bridge was designed for Kremers. But instead of slowly coming back down and taking a deep breath, the Schalke added one more: “And now again for stupid, you stupid pig!” Kremers was then kicked out of the national team for the 1974 World Cup and never again played an international match for Germany. A red box with a devastating effect indeed.
Cards from the curiosity cabinet
Dieter Eilts received one of the strangest red cards in Bundesliga history in the 1989/90 season in the Ruhrstadion. In the 88th minute, Olaf Dressel from Bochum pulled past him, and when Eilts realized that he would no longer get the ball, he slowed down. Unfortunately, Dressel fell to the ground at that very moment. Referee Kurt Witke did not hesitate for a second and showed the man from Bremen the red card. When VfL Bochum was a guest in the “Current Sports Studio” in the evening (the program was broadcast from the nearby “Starlight Express” musical hall), Dressel meekly admitted: “I fell because of a cramp!”
The cult masseur of Hamburger SV, Hermann Rieger, saw one of the most beautiful red cards in retrospect. On hsv.de he once remembered the day when he became a Bundesliga legend: “It was a northern derby against Werder Bremen. I ran onto the pitch to treat one of our players. On the way back to the coaching bench I saw I knew that a man from Bremen just fell over and couldn’t breathe. I ran across the field to help him. But the referee hadn’t noticed anything, came to me and showed me the red card. So I had to leave the field abandoned and ran past the bend in Bremen with a queasy feeling, because other things had already happened at the derby. But then I realized that they were calling my name. I could hardly believe it. Our fans then took it over, every time when I ran into the field. ”
“I don’t know Klimowicz. Does he look good?”
An almost unbelievable red card story has played out between the football professional Diego Klimowicz and the referee Lutz Wagner. When Wagner pulled out the red card on the afternoon of December 5, 2009, it was the fourth time since August 13, 2005 that the referee sent Klimowicz off the field. Bochum’s captain Marcel Maltritz said in astonishment: “You could think that Diego once unhooked his wife.” But Diego Klimowicz was not that relaxed about the matter. “That’s not normal. He’s got something against me,” he speculated and was seething with anger.
Ben Redelings is a passionate “chronicler of football madness” (Manni Breuckmann) and a supporter of the glorious VfL Bochum. The author, filmmaker and comedian lives in the Ruhr area and tends to his treasure trove of anecdotes. For ntv.de he writes down the most exciting and funniest stories on Tuesdays and Saturdays. More information about Ben Redelings, his current dates and projects can be found on his website www.scudetto.de.
Lutz Wagner showed his romantic side just a few days after being sent off and sent the Argentine an offer of reconciliation through the media: “At the end of the season, the Bundesliga will be over for both of us. Then I would like to invite Mr. Klimowicz to my home. With a glass of wine you can definitely relieve old tensions. ” And the referee’s wife, who had been happily married for over twenty years, was already looking forward to an evening with the South American. She asked curiously: “I don’t know Klimowicz. Does he look good? If so, I should have to deal with it …” Well then.
The red card as the grand finale
A world champion from 1974 showed that a red card can also be used deliberately. Paul Breitner was the very last on matchday 33 of the 1982/83 season in the 72nd minute when Bayern lost 1-0 to FC Schalke 04 Substituted in a Bundesliga game. But Breitner himself set the end of his career very impressively after the season in a friendly game in Asia.
Without logging out, he just left in the 70th minute that day. After he was held back by the linesman, he insulted him. The hurried referee did not pull out the box straight away, but asked the world star politely: “Do you want the red card?” Breitner replied with a smile: “Yes, I want her!” And afterwards he explained his strange behavior very coherently: “That’s right, the red card was a symbol. Now it’s finally over!”
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