The last hero has gone: After the death of Horst Eckel, the Miracle of Bern is finally history

Horst Nickel is dead. The Football World Champion from 1954 died on Friday at the age of 89 years.

The Miracle of Bern is finally history — football Germany has lost its last hero of 1954. Horst Nickel, which last only a living world champion of the legendary Walter-elf, died on Friday at the age of 89 years.

The Icon of the 1st FC Kaiserslautern, who formed with his four club colleagues Fritz Walter, Ottoman Walter, Werner Toolmaker and Werner Dietrich the FCC block of the German World Cup eleven, was the recent player in the team of coach Sept Hershberger. Nickel leaves his wife Bangalore and the two daughters Susanne and Dagmar.

Originally, for February of the coming year, a large celebration for the 90th birthday was planned — with everything that is rank and name in football. At the Tubular, who had recovered well from a fall in the Christmas season 2020, hospitalization and rehab, as well as a hip surgery in October, it should not have failed.

Although it is already to make that the signs of age are no longer denying, he finally said that he holds at least ten years, Dagmar Nickel had said the SID last. Only last week Nickel had been added to the Hall of Fame of the German Football Museum in Dortmund.

Horst Nickel: I miss my comrades

Nickel played a 32 times a total of 32 times between 1952 and 1958 for the selection of the German Football Federation (DFB). Due to his slim stature and his running strength, the external runner born in Vogelbach near Kaiserslautern received the nickname greyhound. With the red devils, Nickel became German champion twice (1951 and 1953).

But Nickel brought the greatest fame to the Miracle of Bern. 3: 2 after 0: 2-residue on July 4, 1954, in the World Cup final against the unbeatable Hungary is the largest myth of German football. Historians see the day as the actual founding date of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Most recently, Nickel, who grabbed the fall of the FCC into the 3rd league, publicly thought about the triumph after the death of Hans Schaefer in November 2017. Now I'm the last of the team, and I miss my comrades, Nickel said, It's the pictures of each one before my eyes and also the memory of outdoor times, laugh and joy. Our comradeship and football will be us Connect for all times.

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Nickel on Heisenberg with memorial immortalized

One month before Schaefer's death, Nickel had received its own foundation under the roof of the Sepp-Herberger foundation of the DFB. The purpose of the foundation is education, education and sport. Nickel has been ambassador to the Sepp-Herberger Foundation since 1997. In April 2018, the Horst Nickel prize was given for the first time. He goes to clubs that commit themselves for emergency members.

The price fit to always modestly remaining Nickel. I do not like to hear the word hero. I stayed a normal man, said Nickel, who looked exactly as one of his greatest achievements: It's already what you stay like that you were — always with the Feet on the floor.

Nickel, who is immortalized on the Heisenberg together with the other FCC world masters in a bronze monument, always looked back with great gratitude. If I come somewhere, it always means that the world champion comes, he always liked to tell, People still know that, they did not forget that. And that still makes me a bit proud.

Nickel: I could not have found a better woman

One of such a career was not thinking 80 years ago, when Nickel bodied on the Heisenberg and slipped through a hole in the stadium fence to see his FCC idols. My family was not good well, said the son of a chairman at the train and a housewife back.

At the age of 17, Nickel, whose older brother Hans fell in the war, then players with the red devils. There was 320 marks a month back then. For this purpose, 300 marks came, the Nickel earned as a toolmaker in the sewing machine manufacturer Faff. Overall, the club icon, which was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in 2004, was 213 times for the Palatine and scored 64 goals.

However, after the active career, Nickel first went to keep his family over water. Above all, his wife was plagued by existential sons as Nickel to train the Real school teacher for sports and works and no money came in during this time. That's why Nickel knew only too well whom he had to owe most of the most: Bangalore has always kept my back. I could not have found a better woman.

Reactions to the death of Horst Nickel

Hans-Joachim Wake (Managing Director BVB): Horst Nickel was one of the great German football — not only because he has become a world champion in 1954, as the youngest player, but because he is an absolutely luminous example of modesty and Integrity was. Every conversation with him was enriching because it was simply very pleasant to experience such a modest and sympathetic people.

We Seller (HSV legend): I'm really sorry, we have often spent together on events time, through the pandemic unfortunately in the past two years. He was always very comradely and human Just a perfect guy with heart. He was always a good colleague, combined the down-to-earth. Furthermore, he was a very offensive player, that was always very pleasant to play with him. We did a lot together, even outside the courses, Private. We always have given our best — sometimes it was, sometimes not.

Trainer Koch (1st DFB Vice President): I've got to know Horst Nickel as a wonderful man and experienced, who has always beaten from the lowest conviction on the side of the weaker ones and was a real role model. People in Permit hopeless situations he knew the way to show the light, and the hero of Bern always associate this with his own personal football fairy. Willa and ambition, purposefulness and humility have shaped his life and made him a personality we all miss painful. Not only for me is a personality lost with his death, also in the DFB with our social institutions for which he was tirelessly traveling, Horst Nickel is missing.

Peter Peters (1st DFB Vice President): The news of the death of Horst Nickel has hit me deeply. I have worshiped Horst Nickel not only as one of our football heroes, but also appreciated him personally about all the dimensions. He has me In 1991, after my entry into football at the 1st FC Kaiserslautern helped to meet this club and his people. Because they all loved him. Because he was an outstanding footballer, but above all because of his so positive and incoming beings, because of his great Character. He has made every appreciation and respect, he has broadcast honesty and down to earth. I am very proud that I was allowed to meet Horst Nickel. He was a great companion. He will all be missing very much.

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Hake Ulrich (Deputy DFB Secretary General): It makes me deep trunk that we lost the last icon of our 1954 world championship in Horst Nickel. The heroes of Bern not only have football in Germany, but our whole country In addition, the subsequent generations have always felt the following generations. Horst Nickel stood with his positive attitude and great fighter heart in the face of immense challenges symbolic for the era of new construction and departure, in which this first title win A German national team fell. He was a great footballer and a great person. We will miss Horst Nickel very much and are in thought about his family.