Gottfried Fuchs
{{Short description|German footballer (1889–1972)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox football biography
| name = Gottfried Fuchs
| image = Gottfried Fuchs.jpg
| upright = 0.9
| full_name = Gottfried Erik Fuchs;
later Godfrey Fuchs
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1889|05|3|df=y}}
| birth_place = Karlsruhe, Germany{{cite web|url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/fu/gottfried-fuchs-1.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200417221926/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/fu/gottfried-fuchs-1.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=17 April 2020|title=Gottfried Fuchs Bio, Stats, and Results|website=Olympics at Sports-Reference.com}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|1972|02|25|1889|05|3|df=y}}
| death_place = Westmount, Quebec, Canada
| height =
| position = Forward
| youthyears1 =
| youthclubs1 =
| years1 = 1904–1906
| clubs1 = Düsseldorfer SC 1899
| caps1 =
| goals1 =
| years2 = 1906–1914
| clubs2 = Karlsruher FV
| caps2 =
| goals2 =
| years3 = 1914–1920
| clubs3 = Düsseldorfer SC 1899
| caps3 =
| goals3 =
| nationalyears1 = 1907–1913
| nationalteam1 = Germany
| nationalcaps1 = 6
| nationalgoals1 = 13
}}
Gottfried Erik Fuchs (3 May 1889 – 25 February 1972), also known as Godfrey Fuchs,{{cite web |date=13 April 2015 |title=War, Auschwitz, and the Tragic Tale of Germany's Jewish Soccer Hero |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/war-auschwitz-and-the-tragic-tale-of-germanys-jewish-soccer-hero/}} was a German Olympic footballer. He scored a then-world record 10 goals for the Germany national team in a 16–0 win against Russia at the 1912 Olympics. He left Germany to escape the Holocaust, as he was Jewish, and ultimately emigrated to Canada.{{cite web|url=https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/25403 |title=Gottfried Fuchs |work=Olympedia |access-date=26 May 2021}}
Biography
Fuchs was Jewish. He was a direct descendant of the legendary medieval rabbi Rashi.https://www.geni.com/people/Gottfried-Fochs/6000000000387841065 Fuchs debuted for the Germany national team at the age of 18.
He played for {{ill|Düsseldorfer SC 1899|de|Düsseldorfer SC 99}} (1904–06, 1914–20), and Karlsruher FV (1906–14)—winning the German national title in 1910, beating Holstein Kiel 1–0. In 1912, they lost the final against Holstein Kiel, 1–0. Between 1911 and 1913 he was considered the best centre in the world. During this time period, he earned six caps and scored 13 goals. Fuchs was part of the legendary attacking trio of Karlsruher FV with Fritz Förderer and Julius Hirsch (who was killed in Auschwitz).
He was the first German player to score four goals in a single match.
He is remembered for scoring a world record 10 goals for Germany in a 16–0 win against Russia at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm on 1 July, becoming the top scorer of the tournament; his international record was not surpassed until 2001 when Australia's Archie Thompson scored 13 goals in a 31–0 defeat of American Samoa.{{cite web | url = https://www.rsssf.org/tableso/ol1912f-det.html | title = V. Olympiad Stockholm 1912 Football Tournament | date = 26 June 2008 | access-date = 30 December 2013 | first = Macario | website = RSSSF | last = Reyes }} This performance of 10 goals in one international match tied a record set by Sophus Nielsen at the 1908 Summer Olympics, which remained on the books until 2001. The German Football Association erased all references to him from their records between 1933 and 1945.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PJCXBQAAQBAJ&q=Gottfried+Fuchs&pg=PT64|title=Does Your Rabbi Know You're Here?: The Story of English Football's Forgotten Tribe|first=Anthony|last=Clavane|date=27 September 2012|publisher=Quercus Publishing|isbn=9780857388131|via=Google Books}}{{cite web|url=http://bundesligafanatic.com/20130904/snapshot-sepp-herberger-tries-to-invite-gottfried-fuchs/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180620024229/http://bundesligafanatic.com/20130904/snapshot-sepp-herberger-tries-to-invite-gottfried-fuchs/|url-status=usurped|archive-date=20 June 2018|title=Snapshot – Sepp Herberger tries to invite Gottfried Fuchs -|date=4 September 2013}} He had the record of being the top German scorer in one match.
He served in the German Army in World War I as an artillery officer and was awarded the Iron Cross.{{cite web|url=http://juedische-sportstars.de/index.php?id=190&L=2|title=Jüdische Sportstars: Gottfried Fuchs|website=juedische-sportstars.de}}
In 1928, he and his family moved to Berlin. He was a member of the local tennis club Nikolassee e. V., but it barred him from membership in 1935.
A German Jew, he was exiled and fled Nazi Germany in 1937 because of the Holocaust and emigrated first to England and then in 1940 to Canada.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9_7lDAAAQBAJ&q=Gottfried+Fuchs&pg=PR19|title=Soccer under the Swastika: Stories of Survival and Resistance during the Holocaust|first=Kevin E.|last=Simpson|date=22 September 2016|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9781442261631|via=Google Books}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FQaAAwAAQBAJ&q=Gottfried+Fuchs&pg=PA141|title=Phone Home Berlin: Collected Non-Fiction|first=Nigel|last=Cox|date=1 April 2008|publisher=Victoria University Press|isbn=9780864738004|via=Google Books}} His older brother was composer and architect Richard Fuchs.{{cite web|url=http://holocaustmusic.ort.org/restoration-and-restitution/fuchs-richard/|title=Music and the Holocaust: Fuchs, Richard|first=World|last=ORT|website=holocaustmusic.ort.org}}
When, years after the Holocaust in 1972, German former player and national team coach Sepp Herberger asked the German Football Association vice president Hermann Neuberger to invite Fuchs as a guest or a guest of honour to an international against Russia on the 60th anniversary of Fuchs' performance for the German team, the DFB Executive Committee declined to do so, writing that it was not willing to invite Fuchs because it would have created an unfortunate precedent (as was pointed out, given that Fuchs was the last remaining former Jewish German international, the DFB's concern about creating a precedent was a difficult one to understand).
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20101011183615/http://www.karlsruher-fv1891.de/kfvh.html Pictures at Karlsruher-fv1891.de] {{in lang|de}}
- {{sports links}}
{{Olympic top scorers}}
{{Germany football squad 1912 Summer Olympics}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuchs, Gottfried}}
Category:Jewish Canadian sportspeople
Category:Jewish German sportspeople
Category:German men's footballers
Category:Germany men's international footballers
Category:Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to Canada
Category:Olympic footballers for Germany
Category:Footballers at the 1912 Summer Olympics
Category:Karlsruher FV players
Category:Footballers from Karlsruhe
Category:Recipients of the Iron Cross (1914)