article by Nicola Pucci
It is certain that handball, in Germany, is practiced at very high levels and has brought with it a fair amount of successes in major international events.. If at the Olympics, in fact, the German national team boasts two silvers and a bronze, and at the World Championships it excels with six successes in the outdoor editions (played seven times between 1938 and 1966) and three in the indoor ones (as the handball), to which to add two European titles, is undoubtedly one of the reference countries for a sport of exclusive European reserve.
If we then turn our attention to the club events, Germany holds the record of 21 successes in the European Cup since the tournament was inaugurated in 1957.while there are 26 victories in the IHF Cup (since 1982), 12 in the Cup Winners’ Cup (played from 1976 to 2012, and then merged with the IHF Cup) and 6 in the City Cup (since 1994), with VfL Gummersbach ( 5 victories between 1967 and 1983), Sport Club Magdeburg (4 victories and reigning continental title holder) and THW Kiel (in turn 4 victories in the New Millennium) to be behind in the main European event alone Barcelona, which totals 11 successes in the European Cup (from 1991 to 2022).
TV Grosswallstadt is also among the winners of the European Cupwhich deserves not only some mention of its history as a handball club particularly loved in Germany, but that they remember the two feats from 1979 and 1980a consecutive double that had previously only been achieved at Frisch Auf Goppingen in 1960 and 1962, and at VfL Gummersbach, in the two-year period 1970/1971.
The Turn Verein of Grosswallstadt, a municipality in the district of Miltenberg in Lower Franconia, has existed as a handball club since 1925, but to reach the top in Germany it needs, like the other German teams and in parallel to what happens in football, a national championship is established, namely the Bundesliga, which was born in 1966 and divided into two groups, north and southand to which Grosswallstadt, several times regional winner, entered for the first time in 1969. At the same time, the team took part in the seven editions of the outdoor championship, the so-calledhandball on the field“, played in the summer, triumphing in the last edition of 1973 in the final against SVH Kassel, beaten 13-10 in extra time.
The passion for handball spreads quickly around Grosswallstadtespecially since a regional reform in 1972 had united the districts of Miltenberg and Obernburg, meaning that with the new entity, precisely Miltenburg, under the administration of Karl Oberle, an all-round lover of sport, the foundations were laid for handball as a high-level sport with the construction of the Rudolf Harbig Hall in Elsenfeld. And the results, thanks also to the contribution of a champion of the caliber of Josef Karrer, world champion in 1966 with the East Germany shirt, were not long in coming, with Grosswallstadt came second in the championship in 1971, defeated in the final by TSV Grun Weiss Dankersen, 14-10 in the final played on 7 March in front of 12,500 spectators Westfalenhallen in Dortmund.
To be honest, it took a few more years to be able to return to those levels, exactly on 15 May 1977 when again in Dortmund and always against the same opponent Grosswallstadt lost the title again in the last match, this time defeated with a dramatic 21-20but you just need to know how to wait and the following year, when the championship changes its formula by moving to a single group of 14 teams which proclaims the winner whoever tops the ranking at the end of the 26 days, here we are the team coached by Klaus Zoll, who added 21 victories (13 out of 13 at home), 1 draw and 4 defeats, finally took the title. E he does it on the very last dayin a historic May 6, 1978 and in a Elsenfelder Halland (which will see the Turn Verein win 52 consecutive matches between 1976 and 1980) packed in every place, beating table leaders VfL Gummersbach 12-11 and leapfrogging them by one point, 43 to 42.
Goalkeeper Manfred Hofmannwho in 1978 was the great protagonist of West Germany’s victory in the World Cup final against the USSR, saving 3 penalties, e Kurt Kluhspiesformidable left-footed scorer with 1,226 goals scored in 363 Bundesliga matches, they are the stars of a team that dominates the German championship for four years, thus earning the main European showcase with participation in the Champions Cup. And here, the history of German handball is truly made.
With the first German champion title in his pocket, the Turn Verein therefore aligns itself at the starting line of the 18th edition of the main European club event, with the aim of trying to succeed in the roll of honor to the eastern cousins of the Sport Club Magdeburg, who the previous year defeated the Polish team Slask Wroclaw in the final, 28-22 with 8 goals from Hartmut Kruger. What if the other East German team, SC Empor Rostock, is the logical favorite in the competitionintending to keep the cup beyond the Wall, finding on its way, in addition obviously to the debutant Grosswallstadt, the other teams that had contested the title against Magdeburg, namely Slask Wroclaw itself, the Hungarians of Honved Budapest and the Spanish of AC Calpisa Alicante, the bogeyman of CSKA Moscow looms on the horizona Soviet team that in turn is chasing a first European victory.
The first round only serves to narrow down the 24 participants, promoting ten teams to the round of 16 which join the best teams, admitted by right together with the Danes of Fredericia KFUM. Among these, the Italian champions Rovereto have no place, mercilessly ousted by the Austrians ASKO Linz, who overturned at home (32-16) the narrow defeat suffered in the first leg (10-11). Own Linz is the first opponent of the Turn Verein, which wins in Germany, 14-11, then holds back in the return match against Austria, 14-15while the draw immediately offers two heated challenges, Alicante-Fredericia and CSKA Mosca-Slask Wroclaw, which favor the Spanish and confirm the danger of the Soviets.
In the quarter-finals Grosswallstadt beat Czechoslovakian Kosice without too many worries (17-12 and 17-15)but if Honved respects the prediction with the French of Stella Sports Saint-Maur, the same cannot be said of Alicante, who runs into the Romanians of Dinamo Bucharest, representatives of a movement that has, however, three victories (Dinamo itself in 1965 and Steaua Bucharest in 1968 and 1977) and two finals (1963 Dinamo and 1971 Steaua) in the European Cup, and which already secured qualification with a clear 28-14 in the first leg. The last match useful to compose the quartet that will play for the title, strengthens the ambitions of Empor Rostock, which defeats CSKA Moscow, albeit narrowly, 37-36 in the overall count of the two matches.
The illusion of a family final between Germans took shape already in the first leg of the semi-finals, with the Easterners defeating Dinamo Bucharest, 19-14, and the West German team doing the same against Honved, 18-9, but if there are no major problems for Grosswallstadt in managing the advantage on the return leg in Hungary, 24-27, Empor Rostock, on the other hand, almost lose out, losing by four goals in Romania for 22-18 which certifies that the final, to be played for the first time with the home-and-away formula, will be an affair between Germans.
The first leg, April 22, 1979is disputed atOlympia Hall of Monaco, packed with 10,000 spectators, e the Turn Verein places an important claim on winning its first European Cup by winning 14-10 thanks to 5 goals from Kurt Kluhspies and braces from Manfred Freisler and Udo Klenknullifying the usual great attack performance by Wolfgang Bohme, who in turn scored 5 goals and who the year before, captain of East Germany eliminated in the semi-final by the USSR, just on the eve of the world final between West Germany and the Soviets he snuck into Kluhspies’s hotel room at night, revealing to him the tactics that his opponents intended to adopt in the final act! In the return leg, with Bohme kept dry, Empor Rostock relies on the trio of Frank-Michael “Potti” Wahl, Helmut Wilk and Hans-Georg Jaunich, 17 goals between three, to try to overturn the deficit suffered in the first leg , but Peter Meiseinger’s 5 goals and Freisler’s 4, in addition to Hofmann’s prowess between the posts, give Klaus Zoll’s team a defeat that has never been sweeter, 16-18, because it is worth the roof of Europe.
The first European triumph, the Grasswallstadt, was celebrated won the German title for the second time in a row, adding 20 victories (13 out of 13 at home), 5 draws and only one defeat (12-16 at home to TuS Nettelstedt) which allow them to overtake TuS Hofweier in the standings, 45 points against 42, the following year even saw unprecedented poker, which proclaimed it the number one club team in the world.
On the national level, the team, which alternates Zoll with Rudiger Schmacke on the bench, clearly distances the second-placed team, VfL Gummersbach, 44 points to 35with a final record which on 3 May 1980, the closing day of the Bundesliga, recorded 20 victories (still 13 out of 13 at home), 4 draws and only 2 defeats, and if in the German Cup they raised the trophy by beating Nettelstedt, 17-15 in the final on 17 May 1980 in Giessen thanks to a huge amount of Kluhspies, completes the string of successes by also putting the EHF Champions Trophy on the board at the end of the season, which is a sort of European Super Cup that pits the winners of the European Cup and Cup Winners’ Cup against each other, beating Alicante, 19 -15 in the Munich final.
Yes, because on March 28, 1980always at Olympia Hall of Munich, Grosswallstadt granted a European encore in a tournament that saw it dominate the Italians of Pallamano Trieste in the round of 16 (30-14 and 18-16), sweat in the quarter-finals to overcome the Yugoslavs of Partizan Bjelovar (12-14 in the first leg overturned with 21-17 in the return leg) and enforce the law of the strongest in the semi-final against the Czechoslovakian ASVS Dukla Prague (beaten in Germany 17-14 after narrowly winning 18-17 at home). In the final act the German team finds the surprising Icelanders of Valur Reykjavikwho prevailed over Atletico Madrid in the semi-final thanks to the away goals rule (21 to 15), who however surrender clearly, 21-12, in a match in which Kluhspies, Meisinger and Freisler score four of a kind each. And given that the return to Iceland isn’t taking place because Valur had already expressed its intention to play for the title in a single match, TV Grosswallstadt is still queen of Europe.
E with all that stuff won in 1980, really, at least that year, it was the strongest team on the handball planet.