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Julius Hirsch
Julius Hirsch
Julius Hirsch
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Julius Hirsch (7 April 1892 – declared dead 8 May 1945)[3] was a German international footballer. A Jew, he was executed at Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust.[4][5] He helped the Karlsruher FV win the 1910 German football championship, and also played for the Germany national team, including at the 1912 Summer Olympics.[6] He then joined SpVgg Fürth, with whom he won the 1914 German football championship.

Key Information

Biography

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Hirsch was born in Achern, Germany (and later lived in Karlsruhe),[7] was Jewish,[8] and was the seventh child of a Jewish merchant. He joined Karlsruher FV at the age of ten.

Karlsruher FV in 1910, with Hirsch lower right, one from the end.

Together with Fritz Förderer and Gottfried Fuchs, Hirsch formed an attacking trio.[8] Nicknamed "Juller", he was a dynamic midfielder and striker best known for his attacking style, his hard shot, and powerful left foot.[8][9][10] He helped Karlsruher FV win the 1910 German football championship.[8]

After joining SpVgg Fürth in 1913, he won the 1914 German football championship with them the following year.[8][11]

Hirsch was the first Jewish player to represent the Germany national team, which he joined at 18 years of age in 1911.[8][12] He played in a number of matches for Germany, including at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden.[12] Hirsch scored four goals for Germany against the Netherlands in 1912, becoming the first German to score four goals in a single match.[8][11]

Hirsch enlisted in and served for four years in the German Army in World War I, and was decorated with the Iron Cross.[12][13] His brother Leopold was killed in action in June 1918, also fighting for the German Army.[14][15]

He returned to KFV after World War I, and retired in 1925.[12] However, he remained with the club as a youth coach.[14]

In the Holocaust

[edit]

Reading in a newspaper on 10 April 1933 that all Southern German clubs would ban Jewish members, Hirsch left KFV by his own choice after over 30 years as a member. In a letter to his club he requested that it should not be forgotten that many Jews had given their life blood for the German nation and believed themselves to be true patriots, as shown by their deeds and words.[14]

Hirsch's children Esther and Heinold, deemed second-grade "Mischlinge", were forced to leave their school in 1938.[16][7] In 1941 they were required to wear the yellow star.[7] In 1942 he divorced his non-Jewish wife in an effort to flee from the Nazis.[7]

Hirsch, now 50 years old, was deported from Karlsruhe, Germany, to Auschwitz concentration camp on 1 March 1943.[8][17] He had not believed that the government would harm him, as he had fought for Germany in World War I and played for Germany's national football team.[8] His exact date of death is unknown. In 1950, a German court declared him dead with the date of death set on 8 May 1945, past his 53rd birthday and after the camp's occupation by the Red Army in January that year.[18][19][20] His arrival was not registered in surviving camp records and it has been assumed from this he may have been gassed immediately after arrival in camp.[21] In February 1945 his children were deported to Theresienstadt, from which they were liberated by the Red Army in May 1945.[7]

Legacy

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Since 2005 the German Football Federation has awarded the "Julius-Hirsch-Preis" for outstanding examples of integration and tolerance within German football.[22][23][8]

In January 2020, Chelsea unveiled a mural by Solomon Souza on an outside wall of the West Stand at Stamford Bridge stadium, as part of their 'Say No to Antisemitism' campaign. Included on the mural are depictions of footballers Hirsch and Árpád Weisz, who died at Auschwitz concentration camp, and Ron Jones, a British prisoner of war known as the 'Goalkeeper of Auschwitz'.[24]

See also

[edit]

References

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[edit]
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Julius Hirsch

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Julius Hirsch (7 April 1892 – c. 1943) was a German-Jewish association footballer who excelled as a powerful striker and left winger, earning seven international caps for from 1911 to 1913, competing in the 1912 Summer Olympics, and winning German football championships in 1910 with Karlsruher FV and in 1914 with SpVgg Fürth. Born in to a Jewish , he began playing competitively at age ten and rose rapidly through the ranks of Karlsruher FV, forming a formidable attacking trio with teammates that contributed to early dominance in German football. A decorated veteran of the in , Hirsch later faced persecution under the Nazi regime due to his Jewish heritage, refusing opportunities to emigrate despite warnings from fellow Jewish players; he was deported from in 1943 and murdered at . His legacy endures as one of the pioneering Jewish figures in German international football, with posthumous recognition including the Julius Hirsch Prize awarded by the for efforts against .

Early Life

Family Background and Upbringing

Julius Hirsch was born in 1892 in , a town in southwest , to a Jewish family. He was the youngest of seven children born to his parents, Berthold Hirsch—a prosperous merchant—and Emma Hirsch, over a span of 15 years; the couple had aspired to have 13 children, symbolizing the tribes of Israel. The family relocated to , where Hirsch grew up and pursued his education. Raised in a relatively affluent tied to commerce, Hirsch's early environment reflected the integration of German Jews into urban professional life prior to , though marked by the era's underlying antisemitic undercurrents in broader society. His upbringing emphasized discipline and opportunity, fostering skills that later distinguished him in sports, amid a community where Jewish participation in athletics was increasingly prominent yet precarious.

Entry into Football


Julius Hirsch began his football involvement at age ten by joining the youth team of Karlsruher FV, a prominent club in , , where he developed his skills as a left winger known for his powerful left foot.
In 1909, at the age of 17, Hirsch made his debut for the club's senior team, quickly gaining recognition for his impressive shooting ability and prolific scoring.
This early entry into competitive play laid the foundation for his rapid rise within German football, contributing to Karlsruher FV's successes in regional and national competitions shortly thereafter.

Football Career

Club Successes with Karlsruher FV


Julius Hirsch debuted for the senior team of Karlsruher FV in 1909 at the age of 17, rapidly establishing himself as a key left winger with a reputation for his powerful left-footed shots. He formed part of an potent attacking trio alongside Fritz Förderer and , contributing to the club's dominance in southern German football. During his initial stint from 1909 to 1913, Karlsruher FV secured the South German Championship in 1910, 1911, and 1912, qualifying for the national finals each time. The pinnacle came in 1910 when the team defeated 1–0 in the German championship final, marking KFV's only national title during this era. Hirsch's involvement helped propel the club to these victories, showcasing their regional supremacy before the disruptions of . Following military service in , Hirsch returned to Karlsruher FV from 1918 to 1925, continuing to play and later coaching youth players until his retirement in 1923. However, this period yielded no major national or regional championships comparable to the pre-war achievements, as German football reorganized amid post-war challenges.

International Appearances and Olympic Involvement

Hirsch earned seven caps for the between 1911 and 1913. His international debut occurred in a 1–4 defeat to on April 16, 1911. Notable among his appearances was a 5–5 draw against the on March 3, 1912, in , where he scored four goals, marking the first instance of a German player achieving this in a senior international match. Other matches included losses to (5–1 on March 24, 1912) and (3–1 on October 6, 1912). Hirsch represented Germany at the football tournament of the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden, as a forward in the squad. The German team advanced past the preliminary round with a 2–1 victory over Italy but exited in the quarterfinals following a 4–2 defeat to Hungary; Hirsch featured in subsequent consolation matches. His Olympic participation underscored his status as a prominent scorer for the national side prior to the First World War.

World War I Service

Enlistment and Front-Line Duties

Upon the outbreak of World War I in late July 1914, Julius Hirsch volunteered for service in the Imperial German Army, enlisting with the Royal Bavarian Landwehr Infantry Regiment. He was specifically assigned to the 12th Bavarian Landwehr Infantry Regiment, 5th Company, and served continuously from 1914 until the armistice in November 1918. Hirsch saw extensive front-line action as an infantryman during the war, participating in the grueling characteristic of the Western Front. His service included combat duties that demonstrated notable bravery, for which he was decorated with the , Second Class, one of the Imperial German Army's highest honors for enlisted personnel. He rose to the rank of Vizefeldwebel (deputy sergeant-major) through his frontline performance. Hirsch's four years of interrupted his professional football career at its peak, yet he fulfilled his obligations as a in a conflict that claimed the lives of approximately 12,000 German Jewish servicemen, including his brother Leopold in 1916.

Post-War Recognition for Service

Following the of , 1918, Julius Hirsch received formal recognition for his service through the awarding of the Second Class in 1919. This honor, bestowed by the German military, acknowledged his demonstrated courage and gallantry during frontline duties with the Royal Bavarian No. 12, 5th Company, where he had enlisted voluntarily in 1914 and served continuously for four years. Hirsch attained the non-commissioned rank of Vizefeldwebel (vice sergeant) during his tenure, reflecting his leadership and endurance amid the hardships of on the Western Front. No additional Weimar-era military commendations are recorded for him, though his status as a decorated front-line later informed his involvement in Jewish soldiers' associations amid rising interwar .

Interwar Period

Professional and Personal Activities

Following his return to Karlsruher FV after , Hirsch retired from competitive playing in 1925 but continued contributing to the club as a youth coach and committee member until 1933. In his professional endeavors beyond football, Hirsch managed aspects of the , originally a enterprise owned by his father and uncles under the name Gebrüder Hirsch, which had expanded to produce signal flags and leather footballs marketed under the "Hirsch" trademark known internationally. After his father's death, he inherited the company alongside his brother Max, though it later faced financial difficulties; Hirsch collaborated with former teammate and others to pivot toward broader sports goods manufacturing. On the personal front, Hirsch married Ellen Karolina Hauser, a non-Jewish woman, in 1920; the couple had two children, a son named Heinold and a daughter named , and resided in during this period.

Continued Ties to German Society

Following his return from service, Hirsch resumed his football career, briefly rejoining SpVgg Fürth in 1918 before transferring back to Karlsruher FV, where he continued playing until his retirement from competitive matches around 1923–1925. He maintained deep involvement with the club thereafter, serving as a youth coach and member of the playing committee, which allowed him to mentor emerging talents and sustain connections within the regional football network during the . This role underscored his enduring commitment to the sport that had defined his pre-war prominence, fostering continuity with the German football community despite his Jewish background. In parallel, Hirsch integrated into civilian society through professional and family life. He worked in the family textile business, a common pursuit for many Jewish entrepreneurs in at the time, which provided economic stability and social standing in . In 1920, he married Ella (or ) Karolina Hauser, a non-Jewish , exemplifying the mixed marriages that were not uncommon among assimilated German Jews and reflected broader societal acceptance in the interwar years; their son Heinold was born in 1923, followed by daughter in 1928. As a decorated veteran with the , Hirsch's patriotic service further embedded him in German society, where military honors often bridged ethnic divides and reinforced communal ties. These engagements—spanning football administration at the club level, commerce, and family—demonstrated Hirsch's active participation in German civic life through the late and into 1933, prior to the imposition of exclusionary policies. His roles preserved networks from his athletic heyday, including informal contacts with former teammates and local figures, which later proved vital amid rising restrictions, though such ties were rooted in pre-Nazi norms of relative integration for veterans and professionals.

Nazi Persecution

Early Discrimination and Restrictions

Following the Nazi Party's assumption of power in , German sports organizations, including football clubs, implemented policies excluding from membership as part of broader efforts to "Aryanize" public and cultural institutions. In , 15 prominent clubs, including Karlsruher FV, collectively agreed to purge Jewish members, reflecting the regime's racial that barred from participating in "German" sports. On April 10, 1933, Hirsch learned through a report of Karlsruher FV's decision to enforce the ban, prompting him to resign voluntarily after 31 years of affiliation, which dated back to , to preempt formal expulsion. In his resignation letter to the club management, Hirsch emphasized Jewish Germans' loyalty and sacrifices during , noting that approximately 70,000 had served and 12,000 had died, including his brother Leopold in 1916, as evidence against portraying as disloyal. This act of self-exclusion underscored the immediate impact of Nazi directives on Jewish athletes, severing Hirsch's longstanding ties to the institution where he had achieved his sporting successes. Beyond sports, Hirsch faced professional restrictions as Nazi economic policies targeted Jewish businesses and employees. He was dismissed from his trade job due to sanctions prohibiting from certain occupations and mandates that favored non-Jews. These early measures isolated Hirsch from civic life, foreshadowing intensified persecution, though he initially remained in , attempting to maintain a low profile amid mounting societal exclusion.

Deportation to Auschwitz and Fate

On March 1, 1943, Julius Hirsch, aged 50, was deported from to the as part of the final transport of from the city, which included eleven other individuals. His daughter accompanied him to the Karlsruhe train station before the departure. En route, Hirsch wrote a letter to Esther on , 1943—her 15th birthday—likely from a stop in , expressing hopes for her future amid the unfolding . Upon arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Hirsch was selected for immediate extermination and presumed murdered in the gas chambers shortly thereafter, though the precise date of his death remains unrecorded. In 1950, a German court (Amtsgericht) officially declared him dead as of May 8, 1945, the date of Nazi Germany's . Hirsch did not survive , becoming one of an estimated six million Jewish victims of Nazi .

Legacy

Posthumous Honors and Memorials

In 2005, the (DFB) established the Julius-Hirsch-Preis, an annual award honoring Hirsch's legacy as a pioneering Jewish footballer murdered at Auschwitz; it recognizes individuals, clubs, or initiatives combating , , exclusion, and in German football. Recipients have included ultras groups for efforts supporting Jewish club president and anti-discrimination campaigns, as well as projects like SCORING GIRLS* for promoting integration through women's football. A large mural depicting Hirsch alongside Hungarian-Jewish coach Árpád Weisz and POW footballer Fritz Landauer was unveiled at Chelsea Football Club's Stamford Bridge in 2019, created by British-Israeli artist Solomon Souza as part of Holocaust remembrance efforts; it highlights Jewish contributions to football amid Nazi persecution. The artwork, measuring 40 by 23 feet, serves as a public memorial emphasizing the sport's losses during the . In March 2023, a ceremony led by Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis commemorated Hirsch and other Jewish footballers killed in Auschwitz, underscoring his status as Germany's first Jewish international player and calling for ongoing vigilance against in sports. Hirsch's story has also featured in exhibitions like Yad Vashem's "Jews and Sport Before the Holocaust," which documents his pre-war achievements and from on March 1, 1943.

Historical Significance and Debates on Recognition

Julius Hirsch's historical significance lies in his role as a trailblazing Jewish athlete in early 20th-century German football, exemplifying the integration of Jewish players into the national sporting fabric before the rise of Nazi exclusionary policies. As the second Jewish player to represent internationally after , Hirsch earned seven caps between 1911 and 1913, scoring four goals, including a record-setting four in a single 5-5 draw against the on March 24, 1912, marking the first time a German player achieved this feat. His contributions to club successes, such as the 1910 German with Karlsruher FV and the 1914 title with SpVgg , underscored the prominence of Jewish talent in the sport's formative years, fostering a period of relative ethnic inclusivity in German athletics. Hirsch's service, where he volunteered and received the for bravery, further highlighted Jewish loyalty to the German state, contrasting sharply with the antisemitic purges that followed. Posthumously, Hirsch's legacy has been invoked to promote tolerance within German football, most notably through the Julius Hirsch Prize established by the German Football Association (DFB) in 2005. This annual award recognizes individuals and organizations exemplifying integration, anti-discrimination, and human dignity in the sport, directly commemorating Hirsch's life as a symbol of lost Jewish contributions erased under Nazi rule. Additional honors include a street and square named after him in Karlsruhe in 2014 and a mural at Chelsea FC's Stamford Bridge stadium unveiled in 2020 to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, drawing international attention to his story. These efforts reflect a broader DFB acknowledgment of the Holocaust's impact on Jewish athletes, though they occur against the backdrop of the federation's own historical complicity in the 1930s Aryanization of clubs and exclusion of Jewish members. Debates surrounding Hirsch's recognition center on the extent to which pre-Nazi Jewish figures like him have been reintegrated into German football's official narrative, given the Nazi regime's deliberate erasure of their records—such as omitting Hirsch from a 1939 edition of the Kicker magazine's list of national team players. While the Hirsch Prize serves as a focal point for anti-antisemitism initiatives, critics have noted the irony of honoring a figure murdered at Auschwitz—who also bore an from imperial service—amid ongoing discussions about the DFB's full reckoning with its past, including limited induction of Holocaust-era victims into mainstream football pantheons compared to non-Jewish contemporaries. This has prompted calls for deeper , emphasizing causal links between early 20th-century integration and the catastrophic reversals under , though such recognitions remain more symbolic than structural in altering curricula or Hall of Fame selections.

References

  1. https://www.olympics.com/en/athletes/julius-hirsch
  2. https://www.holocaust-denkmal-berlin.de/raum-der-namen/biographien/biographie/4526
  3. https://juedische-sportstars.de/en/hirsch
  4. https://en.eintracht.de/news/museum-erhaelt-julius-hirsch-preis-137227/
  5. https://wwv.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/sport/julius-hirsch.asp
  6. https://www.vice.com/en/article/war-auschwitz-and-the-tragic-tale-of-germanys-jewish-soccer-hero/
  7. https://footballmakeshistory.eu/julius-hirsh/
  8. https://www.ilnostrocalcio.it/2023/04/06/julius-hirsch-2/
  9. https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2022/12/15/world-cup-portrait-julius-hirsch
  10. https://arolsen-archives.org/content/uploads/football-players-in-focus.pdf
  11. https://juedische-sportstars.de/en/fuchs
  12. https://web1.karlsruhe.de/sportarchiv/detail.php?verein=KFV
  13. https://www.fussballmuseum.de/juedische-fussballer/lexikon/mehr/30?cHash=337e42b8b4e3f3ddf34e160d7765c8c1
  14. https://www.worldfootball.net/player_summary/julius-hirsch/
  15. https://eu-football.info/_player.php?id=8391
  16. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/01/25/imperishable-story-julius-hirsch-great-goalscorer-murdered-auschwitz/
  17. https://www.londonremembers.com/subjects/julius-hirsch
  18. https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2019/may/06/remembering-the-cream-of-jewish-footballing-talent-killed-in-the-holocaust
  19. https://www.vice.com/en/article/war-auschwitz-and-the-tragic-tale-of-germanys-jewish-football-hero/
  20. https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/sport/julius-hirsch.asp
  21. https://spirit-of-football.de/en/awards/
  22. https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/37386504/bayern-munich-ultra-group-given-prestigious-award-kurt-landauer-work
  23. https://www.hawar.help/en/julius_hirsch_prize_scoring_girls/
  24. https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2022/jan/27/on-holocaust-memorial-day-lets-commit-to-ridding-football-of-antisemitism
  25. https://www.ajc.org/news/10-moments-athletes-stood-up-to-antisemitism
  26. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/368446
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