Cold, calculating and clinical. That’s the image of Germany in sport exemplified by feats in soccer and hockey.
But behind that teutonic visage on the hockey field, where Germany beat The Netherlands to take on Spain in Saturday’s Olympic final, there’s a touch of emotion. September 10, 1972, is German hockey’s red letter day. A day on which the hosts put an end to Asian hegemony with a 1-0 victory over Pakistan in the Munich Olympic final.
Twenty years later, in Barcelona, they won their second Olympic gold medal, adding World Cup titles in 2002 and 2006 and numerous Champions Trophy and European Championship titles.
But 1972 is written in letters of gold. That success appears to be unforgettable. So much so that the players meet each year for ‘old times sake’.
One player though has been missing for a decade now. Michael Peter, very often called the ‘Franz Beckenbauer’ of German hockey, passed away after losing a very painful battle against cancer in 1997.
The German team’s annual rendezvous took on a poignant turn after Peter was struck by the killer disease that plagued his nervous system.
A few weeks before he succumbed to the disease, he seemed to act on a premonition, expressing his desire to meet his 1972 teammates. Michael Krause, who scored the fateful goal in the 1972 final recalls the ‘Kaiser’ of hockey.
Krause, 62, converged on Heidelberg with the rest of the 1972 German team to see Peter, now confined to a wheelchair. They sustained their bonding spanning a quarter century. Not wielding hockey sticks anymore, they played golf as Peter watched, savouring every moment. ‘‘We were with him for four days (Oct 6-10), a fortnight before he died,’’ Krause told TOI from Dortmund. Peter passed away on Oct 23, aged just 48.
‘‘It’s a very hard thing to speak about,’’ Krause said from Dortmund. ‘‘But I remember the day he died. As president of the Deutscher Hockey Bund, I made the speech at his funeral in the Church in Heidelberg. The church was full and there were thousands of people outside.’’
Krause, whose gold-winning stick weighing a heavy 28 ounces adorns the German sports museum in Cologne, quickly turned to lighter moments about Peter, a lanky moustachioed figure who retired soon after the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics where a repeat against Pakistan brought only silver. ‘‘I remember Michael as the man behind me on the pitch. He was sweeper and I was centre-half,’’ he said.
‘‘And often he shouted out to me: ‘let the ball through, I want to play it!’,’’ Krause, a lawyer by profession, chuckled while he went down memory lane.
Sure, Peter loved the ball. So much so, according to Krause, he used to dribble it across his own ‘D’, given the luxury of being a sweeper, but it only brought angry reaction from the goalkeeper Peter Kraus who once barked: ‘‘Do that again and I’ll kick you somewhere!’’
Peter, married to a basketball player, retired after playing two matches against Pakistan as celebration of FIH’s 60th anniversary in 1984 and concentrated on his job as an insurance executive.
His link to German hockey lives on. Not just because his son and daughter play hockey as well, but as a central figure of a German hockey renaissance he influenced icons-to-be such as Stefan Blocher, Christian Blunk, Oliver Domke and the current sensation Christopher Zeller. Names to make Germany a powerhouse in the sport.