The Germany national football team manager (German: Bundestrainer, literally 'Federal Coach') is a position created in 1926 and first held by Otto Nerz.[1][2] The German team began playing matches in 1908,[3] but for 18 years it had no manager. Instead a selection committee chose the team.[2]
Ten different men have occupied the post since its inception,[1] all of whom are German. Seven of the ten have previously played for the national team,[4] the exceptions being Nerz, Erich Ribbeck, and current incumbent Joachim Löw. Many of the managers previously served as assistant to their predecessor; each of the three managers after Nerz had worked under the previous incumbent,[5][6][7] and the current manager, Löw, was assistant to Jürgen Klinsmann from 2004 to 2006.[8] More recently, though, the trend has been towards former players with little in the way of coaching experience.[9][10][11]
From 1936 to 1998, the team had just five managers,[1] each of whom won a major trophy,[12] with Helmut Schön (1964–1978) winning two.[6] The last ten years has seen four different managers in the role.[1]
The title Bundestrainer has been in use since 1950 - prior to 1942 the role was titled Reichstrainer (Imperial Coach).[2] Franz Beckenbauer and Rudi Völler could not be titled Bundestrainer, due to a lack of coaching qualifications,[13] so were titled Teamchef (Team Leader). Their assistants, Horst Köppel/Holger Osieck[13] and Michael Skibbe[14] respectively, were the official Bundestrainer during this time.
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For the first twenty years of its existence, the team had no manager, with the team being picked by a selection committee of the German Football Association, before Otto Nerz was appointed as head coach in 1926.[2] Nerz had a disciplinarian style[2] and achieved respectable results with a hitherto unsuccessful team[2] - reaching third place at the 1934 World Cup.[15] He was unable to fulfil the Nazi party's high expectations at the 1936 Olympic Games (hosted in Berlin),[16] however, and was replaced by his assistant, Sepp Herberger[5] after the team was eliminated by outsiders Norway.[17]
Herberger led a 'greater Germany' team (including the now-annexed Austria[5]) to the quarter-final of the 1938 FIFA World Cup,[18] but the team was interrupted by World War II, and subsequent sanctions against Germany, banning them from international football.[5]
The national team was inactive from 1942 to 1950,[5] resuming as West Germany[19] once the ban was lifted. Herberger led the team through qualification for the 1954 World Cup, which they won in surprise fashion,[5] beating Hungary in the final.[19] The win is credited with playing a large part in the nation's psychological and economic recovery after World War II.[5] West Germany managed creditable results at the 1958[20] and 1962[21] World Cups, before Herberger retired in 1964,[5] 28 years after first taking the job. He was succeeded by his assistant, Helmut Schön.[6]
Schön, who had managed the short-lived Saarland national team from 1952 to 1956,[6] began to establish West Germany as a consistent force in world football.[6] He took the team to the 1966 World Cup final,[22] and despite failing to qualify in West Germany's first entry to the European Championship in 1968,[23] he achieved a third place finish 1970 World Cup[24] in Mexico. Then came the team's greatest successes[6] - a first European Championship title was won in 1972,[25] which was followed by the 1974 World Cup, where West Germany, as hosts, ran out tournament winners, beating the Netherlands in the final.[26] Schön remains the only manager to have won both the World Cup and European Championship.[27][28] In 1976, West Germany came within a penalty shoot-out of defending their European crown, losing against Czechoslovakia in the final.[29] Before the 1978 World Cup, Schön announced that this was to be his last tournament,[6] but was unable to go out on a high note, as the team was eliminated by neighbours Austria in Round 2.[6][30] He retired having managed 25 World Cup games and won 16, both tournament records which remain to this day.[27]
Schön was succeeded by his assistant, Jupp Derwall.[7] Derwall's tenure began successfully. The team won a second European Championship in 1980,[31] and reached the Final of the 1982 World Cup,[32] However, he was sacked[7] after West Germany were eliminated in the first round of the 1984 European Championship.[33]
Derwall was replaced by Franz Beckenbauer,[34] who had made 103 appearances for the national team, and was captain of the successful side of the early 1970s.[34] This appointment ended the run of promoting assistants - Beckenbauer had not previously been part of the DFB coaching setup,[9] and had no previous managerial experience.[9] He led the team to a second consecutive World Cup Final in 1986,[34][35] before reaching the semi-final of the 1988 European Championship, a tournament which West Germany hosted.[36] the 1990 World Cup was to be his last tournament,[13] but he ended on a high, winning the tournament for the third time,[34][37] and becoming the only man to lift the trophy as a captain and as coach.[34] He stood down immediately afterwards, to be replaced by Berti Vogts,[38] a former national squad team-mate[39] who had served on the coaching staff of the DFB.[7]
Vogts took on a now-reunified Germany, and led the team, including players from the former East Germany, to the final of Euro 1992, only to lose against outsiders Denmark.[40] Germany were eliminated from the 1994 World Cup in similarly dramatic fashion, losing against Bulgaria in the quarter-finals.[41] Vogts' greatest achievement was the 1996 European Championship,[38] which Germany won, beating the Czech Republic in the final, thanks to a golden goal from Oliver Bierhoff.[42] However, the 1998 World Cup proved unsuccessful, with an ageing[43] German team knocked out by Croatia in the quarter-final.[44] Vogts resigned shortly afterwards.[38]
The DFB announced that Paul Breitner, another player from the 1970s team,[39] would be Vogts' replacement,[45] only to go back on this decision after just 17 hours.[45] Eventually a manager was appointed: Erich Ribbeck,[45] who had managed several top German clubs,[46] and had been assistant to Jupp Derwall,[45] but was now 61, and in semi-retirement.[45] The talent pool in Germany at this time was poor, with few young players emerging,[47] and Ribbeck oversaw a disastrous Euro 2000 campaign, with Germany eliminated in the first round, with just one point from their three group games.[48] This led to Ribbeck's immediate resignation.[45]
The next man to take charge of the team was Rudi Völler,[49] who had been part of the 1990 World Cup-winning team,[39] but had no coaching experience.[10] He was intended to be an interim appointment, standing in for a year while the intended appointee, Christoph Daum, served out his contract at Bayer Leverkusen.[49] However, Daum failed a drugs test,[50] testing positive for cocaine,[51] and Völler was given the job permanently.[52] After a tricky qualifying campaign,[53] Völler led the team to the final of the 2002 World Cup,[54] a result that was unexpected given the perceived lack of quality in the squad.[54] Euro 2004 was less successful, though, with Germany eliminated in the first-round, having failed to win a match for a second successive European Championship.[55]
Völler then resigned from the job,[52] and with Germany due to host the next World Cup,[56] they once again opted for an inexperienced manager,[11] Völler's old strike partner Jürgen Klinsmann.[57] Klinsmann attempted to introduce a new playing style to the team, based on young players, and an attack-minded mentality.[56] Germany achieved third place at the 2006 World Cup, after a dramatic semi-final defeat to Italy.[56] Klinsmann stood down afterwards, despite being offered a renewed contract.[8]
Klinsmann was succeeded by his assistant, Joachim Löw,[8] who has continued in much the same manner as his predecessor.[58] After comfortably qualifying for Euro 2008,[59] the team reached the final, losing 1-0 to Spain.[60] Löw continues in the role[61] and has qualified for the 2010 World Cup,[62] in which the Team lost the Semi-Final 0-1 against Spain after overwhelming victories against Argentina (4-0) and England (4-1).
| P | Matches played |
| W | Matches won |
| D | Matches drawn |
| L | Matches lost |
| GF | Goals for |
| GA | Goals against |
| DNE | Did not enter |
| DNQ | Did not qualify |
| Name | From | To | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | Win % | Tournaments | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Selection committee | 1908 | 1926 | 63 | 18 | 13 | 32 | 133 | 158 | 28.57 | None | |
| Otto Nerz | 1926 | 1936 | 70 | 42 | 10 | 18 | 190 | 112 | 58.33 | World Cup 1930 | Withdrew |
| World Cup 1934 | Third | ||||||||||
| Sepp Herberger | 1936 | 1964 | 162 | 92 | 26 | 44 | 423 | 249 | 56.79 | World Cup 1938 | Quarter-final |
| World Cup 1950 | Banned | ||||||||||
| World Cup 1954 | Winners | ||||||||||
| World Cup 1958 | Fourth | ||||||||||
| European Championship 1960 | DNE | ||||||||||
| World Cup 1962 | Quarter-final | ||||||||||
| European Championship 1964 | DNE | ||||||||||
| Helmut Schön | 1964 | 1978 | 139 | 87 | 31 | 21 | 291 | 107 | 62.59 | World Cup 1966 | Runners-up |
| European Championship 1968 | DNQ | ||||||||||
| World Cup 1970 | Third | ||||||||||
| European Championship 1972 | Winners | ||||||||||
| World Cup 1974 | Winners | ||||||||||
| European Championship 1976 | Runners-up | ||||||||||
| World Cup 1978 | Round 2 | ||||||||||
| Jupp Derwall | 1978 | 1984 | 67 | 44 | 12 | 11 | 144 | 60 | 65.67 | European Championship 1980 | Winners |
| World Cup 1982 | Runners-up | ||||||||||
| European Championship 1984 | Round 1 | ||||||||||
| Franz Beckenbauer | 1984 | 1990 | 66 | 34 | 20 | 12 | 107 | 61 | 51.52 | World Cup 1986 | Runners-up |
| European Championship 1988 | Semi-final | ||||||||||
| World Cup 1990 | Winners | ||||||||||
| Berti Vogts | 1990 | 1998 | 102 | 66 | 24 | 12 | 206 | 86 | 64.71 | European Championship 1992 | Runners-up |
| World Cup 1994 | Quarter-final | ||||||||||
| European Championship 1996 | Winners | ||||||||||
| World Cup 1998 | Quarter-final | ||||||||||
| Erich Ribbeck | 1998 | 2000 | 24 | 10 | 6 | 8 | 42 | 31 | 41.67 | European Championship 2000 | Round 1 |
| Rudi Völler | 2000 | 2004 | 53 | 29 | 11 | 13 | 109 | 57 | 54.72 | World Cup 2002 | Runners-up |
| European Championship 2004 | Round 1 | ||||||||||
| Jürgen Klinsmann | 2004 | 2006 | 34 | 20 | 8 | 6 | 81 | 43 | 58.82 | World Cup 2006 | Third |
| Joachim Löw | 2006 | Present | 54 | 39 | 8 | 8 | 116 | 35 | 72.22 | European Championship 2008 | Runners-up |
| World Cup 2010 | Third | ||||||||||
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