Obituary for "Dixie" Dörner: The Beckenbauer of the East

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Hans-Jürgen Dörner on the ball for Dynamo Dresden in a cup game against Lok Leipzig in 1977

Photo:

Werner Schulze / IMAGO

The Dörner parents could have saved themselves the search for their son's first name.

Many people believe that his real name was Hans-Jürgen.

After all, he was always called "Dixie", even as a little steppe.

The nickname is so old that Dörner himself no longer knew why he wore it and who invented it.

Old acquaintances think they can remember that as a child Dörner was called out by other boys while playing football: "Come on, you little Dixie, feel free to play with us." But nobody knows whether that's the real story.

Anyway, Dörner was always Dixie, and Dixie was always Dörner.

Maybe because the two Ds went so well with the two Ds from Dynamo Dresden.

After all, Dixie Dörner was the embodiment of the Dynamo Dresden club.

For the first time in black and yellow

How deeply connected Dörner is to this club, how much Dynamo's story is his own, is shown by an anecdote from his first league game.

On September 8, 1968, when Dynamo was still playing second-rate in the GDR, you have to imagine that, he made his debut in the first team.

The opponent at the time, Kali Werra Tiefenort, is long forgotten and now plays in the ninth league somewhere in Thuringia.

The result of 4:0 has also faded.

But: It was the very first game that Dynamo played in its black and yellow jerseys, the colors that made the club internationally famous.

Until then, Dynamo's club colors were red and white.

Everything changed with the appearance of Dörner.

Already in his first season, Dörner helped with his goals that Dynamo was allowed to leave the vale of tears of the 2nd division, since then the club has been the proud figurehead of East German football.

Dörner became champion with Dynamo for the first time in 1971, and four more championship titles were to follow in his career.

He was the libero of the GDR

Dörner also has his teammate Wolfgang Haustein and his bad luck to thank for the fact that he was called the “Beckenbauer of the East”, the libero par excellence in East German football.

When Haustein sustained an injury, coach Walter Fritsch called Dörner back and renamed the attacker to defender.

Dörner had found his destiny.

Nobody would have challenged him for this position after that.

From that point on he drove Dynamo's game in front of him, the libero, the free man, the one on the pitch who keeps track of things, who has to read the opponent's moves and is allowed to plan those of his own team: This role was Dörner written on the body.

He was a director.

Elegant on the ball, and no one who was only in his own half: 65 goals for Dynamo, the old striker blood, it still pulsated in the defensive strategist from time to time.

Dörner not only experienced the heyday of Dynamo, he shaped it.

Of course he was also there in 1973, when Dynamo, as national champions, met Bayern Munich in the autumn, for both clubs, yes, even for Bayern, who were so spoiled by success, an unforgettable milestone in European cup history.

Those duels that radiate far from the past in terms of the results alone: ​​4: 3 for Bayern in the first leg, 3: 3 in Dresden in the second leg - a highly political affair between West and East at that, a foretaste of the game a year later at the World Cup in Germany.

Bayern success hanging by a thread

Sepp Maier, Schwarzenbeck, Hoeneß, Gerd Müller against Ede Geyer, Reinhard Häfner, Sigmar Wätzlich, Hartmut Schade on the other side.

And of course the west's Beckenbauer versus the east's Beckenbauer, the clash between two of Germany's best footballers.

Bayern's advancement was hanging by a thread, at the end of the season they won their first European title and Bayern Munich's great success story began.

The 1974 World Cup, the Sparwasser goal, the duel in Hamburg passed Dörner, he could not take part in the World Cup because of jaundice.

He made up for that two years later when he won the gold medal in the Olympic soccer tournament with East Germany in Montreal, East Germany's greatest success.

In the end, Dörner had 100 international matches, two fewer than the GDR record holder Joachim Streich. In 1985 he celebrated his departure as a national player, befitting his status with a win, less befitting was the opponent: Luxembourg.

Witnessed the Uerdingen debacle

A year later he also ended his big club career, after 558 competitive games, all for his black and yellow.

In his last year as a player, at the age of 35, he still had to witness how his team in the European Cup was downplayed 7:3 by Bayer Uerdingen after a 3-1 lead at break. Even the eternal defense organizer Dörner could not stop it.

The miracle of the Grotenburg also belongs in his footballer biography.

He deserved a better farewell from the international stage, after all, his teammates helped him to a national victory in the last game: The 2-1 win over Union Berlin on May 24, 1986 ended what was probably the greatest career of a GDR footballer. a career that made Dörner three times the GDR footballer of the year.

As a coach after reunification, he was less fortunate.

At Werder Bremen, after a few years on the DFB coaching staff, he gave an ultimately unsuccessful one-year guest appearance, and he also left no lasting effect in Zwickau and at VfB Leipzig.

In between, he tried his hand at Al Ahly in Cairo as a coach, which ultimately remained a flying visit.

In the end he returned to his eternal and old love, he has served on the board of Dynamo Dresden since 2013, and the club had long since appointed him honorary captain.

He never got rid of Dynamo.

Dynamo Dresden had a Matthias Sammer, a Ulf Kirsten, a Ralf Minge, an Andreas Trautmann and a Hans-Jürgen Kreische.

But the greatest player in the club's history passed away on Wednesday at the age of 70 after a long and serious illness.