Erwin Helmchen

Erwin Helmchen (10 May 1907 in Cottbus – 8 June 1981 in Kiel) was a German football player.[1] He is the most prolific goalscorer in official matches in recorded history according to Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) with more than 981 goals scored in 595 matches,[2] the top goalscorer in league matches with over 720 goals,[3] the top goalscorer for a team in official matches with over 667 goals[4] and the top goalscorer for a team in total matches with over 1295 goals.[5]

Erwin Helmchen
Erwin Helmchen playing for PSV Chemnitz in 1938
Personal information
Date of birth (1907-05-10)10 May 1907
Place of birth Cottbus, Kingdom of Prussia
Date of death 8 June 1981(1981-06-08) (aged 74)
Place of death Kiel, West Germany
Position(s) Striker
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1926–1928 FV Brandenburg Cottbus
1928–1945 Chemnitzer PSV
1950–1952 VfB Lübeck
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Career

FV Brandenburg Cottbus

Helmchen started his career at FV Brandenburg Cottbus (de). In Lower Lusatia, he took part with the FV Brandenburg in the finals of the South Eastern German football championship. However, the Breslau clubs, Sportfreunde Breslau and Breslauer SC 08 dominated the competition.

Chemnitz PSV

In 1928, Helmchen joined Chemnitzer PSV.[1] He scored in his first five seasons at PSV 213 goals in the regional championship rounds,[6] However, they found fierce rivalry with the local competitors Chemnitzer BC.[7] In 1932, PSV managed to reach the Central German football championship final against Dresdner SC to win 3–2 after extra-time. Helmchen had scored 51 goals in the championship for PSV, and a total of 126 goals for him in the 1931–32 season. PSV later participated in the 1932 German football championship, where they lost 2–3 to the eventual German champions Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals. However, Helmchen managed to score 5 goals in that competition to finish in second place behind Karl Ehmer.[8] In 1933, Dresdner SC retaliated in the final for the Central German Championship with a 3–1 win against PSV.

The Gauliga Sachsen was inaugurated in 1933. Helmchen with his club in the debut season 1933–34 finished third behind Dresdner SC and the VfB Leipzig. On May 13, 1934, a new stadium which was later known as Stadion an der Gellertstraße in Chemnitz, opened with a 5–1 in front of 25,000 spectators against SpVgg Fürth. On June 16, PSV played a friendly match against the Spanish champions of 1932, Madrid CF,[7] with their goalkeeper Ricardo Zamora in front of 20,000 spectators. PSV won 5–2 with three goals by Heimchen.

In 1934–35 and 1935–36 seasons, PSV Chemnitz managed to win two titles in the Gauliga Sachsen, both in front of the Dresdner SC. In the 1935 German football championship, PSV played in the same group against Hertha BSC, Vorwärts-Rasensport Gleiwitz and Yorck Boyen Insterburg, only to lose on June 2 in Düsseldorf in the semi-finals 2–3 goals against the eventual winners FC Schalke 04,[9] both PSV goals were scored by Helmchen.

In the 1935–36 Reichsbundpokal (de), PSV won against Gauliga Südwest/Mainhessen team in the final, with Helmchen scoring nine goals in total.

In the 1936 German football championship group stage, PSV defeated Schalke 3–2 in front of 40,000 spectators in Dortmund's Stadion Rote Erde, and Helmchen contributed two goals to the win. However, Schalke managed to win 2–1 against PSV at Ostragehege to advance to the next round on goal difference. With a total of ten goals, Helmchen once again underlined his above-average qualifications in the final round.

PSV was runner-up with his team in the 1936–37 season, then third in 1938 and 1941, but it was no longer enough to make another entry into the final round of the German championship. In the meantime, Walter Rose and Ernst Wilimowski started to play for PSV.

However, PSV lost two Reichsbundpokal finals in 1936–37 against Gauliga Niederrhein and 1939–40 Gauliga Bayern teams, as Helmchen was a captain in the latter final.

Regional leagues

After the Second World War, Helmchen played for SG Chemnitz Nord in Chemnitz regional competitions, where his team finished first in 1947 and third in 1948. In 1948–49 season, his team lost the finals against Meeraner SV.

He was called up on January 23, 1949, in the selection game between Saxony and Berlin by Saxony coach Helmut Schön as a center forward. The senior scored the last goals in the autumn round of 1949–50 in the state class of Saxony for SG Nord, which has converted into BSG Fewa Chemnitz.

Helmchen later went to Schleswig-Holstein. First, he was at Eintracht Rendsburg and from February 1950 at VfB Lübeck, where he was a player-coach in the football league north. At the mature footballer's age of almost 43 years, Helmchen completed his second league appearance for VfB Lübeck on May 3, 1950, in the catch-up game against FC St. Pauli. Göttingen 05 protested against the participation of Helmchen as a player, as he would not have been eligible to play under the current statute, but the protest was done with the relegation of VfB. In the following season 1950–51, Helmchen won the championship with VfB in the Schleswig-Holstein state league, but failed in the promotion round to the upper league. In 1951–52, he won the national league championship again with VfB, but the return to the Oberliga Nord was not successful at the second attempt.

After moving to Kiel in 1952, Helmchen was employed in the equipment procurement department at the Ministry of the Interior, he trained with the national league team SV Friedrichsort until 1956.[7]

National team

Despite Helmchen's good performances in Gauliga Sachsen and Reichsbundpokal from 1932 to 1936, his disregard for German national team by the Reich coaches Otto Nerz and Sepp Herberger was incomprehensible. He was called up on May 24, 1931, in the German defeat 0–6 against Austria. In 1937, there were two more appearances in test matches before international matches: on May 22 in Stuttgart against Manchester City and on October 24 in Berlin against Gau Brandenburg. However, he did not feature in any of the national team matches, due to several reasons including injury, bad form, leaving a bad impression and, on one occasion, having to attend a wedding.[10]

Death and legacy

Helmchen lived with his wife Erna in Kiel, Elmschenhagen until his death on June 8, 1981, where he is also buried.

The wish he expressed to want to rest under the ground of the Chemnitz "Stadium on Gellertstrasse" was symbolically fulfilled on September 8, 2001. On this day, Holstein Kiel and Chemnitzer FC met in the Regionalliga Nord for their first league game. The CFC fan club “Clubsurfer” then called out the “Lawn for Erwin” campaign, in which a piece of turf from the Chemnitz soccer turf was cut off and placed on Helmchen's grave in Kiel with a small devotion.

References
  1. 100 Jahre Chemnitzer Fussball Bilder, Geschichten, Tabellen. Claus, Gerhard, Schmidt, Mario. [Chemnitz]. ISBN 978-3-928678-58-2. OCLC 247562414.CS1 maint: others (link)
  2. "Best Goalscorers All-Time (Official Matches)". www.rsssf.com.
  3. "Best League Goalscorers All-Time". www.rsssf.com.
  4. "One team (official matches)". www.rsssf.com.
  5. "One team (all matches)". www.rsssf.com.
  6. Lorenz Knieriem, Torjäger, p. 160.
  7. "Aktion "Rasen für Erwin"". cfc-fanpage.de (in German).
  8. "Deutsche Meisterschaft 1931/1932 » Torschützenliste" [German championship 1932: Top scorers]. Weltfussball.de (in German). Retrieved 5 January 2016.
  9. "Deutsche Meisterschaft 1934/1935 » Halbfinale" [German championship 1934–35: Semi-finals]. Weltfussball.de (in German). Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  10. "Strikers" (PDF). historical-lineups.com. p. 8.

Literature
  • Gerhard Claus: 100 years of football in Chemnitz. Pictures, stories, tables . Chemnitzer Verlag, Chemnitz 1999, ISBN 3-928678-58-2.
  • Gau selection competitions 1933–1942. In: Libero IFFHS, No. D 17, 1998, III. Quarter.
  • Lorenz Knieriem: goalscorer. A typology of the executor. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2005, ISBN 3-89784-264-5.
  • Hardy Grüne, Lorenz Knieriem: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 8: Player Lexicon 1890–1963. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2006, ISBN 3-89784-148-7.
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