1. FSV Mainz 05 — The “Jewish” Football Club
Just like “African American” baseball in the U.S., there is also a tradition of “Jewish soccer,” here in Germany. Indeed, the first heroes of some of the earliest organized football clubs in Germany were also of the Jewish faith if not heritage and family background.
Much to my delight I have just met for the first time with the Mainz 05 historian, who is currently beginning a fascinating search about the team’s origins and the potential Nazi influences on the early days. It is a fascinating story. And one that I am also in a position to shed more light on.
The Story of The Founding Of Mainz 05
For those of you are not (German) football fans, here is a little nugget of history about the club itself. Founded in 1905 by Eugene Salomon, a Jew, the club struggled during the period after WWII, but these days finds itself in the upper leagues of German professional football (aka soccer).
The story I am now telling to the club as we figure out a way to work together, is kind of like a German version of rediscovered stories of “Negro Baseball” in the United States, except not quite. This is not a story about struggling, penniless descendants of slaves being given a chance to knock it out of the park based on athletic ability. This is the story of some of the wealthiest Germans in Mainz, one of the three holiest cities in in the world from a Jewish point of view before Hitler (aka one of the SHuM cities), who built a successful football club, even then, but were stripped of their association with it (not to mention their lives an possessions subsequently).
That said, Americans do have a bit more of a history of telling these stories — not based on cultural tolerance but rather historical distance from the event.
In Mainz, there is a saying that the German word for history — geschichte — is the same word for story.
History is all about stories. And this is a fascinating one.
Kaufhaus Lahnstein Was Mainz 05’s First Sponsor
My great uncle, Carl Lahnstein, inherited one of the largest businesses in Mainz from my great grandfather Julius in 1927. The business was housed in a landmark building that was so much a part of the official identity of the town if not literally iconic, that it appeared on postcards and stamps. Located right across from the Mainz Cathedral in the town square, and about the same height (minus the spire) the address, albeit one that was pretty unlucky was 13 Gutenberg Platz.
Kaufhaus Lahnstein was a family-run store, a typical German mittelstand of unbelievable success, founded by my great grandfather during the mid 1800’s. By the time the new century (as in the 20th) rolled around, the store and its economic and financial influence supported a wide network of the Lahnstein family. By the time Julius died, the store was split equally between the siblings, with Carl selected naturally, to run things on a daily basis. My grandmother was a major shareholder.
Carl of course, was the only son. That is how things worked in those days, not to mention a family which married off its eldest daughter to get her out of the way (my grandmother) so her supposedly prettier, younger, sweeter tempered sister could get married to the Argentinian beef millionaire who courted her.
Ah, the good old days.
Carl, intending to put himself on the map in a way that differentiated himself from his father, also began to sponsor local charitable activities and pursuits, including the nascent Mainz 05.
Football clubs were being founded all over Germany. He was friends with Salomon, founder of the club itself, and indeed the professional relationship between the two men was absolutely forwarded with the success of the club no matter what the score on the field. After all, where else to buy specialty uniforms, made by the team founder, than the successful department store of the team’s first sponsor, located conveniently in the middle of town and a hop, skip and jump from the old stadium.
Indeed the founding meeting of the club was held less than a five minute walk from Kaufhaus Lahnstein.
As I tracked my relatives down, scattered all over the United States in the hunt for my aging father, I also heard many stories of the toy store in the department store — located on the fifth floor of Kaufhaus Lahnstein. Indeed the stories that I heard about the connection between the two were that the toy store on the fifth floor of Kaufhaus Lahnstein was the reason for the naming of the club Mainz 05 in the first place.
Ostracized And Targetted By The Nazis
Mainz 05 was targetted early by the Nazis, mostly because of my uncle Carl. Indeed, the same day that Carl Lahnstein was stripped of his ownership of the store, Salomon was also removed from his post at Mainz 05. He was replaced by Paul Oßwald, who later served in the German military during WWII (the Wehrmacht). He went on to a respectable career in German football after the war. Salomon was murdered in Auschwitz in 1942. My great uncle survived the war, albeit after spending time in Buchenwald, but died in the search for reparations on the store in New York in the early 1950's.
Future Forward
Much like African American contributions to the sport of baseball, in other words, however, this particular nugget of history disappeared at a time when Germany itself could not look too closely at recent events.
But both men’s individual histories are more than fascinating, both individually and in terms of their friendship if not working interest in the sport. There were also apparently at least several other members of the team who were also Jewish. Their subsequent fates, so far, unknown.
The memory of that connection faded, slowly, like memories of the store itself, bombed out during the war. It survived, in patches, like the stories that my own father told me as a child.
Now, eighty two years after Carl Lahnstein was put briefly in Buchenwald, and 78 after Salomon was murdered by the Nazis, the city of Mainz itself as well as FSV Mainz 05 are looking at their own recent past and coming up with a lot of interesting historical documents that I can help bring a bit more colour to.
As Germany faces its own newly shaped future, in other words, there is clearly a place where a town is looking inward and back to understand its own next destiny.
Stay tuned.
