Early club career Born on 31 October 1920, Walter was exposed to football early with his parents, Ludwig (1894–1976) and Dorothea Walter (
née Kieburg; 1896–1978), working at the
1. FC Kaiserslautern club restaurant. By 1928 he had joined the Kaiserslautern youth academy, and he made his first team debut at 17, continuing an association with the club that would be his only professional club. International pro teams had repeatedly offered him hefty sums, but with support from his wife always declined in order to stay at home, to play for his home town, the national team and "Chef" (German for "Boss") Herberger.
International debut Walter debuted with the Germany national team in 1940 under
Sepp Herberger, and scored a
hat-trick against
Romania. Walter would later call the match in question as the most important of his life as it spared him and his brother from a gulag sentence.
Return to Germany Upon his return in 1945, Walter, who by now suffered from
malaria, again played for Kaiserslautern, leading them to German championships in 1951 and 1953. Walter coached
VfR Kaiserslautern during the 1948–49 season and helped them win the 1948–49 Westpfälzischen Amateurliga.
Sepp Herberger recalled Walter to the national team in 1951, and he was named captain. during the semi-final against
Sweden in the
1958 World Cup, suffering an injury which ended his international career, and he retired from football in 1959.
Later life and legacy players in the
1954 FIFA World Cup Final. From left to right:
Werner Liebrich, Walter,
Werner Kohlmeyer,
Horst Eckel and
Ottmar Walter. The home stadium of 1. FC Kaiserslautern was renamed the
Fritz-Walter-Stadion in 1985. Fritz Walter was named an honorary captain of the German football squad in 1958. The other five are
Uwe Seeler,
Franz Beckenbauer,
Lothar Matthäus,
Bettina Wiegmann and
Jürgen Klinsmann. Walter died in
Enkenbach-Alsenborn on 17 June 2002, aged 81. It was his dream to see the
World Cup 2006 in "his" town Kaiserslautern as the town had not been selected in the smaller tournament of 1974, but it was denied with his death. But on the fourth anniversary of his death on 17 June 2006, the
United States played
Italy in Kaiserslautern and a minute of silence was observed in his memory. Today people may visit the "Fritz Walter Haus" in the town of
Enkenbach-Alsenborn approx. 20 km east of Kaiserslautern (first exit from Kaiserslautern on
Bundesautobahn 6 direction Mannheim). In November 2003, to celebrate
UEFA's 50th anniversary, the
German Football Association (DFB) selected him as its
Golden Player of the past 50 years (from 1954 to 2003). During the eighties and nineties, there was another successful
Bundesliga striker called "
Fritz Walter", who mainly played for
VfB Stuttgart. Although he had no relationship to the great Kaiserslautern captain, sports fans jokingly called him "Fritz Walter junior". In 2005, the
Fritz Walter Medal, a series of annual awards which were established in his honour, and which are given by the
German Football Association to youth footballers in Germany, was first awarded. ==Personal life==