Canellas, son of a Spanish father and a German mother, was born in
Plauen, Saxony, in 1921. After the end of
World War II he spent some time in Spain and then moved to
Hesse and adopted German citizenship. He became the managing director of a fruit importer in
Frankfurt. In 1964 Canellas became chairman of
Kickers Offenbach, a club then playing in the second division
Regionalliga Süd. Offenbach won promotion to the
Bundesliga in 1968 and 1970 but suffered immediate relegation on both occasions. Canellas retired from his business in 1974. On a flight from
Mallorca to Frankfurt in 1977 the plane he was on,
Lufthansa Flight 181 Landshut, was hijacked by members of the
PFLP in order to force the release of imprisoned German guerilla
Red Army Faction leaders. The hostages were later freed by the German counter-terrorism unit
GSG 9 in
Mogadishu. ==References==