Otto Harder

Otto Fritz Harder (Nickname: Tull Harder; 25 November 1892 – 4 March 1956) was a German footballer and convicted war criminal who played for Eintracht Braunschweig, Hamburger SV, and Victoria Hamburg. He won two German football championships and played 15 times in the Germany national team. Harder was a former SS officer and had been a warder at the Ahlem concentration camp in Hanover.

Otto Harder
Harder in 1947
Personal information
Full name Otto Fritz Harder
Date of birth (1892-11-25)25 November 1892
Place of birth Braunschweig, Germany
Date of death 4 March 1956(1956-03-04) (aged 63)
Place of death Hamburg, West Germany
Position(s) Forward
Youth career
0000–1909 FC Hohenzollern Braunschweig
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1909–1912 Eintracht Braunschweig
1912 Hamburger FC
1912–1913 Eintracht Braunschweig
1913–1919 Hamburger FC
1917 → Stettiner SC (wartime guest)
1919–1931 Hamburger SV 143 (295[1])
1931–1934 Victoria Hamburg
International career
1914–1926 Germany 15 (14)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Career in football

Harder was born in Braunschweig. He spent most of his career with Hamburger SV, scoring over 378 goals in 211 games.[2] His football fame in Germany was comparable with Uwe Seeler's fame.[3][4]

At the age of 16 he was discovered for football by FC Hohenzollern Braunschweig, and his impact was such that not even twelve months passed before the main club in the city, Eintracht Braunschweig, incorporated him into his ranks. There he received the nickname of "Tull" with which he would be known throughout his career, since his style of play was reminiscent of that of Tottenham Hotspur's center forward at the time, Walter Tull, the first black professional English player who died in action during World War I.

Initially, and since he was barely 17 years old, the young Tull Harder was only called up to play friendly matches with the Eintracht Braunschweig reserve team, which made him nervous, although this situation would not last long, since his quality and his tremendous physique ended up prevailing and he managed to make a career, as they say. At the beginning of 1912 he left for Hamburger SV for a few months. Eintracht Braunschweig fans wanted to avoid the departure of their young star at all costs. For this reason, they did not let him take the train to Hamburg, which he had to do almost secretly 25 kilometers from there, at the station in the neighboring town of Peine. Ultimately, Harder would play one more season with his hometown team before finally committing to Hamburger SV to play on the banks of the Elbe.

After the Great War, Harder soon established himself as the team's great star. Through him, Hamburger SV became one of the great German soccer teams in the 1920s, first reaching the 1922 German football championship against 1.FC Nürnberg, which officially did not have a champion, and finally making up for it. a year later, in 1923, the year in which Hamburger SV lifted its first German championship title after defeating Union Oberschöneweide by a clear 3–0. He would repeat that success in 1928, when he was already 36 years old. That season he established a record for eternity by scoring, on 15 January 1928, Otto scored no less than 12 goals against Wandsbeker FC with the final score was 18–5.[5]

Career in the Nazi Party

Following his football career, Harder ran an insurance agency, and in October 1932, he became a member of the NSDAP, before joining the SS in May 1933. In August 1939, he was drafted into the Waffen-SS, and served shortly at Sachsenhausen concentration camp, then at Neuengamme in Hamburg by the end of that year.[6] In November 1944, Harder was an SS-Untersturmführer (equivalent second lieutenant) and a commander (Schutzhaftlagerführer) at the Ahlem camp in Hanover.[7] After World War II, Harder was convicted of war crimes by the British military court at the Curio house in Rotherbaum. He was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment.[3] After the trial the Hamburger SV excluded him for a short time. In 1951, Harder moved to Bendestorf.[8] after receiving a pardon from His Majesty's Government.

The Resistance Man and the Football Hero

In his 2023 book, The Resistance Man and the Football Hero by Frank Krake, the author contrasts the life of SS camp commandant Harder who "created a living hell" (according to Henry Kissinger, one of the US 84th Division which liberated the Ahlen[9] concentration camp), with the life of Gerhard Nijland, a Dutch resistance hero who became a prisoner in Harder's camp. According to The Times, Nijland was captured after his resistance cell raided the De Nederlandsche Bank which was run by a Dutch Nazi and collaborator. (The raid had been approved by the Dutch Government in exile). Sent to Harder's camp at Ahlen, Nijland was a forced labourer alongside Jewish slave workers. Nijland died in April 1945 five days after being liberated by the Americans, and was buried in an unmarked grave.[10]

Death

Harder died in a hospital in Hamburg after surgery in 1956.[3] The Hamburger SV published an obituary

Er war (...) stets ein guter Freund und treuer Kamerad.

— Vereinsnachrichten des Hamburger Sport-Verein, April 1956

'He was (...) always a good friend and loyal comrade.'[8]

For the 1974 FIFA World Cup, the senate of Hamburg published the booklet Hamburg '74. Fußballweltmeisterschaft, which praised among others Josef Posipal, Uwe Seeler and Harder as role models for the young. The sheets mentioning Harder were removed.[8]


Eintracht Braunschweig

Hamburger SV

  • Hamburg Championship: 1918–19, 1922–23, 1923–24, 1924–25, 1925–26, 1926–27, 1927–28, 1929–30, 1930–31
  • North German Cup: 1926

International career
Scores and results list Germany's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Harder goal.
List of international goals scored by Otto Harder[11]
No. Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
15 April 1914Oude Stadion, Amsterdam, Netherlands Netherlands3–14–4Friendly
24 November 1923Stadion Hoheluft, Hamburg, Germany Norway1–01–0Friendly
331 August 1924Deutsches Stadion, Berlin, Germany Sweden1–11–4Friendly
421 September 1924Üllői út, Budapest, Hungary Hungary1–31–4Friendly
514 December 1924Platz des Stuttgarter Sportclub, Stuttgart, Germany Switzerland1–11–1Friendly
625 October 1925Stadion Rankhof, Basel, Switzerland Switzerland1–04–0Friendly
72–0
83–0
918 April 1926Rheinstadion, Düsseldorf, Germany Netherlands3–24–2Friendly
1020 June 1929Stadion im Zerzabelshof, Nuremberg, Germany Sweden1–03–3Friendly
112–2
123–2
1331 October 1926Oude Stadion, Amsterdam, Netherlands Netherlands2–13–2Friendly
143–1

Career statistics
Appearances and goals by club, season, and competition. Only official games are included in this table.[1][12][13]
Club Season Regional Championship Northern Germany German Championship North German Cup Other Total
Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Eintracht Braunschweig 1909–10 000000000000
1910–11 000000000000
1911–12 000000000000
Hamburger SV 1912 000000000000
Eintracht Braunschweig 1912–13 000000000000
Hamburger SV
1913–14 000000000000
1914–15 000000000000
1915–16 000000000000
1916–17 000000000000
1917–18 000000000000
1918–19 000000000000
1919–20 1626000000001626
1920–21 1728001000001828
1921–22 810004300001213
1922–23 1345003500001650
1923–24 1428002000001628
1924–25 1427001100001528
1925–26 1226003600001536
1926–27 1434002400001638
1927–28 1542003700001849
1928–29 1019002100001220
1929–30 200000000020
1930–31 81000000000810
Victoria Hamburg 1931–32 000000000000
1932–33 000000000000
1933–34 000000000000
Total 143+295+0021270000164+326

References
  1. "Strikers" (PDF). historical-lineups.com. p. 43.
  2. "Otto "Tull" Harder, Mittelstormer Hamburger SV (1912-1931)".
  3. Staff (26 June 2002), "Tull" Harder - Vom Idol zum Kriegsverbrecher (in German), abendblatt.de, retrieved 21 August 2008
  4. Peters, Fritz (1942), Tull Harder stürmt für Deutschlands Fussballruhm (in German), Hamburg: Falken, OCLC 72331632
  5. Reimer Prüß, Jens (2008). Tore, Punkte, Spieler: die komplette HSV-Statistik (in German). Verlag die Werkstatt. p. 35. ISBN 9783895335860.
  6. "Otto „Tull" Harder" (PDF) (in German). media.offenes-archiv.de. 2016.
  7. Schwab, Georg (5 May 2004), SS personnel serving at Neuengammer, Axis History site, retrieved 21 August 2008
  8. Heinrich, Arthur, Tull Harder - Eine Karriere in Deutschland* (PDF) (in German), retrieved 13 August 2008
  9. The lede refers to Ahlem, "The Times" refers to "Ahrlen
  10. The Times report, April 3 2023 page 33
  11. "Otto Harder". eu-football.info. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
  12. "Otto "Tull" Harder, Mittelstormer Hamburger SV (1912-1931)".
  13. "Tull Harder - Spielerprofil".

Further reading
  • Repplinger, Roger (2008) Leg dich, Zigeuner. Die Geschichte von Johann Trollmann und Tull Harder. München, Piper, ISBN 3-492-04902-8 (in German)
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