Time stands still at FC Bayern Munich. The club has colored its website in black and white: “FC Bayern mourns Franz Beckenbauer.” On the Monday evening after the death was announced, someone placed a flower arrangement in front of the office on Säbener Strasse and lit a candle.
Franz Beckenbauer in 2016 at the Allianz Arena.
(Photo: Andreas Gebert/dpa)
From 1964 to 1977, Beckenbauer played for FC Bayern, brought practically all football titles to Munich as a player and coach, led the national team to World Cup success and brought the 2006 world tournament to Germany – with six sold-out games in the Fröttmaninger Arena. A big memorial service should now take place there, suggests ex-Bayern boss Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.
Ex-FCB board boss Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (left) and Mayor Dieter Reiter at the championship and cup winners celebration in Munich City Hall in 2019.
(Photo: Sebastian Gabriel)
Munich’s mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD), an avowed FC Bayern supporter, is dismayed: “The news of Franz Beckenbauer’s death hits me very hard. An era is coming to an end with him. He was an exceptional footballer, a world star, a successful one Team boss, coach and a great role model for so many football fans. What remains are his sporting successes, his great team spirit and his inspiration for generations of football players. We will miss him, our ‘Kaiser’ – personally I will miss the conversations with him. I wish his wife and children a lot of strength during this difficult time.” Will there soon be a Franz-Beckenbauer-Platz in Munich?
The football legend grew up in this house on Zugspitzstrasse.
(Photo: René Hofmann)
Franz Beckenbauer grew up in the post-war period at Zugspitzstrasse 6 in the Giesing district. At times, eight of the Beckenbauers lived there in the apartment on the fourth floor. As a boy, he once said, he collected rags and scrap iron to exchange a fabric ball for a real leather ball. This is how his world football career started.
Remembrance in front of the house on Zugspitzstrasse.
(Photo: René Hofmann)
On Monday evening someone placed a candle and a note in front of Beckenbauer’s first home address. “Thank you, Franz!” it simply says. The two former FC Bayern players and 2014 world champions Philipp Lahm and Bastian Schweinsteiger are also mourning the death of the “Kaiser”.
Beckenbauer and Philipp Lahm (right) at the gala for the inauguration of the German Football Hall of Fame in 2019.
(Photo: Ina Fassbender/dpa)
Beckenbauer is the greatest figure “that German football has ever produced,” wrote Lahm on Portal X (formerly Twitter). The 2014 World Cup captain added that Beckenbauer was “infinitely far” ahead of his time as a player. “The 2006 World Cup, the summer fairy tale, taught a self-critical nation to like itself again,” wrote Lahm. This huge social success would not have been possible without Franz. He is “infinitely grateful that I was able to be part of it.”
Bastian Schweinsteiger signs autographs during the 2006 World Cup – in front of a hotel in Castrop-Rauxel where the German national soccer team was staying.
(Photo: Bernd Thissen/dpa)
Bastian Schweinsteiger, who also played at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, wrote: “Thank you for everything, Kaiser – I will never forget you! Rest in peace, Franz.”