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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Gottfried Erik Fuchs; later Godfrey Fuchs | ||
| Date of birth | (1889-05-03)3 May 1889 | ||
| Place of birth | Karlsruhe, Germany[1] | ||
| Date of death | 25 February 1972(1972-02-25) (aged 82) | ||
| Place of death | Westmount, Quebec, Canada[1] | ||
| Position | Forward | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1904–1906 | Düsseldorfer SC 1899 | ||
| 1906–1914 | Karlsruher FV[1] | ||
| 1914–1920 | Düsseldorfer SC 1899 | ||
| International career | |||
| 1907–1913 | Germany | 6 | (13) |
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Gottfried Erik Fuchs (3 May 1889 – 25 February 1972), also known asGodfrey Fuchs,[2] was a German Olympic footballer. He scored a then-world record 10 goals for theGermany national team in a 16–0 win againstRussia at the1912 Olympics. He left Germany to escapethe Holocaust, as he was Jewish, and ultimately emigrated to Canada.[3]
Fuchs debuted for theGermany national team at the age of 18.[4]
He played forDüsseldorfer SC 1899 [de] (1904–06, 1914–20), andKarlsruher FV (1906–14)—winning the German national title in 1910, beatingHolstein Kiel 1–0.[4][1] In 1912, they lost the final against Holstein Kiel, 1–0.[1] Between 1911 and 1913 he was considered the best centre in the world.[1] During this time period, he earned six caps and scored 13 goals.[1] Fuchs was part of the legendary attacking trio ofKarlsruher FV withFritz Förderer andJulius Hirsch (who was killed inAuschwitz).[4][5]
He was the first German player to score four goals in a single match.[4][2]
He is remembered for scoring a world record 10 goals for Germany in a 16–0 win againstRussia at the1912 Olympics in Stockholm on 1 July, becoming the top scorer of the tournament; his international record was not surpassed until 2001 whenAustralia'sArchie Thompson scored 13 goals in a 31–0 defeat ofAmerican Samoa.[2][5][6][4] This performance of 10 goals in one international match tied a record set bySophus Nielsen at the1908 Summer Olympics, which remained on the books until2001. TheGerman Football Association erased all references to him from their records between 1933 and 1945.[1][7][8] He had the record of being the top German scorer in one match.[1]
He served in theGerman Army in World War I as an artillery officer and was awarded theIron Cross.[5][9]
In 1928, he and his family moved to Berlin.[9] He was a member of the local tennis clubNikolassee e. V., but it barred him from membership in 1935.[9]
AGerman Jew, he was exiled and fledNazi Germany in 1937 because ofthe Holocaust and emigrated first to England and then in 1940 to Canada.[4][5][2] His older brother was composer and architectRichard Fuchs.[10]
When, years after the Holocaust in 1972, German former player and national team coachSepp Herberger asked the German Football Association vice presidentHermann Neuberger to invite Fuchs as a guest or a guest of honour to an international against Russia on the 60th anniversary of Fuchs' performance for the German team, the DFB Executive Committee declined to do so, writing that it was not willing to invite Fuchs because it would have created an unfortunate precedent (as was pointed out, given that Fuchs was the last remaining former Jewish German international, the DFB's concern about creating a precedent was a difficult one to understand).[8][9]
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