Paul Breitner

Paul Breitner in 2008
Personal information
Full name	Paul Breitner
Date of birth	(1951-09-05) 5 September 1951 (age 60)
Place of birth	Kolbermoor, West Germany
Height	1.76 m (5 ft 9 1⁄2 in)[1]
Playing position	Left-back, Box-to-Box Midfielder
Youth career
1957–1961	SV-DJK Kolbermoor
1961–1970	ESV Freilassing
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1970–1974	Bayern Munich	109	(17)
1974–1977	Real Madrid	84	(10)
1977–1978	Eintracht Braunschweig	30	(10)
1978–1983	Bayern Munich	146	(66)
Total		369	(103)
National team
1968–1970	West Germany Youth	16	(1)
1971	West Germany U-23	1	(0)
1971–1982	West Germany	48	(10)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Paul Breitner (born 5 September 1951 in Kolbermoor, Bavaria) is a former German football player.^[2] One of Germany's most controversial players, he was capped 48 times for his country.

Playing career[link]

His football career lasted from 1970 until 1983, mainly playing for Bayern Munich (1970–74 and 1978–83) and Real Madrid (1974–78), with one season playing for Eintracht Braunschweig. His early success was as a free roaming left back, as likely to score from the right midfield as to stop an attacker in his own penalty area. Later in his career he moved to midfield and became one of the top midfielders through the early 1980s.

The early peak of Breitner's long and successful career was at age 21 in 1972 as part of the winning German European Championship team. This was followed two years later with victory as a member of the German World Cup squad. The final was played in Munich against the Netherlands, and Breitner scored the first German goal on a penalty kick. In the final, he, Franz Beckenbauer and Berti Vogts formed a slick unit at the back and their water-tight defense prevented the Dutch from winning the World Cup. He moved to Real Madrid following the World Cup and quit the West German squad, remaining off the side until enticed to return by Jupp Derwall in 1981. Breitner is one of only four footballers to have achieved the feat of scoring in two different World Cup final matches, sharing that honour with Pelé, Vavá, and Zinédine Zidane. He achieved this in 1974 against the Netherlands and in 1982 against Italy.

During his club career, Breitner won seven National Championships with Bayern Munich (1972, 1973, 1974, 1980, 1981) and Real Madrid (1975, 1976), the Champions' Cup (1974) as well as the German (1971, 1982) and Spanish Cups (1975). During his spell with Bayern Munich, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and he formed such a formidable one-two-punch that they were often called Breitnigge.

By many of the older and more traditional football fans in Germany he was decried for his "revolutionary" attitude and his tendency for voicing strong opinions on political and social issues. Before the 1982 World Cup (held in Spain) former "leftist" Breitner caused a major uproar in Germany when he accepted an offer by a German cosmetics company to pay him the – what many Germans regarded at that time as a "scandalously high" – sum of 150,000 Deutsche Mark if he shaved off his fluffy full beard, used their fragrance and advertised for the company. He currently works as a football commentator in Germany and is also an advisor to the Board of Bayern Munich.

Career statistics[link]

Honours[link]

Bayern Munich[link]

Bundesliga

• Winner: 1971–72, 1972–73, 1973–74, 1979–80, 1980–81

DFB-Pokal

• Winner: 1970–71, 1981–82

European Cup

• Winner: 1973–74
• Runner-up: 1981–82

Real Madrid[link]

La Liga

• Winner: 1974–75, 1975–76

Copa del Rey

• Winner: 1974–75

West Germany[link]

UEFA European Football Championship

• Winner: 1972

FIFA World Cup

• Winner: 1974
• Runner-up: 1982

Individual[link]

• Footballer of the Year in Germany 1981
• European Footballer of the Year 1981 (Silver Ball)

Post-retirement[link]

In 1998, Breitner was announced as the new national coach by DFB president Egidius Braun. However, after some steam from fellow association officials, Braun reconsidered 17 hours later, making Breitner the infamous 17 Hours Bundestrainer.

Today, Breitner mainly works as a TV pundit and newspaper columnist. In March 2007 he entered into a contract with FC Bayern Munich and acts as an advisor on various issues. He occasionally still plays for the Bayern All-stars in charity games, captaining the team on several occasions.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Paul Breitner at fussballdaten.de (German)

v t e West Germany squad – UEFA Euro 1972 Winners (1st Title) GK Maier GK Kleff DF Beckenbauer DF Bella DF Breitner DF Höttges DF Schwarzenbeck DF Vogts MF Bonhof MF Hoeneß MF Köppel MF Netzer FW Grabowski FW Heynckes FW E. Kremers FW Löhr FW Müller FW Wimmer Coach: Schön

v t e West Germany squad – 1974 FIFA World Cup Winners (2nd Title) 1 Maier 2 Vogts 3 Breitner 4 Schwarzenbeck 5 Beckenbauer (c) 6 Höttges 7 Wimmer 8 Cullmann 9 Grabowski 10 Netzer 11 Heynckes 12 Overath 13 Müller 14 Hoeneß 15 Flohe 16 Bonhof 17 Hölzenbein 18 Herzog 19 Kapellmann 20 H. Kremers 21 Nigbur 22 Kleff Coach: Schön

v t e West Germany squad – 1982 FIFA World Cup Runners-Up 1 Schumacher 2 Briegel 3 Breitner 4 K. Förster 5 B. Förster 6 Dremmler 7 Littbarski 8 Fischer 9 Hrubesch 10 Müller 11 Rummenigge (c) 12 Hannes 13 Reinders 14 Magath 15 Stielike 16 T. Allofs 17 Engels 18 Matthäus 19 Hieronymus 20 Kaltz 21 Franke 22 Immel Coach: Derwall

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Harald Schmidt
Harald Schmidt
Born	(1957-08-18) August 18, 1957 (age 54) Neu-Ulm, West Germany
Occupation	talk show host, comedian and television producer
Website
Sat.1 Official Site

Harald Franz Schmidt (born August 18, 1957 in Neu-Ulm, Bavaria) is a German actor, writer, comedian and television entertainer best known as host of two popular German late-night shows.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

As son of refugees who fled from South Moravia (now Czech Republic) in 1945, Schmidt spent his youth in Swabian Nürtingen, where he went to grammar school. Due to his strict Catholic upbringing he devoted time to the Roman Catholic church, serving as choirmaster and playing the organ.

At the age of 21, Schmidt went to Stuttgart to attend drama school for three years. After that, he gained on-stage experience at Städtische Bühne (Municipal Stage) in Augsburg. His first role was that of the 2nd Mamaluke in Lessing's Nathan the Wise. In 1984, Harald Schmidt became a text writer for the cabaret Kom(m)ödchen in Düsseldorf and in 1986, was honoured as "Best Newcomer cabaret artist" and toured through Germany with his own show.

Television[link]

Before long, TV noticed the talented young comedian and in 1988 Schmidt began to host his first TV show, MAZ ab. This was followed by shows like Psst! and Schmidteinander, but the biggest boost to his career occurred in 1992, when he started hosting the popular Saturday night show, Verstehen Sie Spaß? (a variation of Candid Camera). Schmidt was awarded Germany's most important TV award, "Adolf-Grimme-Preis", which would be followed by many others. Just one year later, he was honoured as the "Entertainer of the year" and awarded the famous Bambi award and the Golden Camera.

In 1995, Schmidt changed from the publicly funded TV station ARD to the privately owned channel Sat.1 and started the late night talk and variety show, Die Harald Schmidt Show. From 30 June 2003 the show was broadcast five days a week, including Monday evening. On the 8th December 2003, Schmidt suddenly announced the end of the show, following a change of management of Sat.1. The last show was aired on the 23rd December 2003.

Harald Schmidt and Manuel Andrack live in Karlsruhe

"Creative break" and show relaunch[link]

In 2004, Schmidt toured through Germany with a live comedy show, featuring his former late night show sidekick Manuel Andrack. On December 23 of the same year, the new show Harald Schmidt began featuring Andrack, back on ARD, where Schmidt had begun his television career 16 years earlier.

In October 2005, his daughter Amelie was born.

Harald Schmidt resides in Cologne with his partner Ellen Hantsch, a school teacher, and five children, the eldest being from a former relationship. Little is known about the children and their two mothers as Schmidt shields them from the public. In interviews he hardly talks about them.

Shows[link]

[edit] Harald Schmidt Show (Sat.1)

Schmidt is host of the German late night show comparable to Late Night with Conan O'Brien or Late Night with David Letterman, which has now begun a second run after a year-long "creative break". The original show, named Die Harald Schmidt Show and shown on German television network Sat.1, featured stand-up comedy as well as famous national and international guests.

In its later years, the show became a critics' favourite due to Schmidt's "intellectual" sense of humour. For example, he hosted one show completely in French. On another occasion, the screen was blacked for half of the show making it into a "radio broadcast". Another time, he disproved a critic who had written that it is impossible to spend several minutes on TV just cracking nuts.

[edit] Harald Schmidt (ARD)

Schmidt began a second run with a new show on publicly funded ARD, this time without "celebrity" interviews and with even more discussion of current events in a rather freely associative manner. As the German entertainer Thomas Gottschalk recently quipped, Schmidt will always attract the student and intellectual crowd, Gottschalk himself will take care of the rest.

On his first show after the break Schmidt appeared with long hair and a fluffy full beard (which looked kind of grey-white-blond-yellowish and reminiscent of Ernest Hemingway and made it to the newspaper headlines the next morning) making fun of his long absence from the public. Although he claimed right on: "I swear, I shaved this morning!". After summer break in 2005 the "celebrity guest" segment was reintroduced.

[edit] Schmidt & Pocher (ARD)

Late in 2007, Manuel Andrack was replaced by Comedian Oliver Pocher, who had a more active part than his predecessor, and some other elements changed as well. The broadcast's title was changed to "Schmidt & Pocher", trying to attract a younger audience. Oliver Pocher was less educated and "less intellectual", a fact that caused some criticism among Harald Schmidt's core audience and broadsheet newspaper comments in Germany.

[edit] Harald Schmidt (Das Erste)

As of 2011, Schmidt hosts a live show for Das Erste each week.

[edit] Return to Sat. 1 as Harald Schmidt Show again

On September 15, 2011 Schmidt returned to his former network Sat.1 picking up is former show name of Die Harald Schmidt Show again. Sat.1 cancelled the show after one season due to low viewer levels.^[1]

[edit] Harald Schmidt Show (Sky Deutschland)

Starting September 11, 2012 new episodes will be shown on Sky Hits HD and Sky Atlantic HD, two channels of the German Pay-TV network Sky Deutschland.^[2]

Concept/crew[link]

The self-proclaimed hypochondriac became popular for his cynical jokes, cruel remarks and wry intellectual wit. (Even though he is obsessed with health he was able to lampoon this weak spot in a self ironic TV commercial for a medicine curing colds.) Schmidt models himself after people like Johnny Carson and Conan O'Brien, but adds few factors and qualities to his show himself.

He engaged in long, seemingly boring conversations with his "supervising producer" Manuel Andrack (known as "chief dramatic adviser"), who sat at a desk next to Schmidt's, and, like Letterman, also included his staff in the show, for instance, his band leader Helmut Zerlett and his cue card girl Suzana Novinscak (both omitted in the new show). After a few new shows, Schmidt celebrated the return of French woman Nathalie Licard. Previously Schmidt's reporter in the old show, she sat on a stool, opposite Manuel Andrack, in front of the band. On occasion, she was involved in the goings-on (like dressing up as Eliza Doolittle in front of the audience, helping Schmidt to bring people from the audience who were chosen to form an impromptu choir etc.). It has been announced on the 28th of March 2012 that the "Harald Schmidt Show" will end on the 3rd of May 2012 on SAT1.

Criticism[link]

Especially during the first years of Die Harald Schmidt Show, Schmidt was sometimes criticised for making fun of minorities like foreigners or gays. He also did some Adolf Hitler imitations in his show (in one of these he as Hitler warned young people not to vote for racist and nationalistic parties). However, especially Schmidts more unorthodox and politically incorrect jokes have garnered the show a reputation as cult television and his supporters accused critics of being incapable of understanding satire.

Awards[link]

Awards include three German Television Awards, the viewers choice award Bambi, the Grimme Award, the Golden Camera and the Golden Lion as best showmaster.

Related meme[link]

A picture of Schmidt, with a beard and long hair, holding up his index finger, is the basis of an Internet meme known as "fgsfds."

References[link]

External links[link]