Bert Trautmann - Early Life in Germany

Early Life in Germany

Trautmann was born on 22 October 1923 in Walle, a middle class area in west Bremen, living with his father, who worked in a fertiliser factory by the docks, and his mother Frieda, a housewife. He had one brother, Karl-Heinz, three years his junior, with whom he enjoyed a close relationship. The bleak economic climate of the early 1930s forced the Trautmanns to sell their house and move to an apartment block in the working class area of Gröpelingen, where Bernhard lived until 1941. The young Bernhard had a keen interest in sports, playing football, handball and völkerball (a form of dodgeball). To this end, he joined the YMCA and football club Blau und Weiss. He took to playing for the football club with enthusiasm, but the YMCA activities did not hold his attention to the same extent. In August 1933, he joined a new organisation instead, the Jungvolk, a precursor to the Hitler Youth. The following year, he won several local junior athletics events and was awarded a certificate for athletic excellence signed by Paul von Hindenburg, the President of Germany. At the onset of the Second World War, Trautmann was working as an apprentice motor mechanic.