Bert Trautmann - Personal Life

Personal Life

Trautmann married a Manchester woman, Margaret Friar, in 1950, but they divorced in the 1960s. The couple had three children, John, Mark and Stephen. John, his firstborn son, was killed in a car accident a few months after the FA Cup Final in 1956, aged five. According to Trautmann, his wife's struggle to come to terms with the loss ultimately resulted in the breakup of their marriage. He also has a daughter from a previous relationship from whom he was estranged for many years. He married Ursula Van der Heyde, a German national, while living in Burma in the 1970s, but divorced in 1982. Since 1990, Trautmann has lived with his third wife Marlis in a small bungalow on the Spanish coast near Valencia. He has since helped found the Trautmann Foundation, which aims to use his example to improve Anglo-German relations through football.

Trautmann still follows Manchester City and occasionally visits Manchester to watch Manchester City play, as he did in April 2010. Trautmann said during his visit, "I watch all City's games on TV, they're still my club", and added, "I love England too and still shout for them – even if they're playing Germany!"

In 1999, he appeared in the BBC Timewatch programme episode; "The Germans We Kept", recounting the experiences of German prisoners of war who decided to remain in the UK.

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