The 1974 Footballer of the Year must feel like an endangered species. He is locked up and guarded behind barbed wire like a rare animal that has ninety minutes of exercise in a large green space every four days. Security forces everywhere, soldiers, border guards, police officers, in the stadiums, the streets, the neighborhoods. At the opening ceremony of the World Cup, Federal President Heinemann’s armored Mercedes 600 was followed by a mobile operating theater as a precaution against a possible assassination attempt. The German quarters in Malente are protected by the GSG-9. The guards have dogs and machine guns. Nobody is allowed out without an escort, and bodyguards are even present when six Catholics in the team visit church. In order to escape cabin fever, some of them, like Sepp Maier and Uli Hoeneß, escape. Maier has to get behind the wheel. They persuade a security guard to drive them to their wives in Hamburg late in the evening, hidden in the back seat. When we head back at dawn, the officer in the back is asleep and Maier has to take the wheel himself. Because the brake system fails, he constantly has to pull the handbrake. His right hand gets blisters and he has to sit out goalkeeper training. More on the topic Adventures like the ones Maier told again in February 2024 on his 80th birthday are nice anecdotes today – but back then, they were horror stories for everyone whose job is the safety of others. The RAF has announced a rocket attack on the stadium in Hamburg for the World Cup, and the IRA has announced an attack on Scottish players. And the team in Quickborn has a bomb scare. In the end, they will have been empty threats. Was it because of the large security apparatus? Little coincidences? Or the attitude of preferring to leave nothing to chance? In any case, the “Malente Fortress” used surprising security technology back then. Beeping mats in front of the doors In front of every room door there is an electric mat that is activated at 6 p.m. in the evening, as the caretaker later explains: “When you stepped on it, it beeped , then there was an alarm.” The only thing that is unclear is: as a warning to those who wanted to get in? Or in front of those who wanted to get out? In any case, Franz Beckenbauer sleeps very well in the spartan two-man bunk at the sports school, as his roommate Gerd Müller notes. Maybe because the captain didn’t rely solely on growling dogs and beeping mats for his peaceful sleep. But to a friend and helper under his pillow: a pistol.
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