Nobody annoyed FC Bayern like "double agent" Willi Lemke
From Rudi Völler to Ailton: Willi Lemke as Manager at Werder shapes several stars and makes Bremen the biggest rival of FC Bayern. Now the former archenemy of Uli Hoeneß has passed away. About a life full of cunning, a special flight to Mexico - and KGB agents.
In the summer of 1997, Willi Lemke impulsively boarded a flight to Brazil. In São Paulo at Guarani FC, a striker was playing whom the Werder manager wanted to lure to Bremen before someone else snapped him up. His name: Ailton Gonçalves da Silva. "Unsellable, unsellable," the Brazilians said, and Werder's coffers were empty. No deal.
But Lemke, known for his cunning, cleverness, and ambition, didn't give up, persistently inquiring about Ailton for months. Eventually, he was told that the Brazilian had been sold to Mexico. Lemke furiously jets off to Monterrey. In the fall of 1998, it happened: Ailton moved to Bremen for the then-record sum of five million D-Marks. A generous signing fee was likely also paid to the striker.
The Bremen manager, who took up his post in 1981, took the then-25-year-old directly back to the Hanseatic city on the return flight, which led to complications: Lemke spoke no Portuguese or Spanish, and Ailton spoke no German or English. Their only conversation during the nearly 20 hours over the clouds: "Bremen bom," Bremen is good. "That's the only sentence we said to each other, over and over, maybe 30 to 50 times during the flight," Lemke once explained. Until Monday, both men greeted each other this way before embracing. Then the long-serving manager passed away at the age of 77 in the circle of his family.
Lemke, Ailton, and "Bremen bom"
In the end, the greatest success in Bremen's club history stood: the double in 2004. Without the many goals of "Atom Blitz" Ailton and without Lemke, it would not have been possible. The story from other times of football business also shows what Klaus Filbry, chairman of the management of Werder Bremen, means when he now mourns with the following words: "Willi Lemke undoubtedly belongs to the greatest personalities in the history of German football. He has done pioneering work in many areas at SV Werder and has left lasting traces. Without his long-standing work, the club would not be what it is today. His commitment to Werder, Bremen, and world sport will remain unforgotten forever. Willi Lemke will be missed."
Under Lemke and coach Otto Rehhagel, Werder experienced its most successful time. It even threatened to challenge FC Bayern Munich's dominance at the end of the 80s and beginning of the 90s, growing into the biggest rival and archenemy. Without Lemke, none of this would have worked. As a visionary, he shaped Werder after the relegation season 1979/80 into a German top club, a world brand, with the smallest means, which could never keep up with those of FC Bayern or Bayer Leverkusen.
"Some clubs save and turn the mark twice. At Werder, every penny is turned over," Lemke once said. Still, the manager always managed to sign players who became stars with modest means: defender and libero Rune Bratseth, for example. "His club from Trondheim wanted 600,000 marks for him, but Rune said: 'Don't worry, they promised me I could switch. Don't overdo it with the transfer fee.' In the end, we got him for 200,000 - the world's best defender," Lemke once recounted.
Lemke Thrives and Makes Up with Hoeneß
In 1992, Lemke negotiated intensively with Rapid Wien until he managed to secure the 23-year-old Andreas Herzog. This transfer also had significant consequences for Werder, as Herzog established a playmaker tradition at the Weser that would later be followed by greats like Johan Micoud, Diego, and Mesut Özil. Later greats like Rudi Völler (1982 from 1860 Munich), Karl-Heinz Riedle (1987 from Blau-Weiß 90 Berlin), and Torsten Frings (1997 from Alemannia Aachen) were also signed from smaller clubs by Lemke. Two of them became World Cup winners thanks to Werder, while the third experienced the 2006 summer fairy tale. "He even accompanied me to my presentation in Rome. The contact between us never broke off until the end," Völler said about the deceased, praising his "magnificent personality." Lemke also brought his later successor Klaus Allofs to Bremen in 1990.
The highlight of Lemke's managerial career was the triumph in the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1992. This was followed by championships in 1988 and 1993, and cup victories in 1991, 1994, and 1999. Thanks to Lemke and Rehhagel, Werder played with the big boys. In 1994, the visionary had already sorted everything out with Stefan Effenberg, but the deal fell through when the then AC Florenz player demanded more salary retroactively.
Lemke was also known for his long-standing feud with Uli Hoeneß. The Bremen manager knew how to hold his own against the powerful and arrogant Bayern patron and positioned himself as a champion of equal opportunities and a social democratic opponent of the wealthy Munich resident. This annoyed Hoeneß more than anyone else in his career. Even years after Lemke retired from football in 1999 (he had already been with the SPD before his time in football), Hoeneß still complained: "I wouldn't even shake Lemke's hand today." Lemke countered in an interview published in the Werder book "Das W auf dem Trikot...": "Uli Hoeneß believes he can bully people with money and power." Therefore, he "always gave him full resistance, and he's not used to that."
When Werder humiliated Bayern 3:1 at the Munich Olympic Stadium on the sunny afternoon of May 8, 2004, and clinched the championship, no one was probably happier about the victory over the eternal rival than the then supervisory board member Lemke. "I don't see what Uli Hoeneß says because I always turn off the TV when he appears on the screen," he had said before the duel.
However, the two rivals later made up. The fact that Munich's honorary president reacted so deeply affected by the death of his former opponent also speaks to Lemke's character. "The news has made me sad," Hoeneß told SID. "Willi Lemke was a man of controversy: everyone knows that we often discussed and argued. But he was also a man of dialogue, and ultimately we found a good relationship. Lemke enriched the Bundesliga and German football very much." Hoeneß also knows what he had in Lemke. That he drove his FC Bayern to important peak performances and raised them to new levels by managing Werder so well.
Years later, Lemke left the peaceful Hanseatic city and ventured into global politics. Under UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, he served as an honorary UN special advisor for sports for eight years, with his motto being, "There's nothing good unless you do it." In the early 70s, he even played a "double agent," working with the German domestic intelligence agency on contacts with the Russian KGB. "I saw that people in the DDR were struggling," he once said in an interview. "I was served Crimean sparkling wine, eel bread, and fresh fruit during my visit, while my relatives in Rostock hadn't had eel in years, as it was all exported to the West."
Willi Lemke, a visionary who made Werder Bremen great and stood for humanity, passion, and team spirit, is leaving us. In today's modern football, with its commercial excesses, there's less and less room for such values. "The whole charade and theater that players put on when they join a new club, I can barely stand it," he said in an interview with "Munich Mercury/tz" in January. With Ailton, he only allowed one thing: "Bremen bom."
After his successful tenure as manager at Werder Bremen, Willi Lemke was appointed as an honorary UN special advisor for sports for eight years. His UN role involved advocating for the importance of sports in promoting peace and development worldwide.
In the context of Lemke's UN work, it's worth noting that, in the early 70s, he also served as a "double agent," working with the German domestic intelligence agency on contacts with the Russian KGB. His motivation for doing so was his concern for the struggling people in East Germany, despite the scarcity of resources they faced.
