The football world is mourning the loss of a great man: Franz Beckenbauer died on Sunday at the age of 78. Beckenbauer became world champion as a player and coach, brought the 2006 World Cup to Germany and was a shining light of football for many.
His great sporting moments were also remembered in the documentary “Beckenbauer – Legend of German Football”, which was broadcast on ARD on Monday just a few hours following the “Kaiser’s” death was announced (and which is available in the ARD media library).
But the focus was also on the “Emperor’s” private ups and downs, especially the four great loves in Franz Beckenbauer’s life. He was married a total of three times and his relationships resulted in five children. Curious: Each of the world champion’s long-term relationships lasted exactly eleven years, as a journalist also calculated in the ARD program.
First marriage
His first son Thomas was born in 1963 from a short liaison with the insurance employee Ingrid Grönke. The footballer was only 18 years old at the time. Three years later, Beckenbauer married his new girlfriend, the secretary Brigitte Wittmann. In 1966 and 1968 the couple had two sons, Michael and Stephan. At the young age of just 23, the record champion already had three children – a responsibility that, in his own words, he did not live up to. “I was a bad father because I was never there,” he later said.
Image: Georg Gšbel (dpa)
Secret meetings with new love
In 1977, Beckenbauer fell in love with the sports photographer Diana Sandmann. In the documentary, the now 74-year-old remembers their first meeting: “My first impression of Franz was a very friendly, open one and I really liked his walk.” However, the beginning of the relationship was very complicated because the couple had to keep their love secret. “You mightn’t just meet up for coffee. So we met in places where no one might find us,” says Sandmann.
Image: BR/Philipp Grüll
When the connection finally became public, the media judged harshly: “Beckenbauer in the crisis of his life,” was the headline of the “Bild newspaper, which literally exploited the relationship between the still married sports star and father of three and the photographer. “The ideal image of an ideal family world was destroyed and it was easy to blame it on one person. The vegetable woman didn’t give me anything anymore, because you don’t sell anything to a whore,” Sandmann recalls in the documentary. Last but not least, the negative headlines forced Beckenbauer to move to New York, where he was able to live unrecognized with his new love.
Picture gallery: Franz Beckenbauer (†): The life of the “Emperor” in pictures
Franz Beckenbauer (Photo: GEPA/ Witters/) Bild 1/20
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“It was also tiring”
After eleven years of relationship, the couple separated in 1988. The soccer world champion met his second wife during the 1974 World Cup. Sybille Weimar, 76, worked for the German Football Association at the time.
Image: Achim Scheidemann (dpa)
“From that point on, nothing was the same for me,” says Sybille Beckenbauer on the ARD show. Life at the side of a sports star was sometimes exhausting; she was often alone at events. The relationship, like the relationships before it, lasted eleven years. In 2002 they both went their separate ways.
Image: BR/Stefanie Barnes
Father at 58
Franz Beckenbauer had two more children with his third wife, Heidrun “Heidi” Burmester. There was great public outcry when it became public in 2000 that the former DFB team boss had had an illegitimate child, little Joel, with the FC Bayern secretary, who was 21 years his junior. “The Emperor” replied at the time: “The crime isn’t that big. The good Lord is happy regarding every child.” Beckenbauer was 58 years old when his only daughter Francesca was born in 2003.
Image: (GEPA pictures)
In the middle of the hustle and bustle of the home World Cup, the FC Bayern legend stepped in front of the altar with his Heidi in 2006. His third wife stayed by his side until the last hour.
Image: EPA
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Andrea Endt
Online editor
Andrea Endt
