Club 2x11 Special: "Köglberger: from occupation child to football icon", 18.3.25

Tuesday, 18 March 2025, 19:00, Main Library on the Gürtel
Urban-Loritz-Platz 2a, 1070 Vienna, event room (3rd floor)
Start: 7.00 pm
Admission free!                                                                                                                                                                      

"Helmut Köglberger is an interesting man. Since it's fashionable for our clubs to have a Murl, the Austrian UEFA team has now also got one."

These lines appeared in an Austrian daily newspaper on 14 January 1964. The career of footballer Helmut Köglberger is far more than a piece of sporting history in a society shaped by National Socialism.Köglberger was born in Upper Austria in 1946, the son of a black American soldier and an Austrian woman. There were clear family structures among the rural population: father, mother, child. There was no provision for an illegitimate ‘snotty spoon’. His mother was socially ostracised because of the colour of her son's skin, and he searched for his father all his life - but never found him.

Köglberger did not have an easy start in life. He had to fight and fight hard. As a footballer, he became Austrian champion with LASK and Austria Vienna. He led the national team onto the pitch as captain and his supporters dedicated chants to him: ‘We don't need a Müller, we don't need a hero, we have our Heli, the best in the world.’ It was a long journey from outsider to football icon, from SV Sierning to shaking hands with Franz Beckenbauer.  

Panel discussion with:

Stefan Köglberger, Head of OÖ. Literaturhaus, literature mediation, son of Helmut Köglberger
Karl Daxbacher, Austria legend
Philip Bauer, sports editor of the Standard
Eugenio Belgrado, author of several graphic novels, painter and etcher
Anatol Vitouch, freelance author and chess reporter

Moderation: Nicole Selmer, editor-in-chief of ballesterer