The stated aim of Corinthian Football Club’s landmark tour to Germany and Austria in April 1925 was “the reconciliation of nations through sport.”
Just a few years after the conclusion of the First World War, in which millions of soldiers on both sides had lost their lives in bloody conflict with one another, our club spoke of unity and the need to find common ground on which to build a better future.
Corinthians have always been renowned for our belief in the power of sport to unite people and the local press referred admiringly to the club’s “world-wide outlook” hailing the famous English amateurs as “carriers of a mission of peace” as they welcomed them to two nations with which the British had been at war a matter of years before.
“That the Corinthians were privileged to visit Germany and Austria, our late enemies, with the definite intention of cementing the peace, was indeed a great honour,” wrote F.N.S. Creek – one of the travelling squad – in his History of the Corinthian Football Club.
Their first stop on the tour was Cologne, where they visited the Rhine bridges still guarded by the British Army of Occupation during an afternoon’s sightseeing.
Yet there was a second, footballing reason why a visit from the Corinthians was significant in 1925, as the argument over whether professionalism should be adopted by the sport was raging in Germany that year. Some in the local sports press used the tour as part of their culture war, hailing the great amateur side as “the most authentic representatives of English sport.”
The following evening, they defeated Cologne 4-2 in front of a crowd of 10,000 with two goals each for A.H. Chadder and E.R.T. Holmes, the latter of whom would become better known as a Surrey and England cricketer.
After travelling through the Ruhr valley to Hamburg, the next game was played on a stiflingly hot Easter Sunday afternoon, with Creek scoring a hat-trick and Chadder on target again in a 4-1 victory over Hamburger SV, the club at which Kevin Keegan would later win the Ballon d’Or.
Each match on the tour was followed by a lavish banquet and the players were staying at the best hotels in the country, a regular bone of contention with those who bristled at the idea that these Corinthians who proudly spoke of the amateur ideal were treated to luxuries the professionals of the day could only dream of affording with their footballers’ wages. The “beautiful silver cups” presented to each player after the opening game in Cologne were a prime example.
From Hamburg, they took the train to Berlin, where they faced Tennis Borussia and drew 1-1 on “a hard ground, several miles from the hotel.” Creek noted that the Germans “were extremely fast yet very well-built fellows” and seemed satisfied with the draw.
The German press were delighted.
“After two difficult games, the Corinthians were not fully prepared when they met a hard-trained, well-equipped opponent in Berlin, who outdid themselves on the day. With their verve, sharp shots and sprint, Tennis-Borussia played the best game of their lives this time and would have simply strangled any other eleven with their speed.”
On this occasion, the post-match gifts to each player were “gold pencils” and they capped off the night with a bit of dancing.
The final leg of the tour took them, via the Elbe valley, to Austria, where the team were surprised to find a cheering crowd awaiting them at the station, leading to a “triumphal progress from train to hotel.” Such was the strength of the club’s reputation even as late as 1925.
Austrian football was arguably the most advanced in Europe at the time, and the team faced the sternest test of the tour when they took on a Vienna XI in front of 50,000 people on what Creek described as a “hard sandy rectangle entirely devoid of grass.”
The officials for the game didn’t speak English and there was a debate over the size of the ball, which was smaller than those used in Britain. Towering Corinthian centre-half John Morrison decided to end the argument by taking the ball and booting it over the stand, but the locals had the last laugh when it was replaced by an even smaller one.
The referees penalised all forms of charging, leaving the rough English defenders feeling wronged every time they were punished for a heavy challenge with a free kick against. Intriguingly, the Germans had been impressed by that aspect of the Corinthian game, urging their players to learn from it. “It is not a stupid attempt to run over the opponent, but an art,” wrote one German reporter.
Whatever the reason for the difference, the Austrian referee stuck firmly to local interpretations of the laws of the game, just as any English official would have done had the roles been reversed. Creek, nonetheless, seemed unimpressed, concluding: “It can, in fact, be fairly stated that the Corinthians were beaten in Vienna through not knowing the rules of the game as played there.”
Perhaps these were just excuses for the 2-0 defeat Corinthians suffered at the end of an otherwise successful tour, but it also showed the burgeoning power of Austrian football that would become a feature of international football during the interwar period.
That evening and the following day, the Viennese pulled out all the stops to entertain their guests, regardless of any disagreements over the way the game should be played the previous day. There were bronze medals for all involved, then “motor drives” and trips to the theatre, as well as dances and banquets. They really didn’t waste a moment on those tours.
Then, the following day, they set off on the long journey home to London feeling they had, as Creek put it, “really helped to cement the peace.”
The Corinthian squad in Austria and Germany, Easter 1925:
G. Ashton, B. Howard Baker, L.B. Blaxland, A.G. Bower, A.H. Chadder, F.N.S. Creek, A.T. Davies, F.H. Ewer, A.C.J. German, E.R.T. Holmes, C.B.G. Hunter, J.S.F Morrison, G.B. Partridge, J.G. Stevenson, A.E. Taylor
Just a few years after the conclusion of the First World War, in which millions of soldiers on both sides had lost their lives in bloody conflict with one another, our club spoke of unity and the need to find common ground on which to build a better future.
Corinthians have always been renowned for our belief in the power of sport to unite people and the local press referred admiringly to the club’s “world-wide outlook” hailing the famous English amateurs as “carriers of a mission of peace” as they welcomed them to two nations with which the British had been at war a matter of years before.
“That the Corinthians were privileged to visit Germany and Austria, our late enemies, with the definite intention of cementing the peace, was indeed a great honour,” wrote F.N.S. Creek – one of the travelling squad – in his History of the Corinthian Football Club.
Their first stop on the tour was Cologne, where they visited the Rhine bridges still guarded by the British Army of Occupation during an afternoon’s sightseeing.
Yet there was a second, footballing reason why a visit from the Corinthians was significant in 1925, as the argument over whether professionalism should be adopted by the sport was raging in Germany that year. Some in the local sports press used the tour as part of their culture war, hailing the great amateur side as “the most authentic representatives of English sport.”
The following evening, they defeated Cologne 4-2 in front of a crowd of 10,000 with two goals each for A.H. Chadder and E.R.T. Holmes, the latter of whom would become better known as a Surrey and England cricketer.
After travelling through the Ruhr valley to Hamburg, the next game was played on a stiflingly hot Easter Sunday afternoon, with Creek scoring a hat-trick and Chadder on target again in a 4-1 victory over Hamburger SV, the club at which Kevin Keegan would later win the Ballon d’Or.
Each match on the tour was followed by a lavish banquet and the players were staying at the best hotels in the country, a regular bone of contention with those who bristled at the idea that these Corinthians who proudly spoke of the amateur ideal were treated to luxuries the professionals of the day could only dream of affording with their footballers’ wages. The “beautiful silver cups” presented to each player after the opening game in Cologne were a prime example.
From Hamburg, they took the train to Berlin, where they faced Tennis Borussia and drew 1-1 on “a hard ground, several miles from the hotel.” Creek noted that the Germans “were extremely fast yet very well-built fellows” and seemed satisfied with the draw.
The German press were delighted.
“After two difficult games, the Corinthians were not fully prepared when they met a hard-trained, well-equipped opponent in Berlin, who outdid themselves on the day. With their verve, sharp shots and sprint, Tennis-Borussia played the best game of their lives this time and would have simply strangled any other eleven with their speed.”
On this occasion, the post-match gifts to each player were “gold pencils” and they capped off the night with a bit of dancing.
The final leg of the tour took them, via the Elbe valley, to Austria, where the team were surprised to find a cheering crowd awaiting them at the station, leading to a “triumphal progress from train to hotel.” Such was the strength of the club’s reputation even as late as 1925.
Austrian football was arguably the most advanced in Europe at the time, and the team faced the sternest test of the tour when they took on a Vienna XI in front of 50,000 people on what Creek described as a “hard sandy rectangle entirely devoid of grass.”
The officials for the game didn’t speak English and there was a debate over the size of the ball, which was smaller than those used in Britain. Towering Corinthian centre-half John Morrison decided to end the argument by taking the ball and booting it over the stand, but the locals had the last laugh when it was replaced by an even smaller one.
The referees penalised all forms of charging, leaving the rough English defenders feeling wronged every time they were punished for a heavy challenge with a free kick against. Intriguingly, the Germans had been impressed by that aspect of the Corinthian game, urging their players to learn from it. “It is not a stupid attempt to run over the opponent, but an art,” wrote one German reporter.
Whatever the reason for the difference, the Austrian referee stuck firmly to local interpretations of the laws of the game, just as any English official would have done had the roles been reversed. Creek, nonetheless, seemed unimpressed, concluding: “It can, in fact, be fairly stated that the Corinthians were beaten in Vienna through not knowing the rules of the game as played there.”
Perhaps these were just excuses for the 2-0 defeat Corinthians suffered at the end of an otherwise successful tour, but it also showed the burgeoning power of Austrian football that would become a feature of international football during the interwar period.
That evening and the following day, the Viennese pulled out all the stops to entertain their guests, regardless of any disagreements over the way the game should be played the previous day. There were bronze medals for all involved, then “motor drives” and trips to the theatre, as well as dances and banquets. They really didn’t waste a moment on those tours.
Then, the following day, they set off on the long journey home to London feeling they had, as Creek put it, “really helped to cement the peace.”
The Corinthian squad in Austria and Germany, Easter 1925:
G. Ashton, B. Howard Baker, L.B. Blaxland, A.G. Bower, A.H. Chadder, F.N.S. Creek, A.T. Davies, F.H. Ewer, A.C.J. German, E.R.T. Holmes, C.B.G. Hunter, J.S.F Morrison, G.B. Partridge, J.G. Stevenson, A.E. Taylor