After a long break from injury at the World Cup ›74, only substitute player: Peter Ducke (center) after the GDR group game against Australia (Hamburg, June 14, 1974)
What has the city of Jena not experienced with football player Peter Ducke: broken leg in 1966 in Mexico, the arduous, then triumphant comeback, the unforgettable 1970 games against Ajax Amsterdam, wonderful hat tricks, cup victories against Dynamo teams, 207 goals in 466 games, GDR Championships, 68 A international games with 15 goals, bronze winner with the GDR at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, top scorer, footballer of the year and the election of the »athlete of the century« in Jena. And he was the only East German who came out in a survey by the soccer magazine in 2000 Kicker among the top ten among German sports journalists in the category “Player of the Century”. Even Werder Bremen wanted to poach him. The regional division Carl Zeiss Jena, as well as Werder, would be happy if they had such a player in their ranks at the moment.
Equal to a goal
Peter Ducke was born in the Sudetenland, near today’s Decin. After the end of the war, the Ducke family finally ended up in Schönebeck, where the brothers started playing soccer at Chemie.
At the end of the 1950s, the Jena firm engaged Peter Ducke, whose brother Roland was already playing for them. Georg Buschner and officials at BSG Motor (later Carl Zeiss Jena) knelt their parents to let Peter move to Thuringia, even though he had been rejected at the first audition. He became a semi-professional and had to be seen at the Jena plant from eight to twelve. On October 30, 1960, Ducke was allowed to wear the national jersey of the GDR national team for the first time and also scored a goal.
After Buschner took over the national team, Hans Meyer came along. When he was asked whether he would have liked to train world stars, he replied: “Young man, I had it in Jena, Peter Ducke!” ) acted as he had to duck. Nevertheless, he was suspended for ten weeks of the season because he was upset about a dubious penalty for 1. FC Magdeburg (sometimes: SC Aufbau) in an FDGB Cup game. Ducke shouted angrily: “You can keep the damn cup yourself.”
The rest is known
The Ducke brothers were enthusiastic about the GDR trainer, who trained the national team as a sports scientist with gymnastics and acrobatics for agility and speed. As a result, Peter Ducke played technically well-versed, athletic, fast, just a nice-looking football. In a friendly game of the GDR selection against Sparta Prague at an unofficial tournament in Mexico City in 1966, Peter Ducke broke his shin and fibula. Rehabilitation lasted fourteen months. After that, Meyer said that Ducke was still better than most other footballers with a limp. In 1974 he suffered another serious injury in a game against BFC Dynamo: meniscus and inner ligament damage. Nevertheless, he worked his way back to the top and even drove to the 74th World Cup. As a substitute player. In the game against the FRG, Buschner left him outside and used Jürgen Sparwasser. The rest of the known.
At the beginning of the 1980s Peter Ducke worked as a youth coach at the Jenaer Verein and was banished to the district after a visit from the west, where he qualified as a sports teacher. Unfortunately, Peter Ducke no longer has much in mind with his hometown club, even though he made it known to the world. If he shows up in the stadium, those responsible become suspicious. But the fans still love Peter Ducke. He will be 80 years old on Thursday.
