Even as a child, she increased and kept SV Darmstadt 98’s money together. Today, Anne Baumann describes the anecdote as “almost cheesy”, which was an anticipation of the work she has been doing as a member of the executive board with responsibility for finances for 16 years now and which has made her a defining figure in the “Lilien” success story ever since made four ascents and only one relegation.
As she begins to tell the story, she laughs her hearty Anne Baumann laugh again and again. Baumann grew up not far from the stadium at Böllenfalltor and went to elementary school without ever having anything to do with football. At the age of ten she joined the SVD judo department as an active member. Later it happened that she attended home games in what was then the Oberliga Hessen – equipped with a jingling donation box to collect money for the cash-strapped club.
“Today we are no longer the small and poor ones”
The lives of Baumann and the “Lilien” diverged again – until they suddenly converged again in 2008. Things were bad for the club at the time, very bad. The insolvency application process was ongoing, the tax investigation was in place, and the future was uncertain. The young tax consultant Anne Baumann was sitting one evening with the then SVD President Hans Kessler; she actually just wanted to put her in touch with a bank board member.
But they stayed seated for a long time – and at the end of the evening Baumann was responsible for the club’s finances. She was told that she only had to spend a handful of hours a week on this, when she was only 28 at the time. For the now 44-year-old, it has become a life’s work and a matter of the heart that she pursues. Before, during and after her working days as a partner in a large tax consultancy firm.
She has been used to shuttling between two jobs and worlds for 16 years. The sizes of the numbers she manipulates for the “lilies” have changed enormously since then. From a fourth division location with a crumbling stadium to an established football brand that is currently playing first class again with a completely renewed infrastructure including a new stadium owned by the club.
Baumann remembers times when a fallen fence at the training ground – total bill: 30,000 euros – “almost cost us our existence”. Strict budgeting, “sweeping up what we have and turning every euro seven times” was the motto at Böllenfalltor for many years, as she says. “Today we are no longer the small and poor ones, but have built and created something sustainable.”
What is special is not only that Baumann holds this leadership role in professional football, which is almost completely dominated by men. What is also special is how she fulfills her role then and now. Namely, when it comes to being head of finance, she is sober, rational and pragmatic. But away from the conference table and computer screen, she is incredibly approachable, appreciative and empathetic. When players, coaches and employees emphasize how pleasantly family-like things are at the “Lilien” (also in comparison to other professional locations), then most people will also have Anne Baumann in mind at that moment.
The native of Darmstadt is a climate changer in space, even a human catcher. However, without egocentric show effects, but with genuine interest in the person across from her. So it has become a real reference point for some years of players. It is not uncommon for them to be a confidant for the partners of the professionals and also the respective “Lilien” trainers – sometimes even beyond their respective time in Darmstadt or even the end of their careers.
