Friedrich Scherfke
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| Friedrich Scherfke | ||
| Personal information | ||
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| Full name | Friedrich Scherfke | |
| Date of birth | September 7, 1909 | |
| Place of birth | Posen (Poznań),, German Empire | |
| Date of death | September 15, 1983 (aged 74) | |
| Place of death | Berlin, Germany | |
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Friedrich Egon (Fritz) Scherfke, (Polish: Fryderyk Egon "Fryc" Scherfke or Szerfke, born on September 7, 1909 in Posen (Poznań), German Empire - died on September 15, 1983 in Berlin, Germany) was an ethnic German who became an interwar soccer midfield player for the Polish national football team.
Scherfke's native city in the Provinz Posen saw a Polish uprising in late 1918, and by the Treaty of Versailles became officially part of the Second Polish Republic in 1920 when he was 10. He spent most of his career in Warta Poznań, which was one of the best teams of the Polish Soccer League in the 1920s and 1930s, winning the league in 1929 and finishing second in 1938. Scherfke also played 12 games for the Polish national team, scoring 2 goals. His debut occurred on October 2, 1932 in a 2-1 win against Latvia. He participated in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, where Poland finished fourth, playing in games against Hungary (3-0) and Great Britain (5-4). His name, however, will always be remembered in Poland as the one who scored the first goal for Poland in the 1938 FIFA World Cup. This happened on June 5, 1938, in Strasbourg, France, during the legendary match Poland - Brazil. Poland lost 5-6 and Scherfke netted on the penalty kick in the 23rd minute. His Silesian team mate Ernst Willimowski, who scored the other four goals for Poland, went on to play for Germany, unlike Scherfke.
During the Second World War, as Volksdeutscher German, he was called up to the Wehrmacht. Rumors claim that he was a driver for the Gestapo and managed to protect some former soccer team mates from persecution by the Nazis. At the end of the war he was captured as POW by British soldiers. He was released on 25 July 1945 but did not return to his home town. At the time, many Germans were victim of the Expulsion of Germans from Poland after World War II. In his mid-30s, he was too old to resume his football career, and found a new home in West Berlin, where he died in 1983. In his latter years, he was frequently a visitor of a Polish restaurant Strzecha[citation needed] in West Berlin.
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