Herbert Zimmermann (football commentator): Difference between revisions

At the end of the match, Zimmermann famously proclaimed, "It's over! Over! Over! Germany are the World Champions" - words which, as one historian has observed, are "as famous in Germany as [[Kenneth Wolstenholme]]'s "They think it's all over" is in England" (the latter having been spoken in the final moments of England's victory against West Germany in the World Cup final of 1966).<ref>Paul Legg, 'It's Over! Over! Over', ''History Today'', July 2014 at page 41. Legg added that "It's over!" appeared "not just to refer to the outcome of the match but also to the promise of an end to the hardship and humiliation Germans had experienced" since the end of the [[Second World War]] in 1945.</ref> After the final heZimermann was criticized for praising the goal keeper Turek by calling him ''Toni du bist ein Teufelskerl, Toni du bist ein Fußballgott'' (Toni you are a devil chap. Toni you are a football god.). Zimmermann who had been a major during the war, was also criticized for the somewhat militaristic vocabulary he had used during the match.

HeZimmermann also commented the world championships in 1958, 1962 and 1966 over the radio. However, TV was more prominent now as most people had access to TV sets, so fewer and fewer people heard his reports.

On 11 December 1966 Zimmermann, who was known as a notoriously bad driver{{Citation needed|date=August 2007}}, had an accident within his car. Heand succumbeddied tofrom thehis injuries sustained in that accident five days later.