Ernst Wilimowski

Ruch Chorzów

Wilimowski, who had six toes on his right foot, played on the left side as a forward and showed himself to be a very skilled dribbler as well as a natural goalscorer. He began his career with the ethnically German club 1. FC Kattowitz, then in 1933 at the age of 17, moved to Polish side Ruch Wielkie Hajduki, today known as Ruch Chorzów. "Ezi" quickly established himself as the team's best player: in his first season he scored 33 goals to lead the league. His first Ekstraklasa game took place on 8 April 1934 and a few weeks later, he was capped for the Poland national team. With a number of excellent footballers besides Wilimowski (like Teodor Peterek and Gerard Wodarz), Ruch dominated Polish football and was the league champion in 1933–1936 and 1938. Wilimowski played 88 games for Ruch, scoring 115 goals, and was the league's top scorer in 1934 and 1936. He also led the league in scoring in 1939 until the German invasion of Poland. On 21 May 1939, he scored 10 goals in a single match against Union Touring Łódź as his club won 12–1. That performance still stands as a league record.

Poland national team

Soon after beginning his club football career, "Ezi" earned his first cap for Poland when he debuted against Denmark in Copenhagen on 21 May 1934 in a 4–2 loss: he was just 17 years and 332 days old. In a total of 22 appearances for Poland, Wilimowski netted 21 goals, nearly a goal per game. However, his off field conduct was less than ideal and…

After the war, Wilimowski, who was regarded by the Polish government as a traitor, was not allowed to visit his Silesian homeland during the Communist regime. He was with SG Chemnitz-West in 1946-47 and had a short spell with RC Strasbourg in 1949. After that, he settled in the Karlsruhe area, opening a restaurant there. Even though he was already in his 30s when organized playing resumed, he continued a career that lasted until 1957 and age 41. During this period he played for several German club teams including TSV Detmold (in between seasons, no league appearances), FV Offenburg (as a player-coach), BC Augsburg for a short spell in the autumn of 1948, Singen 04, where he had a good comeback scoring 16 Oberliga goals in 1950-51, and VfR Kaiserslautern (including at least 71 goals in Oberliga Südwest appearances for the latter, all scored when he was over 35 years old). At the 1974 FIFA World Cup in Germany, Wilimowski allegedly wanted to pay a visit to the Poland national team that stayed in Murrhardt near Stuttgart, but was refused permission by PZPN officials. Legendary coach of the Poland national team, Kazimierz Górski, met Wilimowski at a hotel in Murrhardt during the World Cup in 1974. Gorski immediately recognized Ezi, because in the interbellum period, Wilimowski was one of his idols. Whenever Ruch Chorzow came to play in Lwów (now Lviv), Gorski always attended the games, watching Wilimowski. The Polish coach greeted his idol very coldly: Mr Wilimowski, if you had…

Club

International

Wilimowski's team's score listed first, score column indicates score after each Wilimowski goal.

Born in Kattowitz (Katowice), Prussian Silesia, German Empire, Wilimowski was raised in a Silesian family, typical of the Upper Silesian Polish-German borderland. After eastern Upper Silesia became part of Poland in 1922, he became a citizen of the Second Polish Republic. His parents, Ernst-Roman and Paulina, were German. His father, a soldier for the German Empire, died on the Western Front in the First World War. His mother sent him to a German kindergarten, a German primary school and, when he was nine years old, to the German football team 1. FC Kattowitz. At the age of 13, he was legally adopted by his stepfather, who was Polish, and took on the surname Wilimowski. At home, he spoke German for the most part, while in public he often spoke a Silesian dialect of the Polish language. Officially a citizen of Poland, he referred to himself as an Upper Silesian ("Górnoślązak" - Oberschlesier).