Horst Buhtz

Buhtz began his playing career at Fortuna Magdeburg where he played for the senior team aged 16, after a special permit had been obtained. After the war, Buhtz left the Soviet occupation zone and went to play for Kickers Offenbach, winning a South German championship with the team in 1949. In 1950 he was part of the Offenbach team that lost to VfB Stuttgart in the German football championship final. Between 1950 and 1952 he played for VfB Mühlburg in the Oberliga Süd, then the highest level of football in the area. In his five years in that league, Buhtz managed to score 69 goals in 143 matches. In 1952, Buhtz became the second German to play in Italy's Serie A – the first had been 1860 Munich's Ludwig Janda. For five years, "il tedesco" (the German), as the fans called him, would play for AC Torino, earning as much as 150,000 DM per season, an amount of money that a player in Germany "would have had to play a decade for". Buhtz was one of the stars of the newly formed Torino team that had to be rebuilt after 18 players had died in the Superga air disaster in 1949. Buhtz quickly became a regular and scored about 20 goals per season. In 1957, he left Torino for Switzerland, where he was player-manager for FC Young Fellows in Zurich and Bellinzona. As Buhtz was similar in playing style to Fritz Walter and the German FA disapproved of professional players, especially if they were playing abroad, Buhtz never played in a match for Germany.

After his playing career, Buhtz became a full-time manager. This development was already on the horizon when he was player-manager in Switzerland. Between 1962 and 1985, Buhtz went on to manage 13 clubs in Germany and Turkey.

Saarbrücken and Neunkirchen

He began his managing career at Oberliga Südwest club Sportfreunde Saarbrücken and led them to a respectable 6th place. After the season, he signed a contract with Borussia Neunkirchen who had finished second in the 1962–63 season and were controversially omitted from the newly formed Bundesliga. Buhtz' team won the Regionalliga Süd in 1964 and they were thus promoted to the Bundesliga. After finishing mid-table in their first season, the team was relegated following a 17th place in 1966.

Hannover 96

Following the relegation, Buhtz left the club and took over as manager of Hannover 96, another Bundesliga side. With Hannover, Buhtz reached a 9th place in 1967 but was fired on 12 February 1968. Buhtz' work at Hannover had suffered from the fact that in October 1967 the club had already signed a new manager for the 1968–69 season.

Wuppertaler SV

In July, Buhtz became manager of Regionalliga West side Wuppertaler SV, the club he would manage for the following six years. However, the relationship got off to a rocky start, when Buhtz was not present for the start of training on 9 July 1968, despite having set the date himself. Under Buhtz the club constantly improved, eventually winning the league and…