Waldemar Mühlbächer

Waldemar Mühlbächer (25 September 1937 – 3 July 2021)^[1] was a German footballer.^[2]

Waldemar Mühlbächer

Mühlbächer in 1956
Personal information
Date of birth	(1937-09-25)25 September 1937
Place of birth	Mediaș, Romania
Date of death	3 July 2021(2021-07-03) (aged 83)
Place of death	Berlin, Germany
Position(s)	Midfielder
Youth career
1950–1955	BSG Fortschritt Meerane
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1955-1956	BSG Fortschritt Meerane	26	(3)
1956-1968	BFC Dynamo[nb 1]	243	(34)
International career
1958–1965	East Germany	17	(1)
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Club career

Mühlbächer began his senior career with BSG Fortschritt Meerane from Meerane in Bezirk Karl-Marx-Stadt.

He played for BSG Fortschritt Meerane in the 1954-55 DDR-Oberliga. He made his first appearance in the DDR-Oberliga as a 17-year-old in the match away against SC Rotation Leipzig on 30 Match 1955.^[3][4] Mühlbächer played four matches in the DDR-Oberliga for BSG Fortschritt Meerane during the 1954–55 season.^[4]

BSG Fortschritt Meerane was relegated to the second-tier DDR-Liga after the 1954-55 DDR-Oberliga. BSG Fortschritt Meerane finished the 1955 DDR-Liga in first place, but the 1955 season was a transitional season, as the league switched from an autumn-spring to a spring-autumn format, and no teams were promoted to or relegated from the DDR-Oberliga. BSG Fortschritt Meerane thus continued in the DDR-Liga in the 1956 season.

Mühlbächer played for BSG Fortschritt Meerane in the DDR-Liga during the first half of the 1956 season.^{[nb 2]} But in the summer of 1956, the East German football weekly Die neue Fußballwoche (FuWo) announced that Mühlbächer had joined the Volkspolizei and would continue to practice his sport at SC Dynamo Berlin.^[6] Mühlbächer then joined the first team of SC Dynamo Berlin in the DDR-Oberliga. The move to sports club SC Dynamo Berlin would give him better prospects for his sporting development.^[1]

Mülbächer made his debut for SC Dynamo Berlin against SC Empor Rostock in the 1956 DDR-Oberliga on 13 June 1956.^[7] Together with Werner Heine and Martin Skaba, he was part of the new generation of players that would come to shape the team of SC Dynamo Berlin in the late 1950s, and who did not belong to the generation of players who had been transferred from SG Dynamo Dresden to SC Dynamo Berlin in 1954. Mülbächer won the 1959 FDGB-Pokal with SC Dynamo Berlin.^[8]

Mühlbächer scored a hat-trick for SC Dynamo Berlin in the 3–2 win against SC Lokomotive Leipzig in the final matchday of the 1961-62 DDR-Oberliga on 13 June 1963.^[9] He became the best goal scorer of BFC Dynamo in the 1965-66 DDR-Oberliga.^[10]

Mühlbächer ended his football career with BFC Dynamo after the 1967–68 season. He played 218 matches and scored 31 goals in total in the DDR-Oberliga for SC Dynamo Berlin and BFC Dynamo between 1956 and 1968.^[11]

International career

Mühlbächer also played in 17 matches for the East Germany national football team from 1958 to 1965.^[12][13]

Explanatory notes

1. Played for SC Dynamo Berlin until 1966. The football department of SC Dynamo Berlin was reorganized as football club BFC Dynamo on 15 January 1966.
2. Mülbächer made his last league appearance for BSG Fortschritt Meerane in the 10th matchday of the 1956 DDR-Liga on 27 May 1956.^[5]