As a teenager he played for SpVg Brakel and he broke through to the first XI at his hometown club. In a game against the Schalke 04 second team he was spotted by their then general manager Rudi Assauer and he brought him to Gelsenkirchen in 1987. Together with his older brother Michael, who joined Schalke from FC Köln, he was unable to prevent the team getting relegated. Claus-Dieter was approached by Bayer 04 in 1988 and he signed for Leverkusen.
Under coach Rinus Michels, ‘Pelle’, as he was ironically known in our team, as he could not really be compared to the football ability of the Brazilian star, did not get a good deal. He only made nine appearances, seven in the Bundesliga and one each in the DFB Pokal and the UEFA Cup. The attacking midfielder with a very good left foot could not find a berth in the Dutch system of the former Netherlands coach. After that disappointing season he moved on to Bundesliga 2.
Initially at VfL Osnabrück, then Hertha Berlin and VfL Wolfsburg. He just missed out on promotion with the Wolves but reached the DFB Pokal final. VfL lost 3-0 to Borussia Mönchengladbach in Berlin. Wollitz had great success a year later with a move to FC Kaiserslautern. He was relegated from the Bundesliga with the team from the Pfalz but he came on in the Pokal final in Berlin on 87 minutes and a 1-0 win against Karlsruher SC made him a DFB Pokal winner. Then he returned to Bundesliga 2 to play for KFC Uerdingen.
After two years with the side from Krefeld he moved on to FC Köln. Wollitz played there for three seasons in the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2. He made 48 appearances for the Goats. His next and final club was the Oberliga team TuS Lingen. Claus-Dieter Wollitz hung up his boots after one season in 2002.
From that point he dedicated himself to his second career – as a coach. His first job in 2003 was taking over the reins at KFC Uerdingen. After a year in Krefeld he went to VfL Osnabrück – another club where he had played. He achieved promotion to Bundesliga 2 with the Lower Saxony club in 2007. During the season he completed his coaching course and he kept Osnabrück up until 2009. After relegation in 2009 Wollitz took charge of Energie Cottbus after they went down from the Bundesliga.
However, together with his assistant coach Markus Feldhoff, also a former Bayer 04 player, he was unable to take them up straight away. In 2011/12 Wollitz asked to be released by club for personal, sporting and family reasons.
He returned to VfL Osnabrück as head coach on 1 January 2012. After two very successful years in Lower Saxony and eighteen months at Viktoria Köln he went back to Cottbus for a second spell.
After nearly four years with promotion and relegation between the Regional League and the third division ways parted for Energie Cottbus and Pele Wollitz on 1 January 2020 – the club were top of the Regional League North East at the time. But the coach would not be away for long.
He coached FC Magdeburg for 18 months but Wollitz has been back in the Energie dugout since 18 May 2021.
With his genuine and emotional leadership style, that can lead to angry outbursts from time to time, Pele finally took Energie Cottbus back to the third division in 2024 as champions of the Regional League North East after five years in the fourth tier. Cottbus not only stayed up comfortably but were close to a remarkable finish: On the final matchday, they lose third spot due to defeat at home and the chance to go up to Bundesliga 2.
Claus-Dieter Wollitz, father of three daughters, lives in Brandenburg and is 60 this month.
Dear Pele, I wish you many happy returns on your birthday. Stay as you are!
Bayer 04 started the new season on 20 July 1950. To the applause from almost 2,000 spectators, the Werkself stepped onto the pitch at the Am Stadtpark stadium and the season target was clear to the supporters: finally achieve promotion to the Oberliga West. Under the direction of new coach Raymond Schwab, who brought one of his Essen players with him in the shape of Karl-Heinz Spikofski, the team did a couple of laps. Coach Schwab gave a speech in front of all the fans where he clearly imparted his request for calm in the stands and he said he hated nothing more than heckling or laughing when mistakes are made. He hoped the Bayer 04 supporters would follow his advice.
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Horst Knauf was born in Cologne on 16 August 1960. As a teenager he played for PSV Köln before signing for the Bayer 04 Leverkusen U19s as a talented midfielder in 1976. He made the move up from the second team to the Bundesliga squad in 1980. Over the following three years he played 39 Bundesliga games and scored two goals. Above all in the difficult 1981/82 season for the Werkself with the play-off games against Kickers Offenbach, he played a big part in saving Bayer 04 with 21 appearances. But under the new coach Dettmar Cramer he rarely made a start and he decided to move on.
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Holger Aden was born in Hamburg on 25 August 1965. He learned all about playing football and, above all, scoring goals at the two Hamburg clubs Niendorfer TSV and TSV DuWo 08 Hamburg. After progression from the youth teams, he played for other Hamburg clubs. One after the other he appeared for Concordia Hamburg, Altona 93 and SC Norderstedt. The centre-forward regularly found the back of the opposition net. He scored 22 goals for SC Norderstedt in the 1988/89 season.
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Michael Ballack was born in Görlitz in the GDR on 26 September 1976. He displayed his talent for football at a young age. After his family moved to Karl-Marx-Stadt, now called Chemnitz, he started playing for BSG Motor ‘Fritz Heckert’ Karl-Marx-Stadt where he constantly continued to develop his ability on the pitch. From year seven he went to the children and youth sports college and there he received systematic support in sport that led, against the background of his increasing ability, to a move to FC Karl-Marx-Stadt. At the age of 16, he had to take a six-month break due to growing pains, but then there was no stopping Michael after that.
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In this video you can watch impressive and important goals in the history of Bayer 04 in the month of August. It is not always about the beauty of the goals but also about remembering special games and players.
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