Karl, the nimble, powerful centre forward; Martin, the midfield dynamo. Both were in the team for the opening fixture at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium on 2 August 1958 – in a match against their former club Fortuna Düsseldorf. Sadly. they were unable to help Bayer 04 gain promotion to the Oberliga West in their three years at the club. Karl made 65 appearances and scored 21 goals, Martin wore the Werkself shirt for 79 games and found the back of the net nine times.
Legendary and no longer imaginable today is the football spectacular from their Fortuna days on 6 November 1954 at the Rheinstadion in front of 25,000 spectators that proved to be amazing and definitely contributed to the twins becoming legends: Düsseldorf were at home to Schalke 04 on matchday 10. The game ended with a 7-2 scoreline and the goalscorers for Fortuna in the match reports only had one name: four times Martin, three times Karl.
Unfortunately they were not so successful at Leverkusen and the twins hung up their boots in 1961. Martin moved south to Swabia. After serious illness he passed away at the age of 83 on 22 July 2010. Karl remained in the West and lived in Neuss until he passed away on 14 July 2015.
In this video you can watch impressive and important goals in the history of Bayer 04 in the month of October. It is not always about the beauty of the goals but also about remembering special games and players.
Show moreThe Werkself secured victory against Bayern Munich for the first time on 1 November 1986. On matchday 12, Bayer 04 beat the Bundesliga league leaders 3-0 at the Olympic Stadium in Munich and go top of the table.
Show moreTorben Hoffman was born in Kiel on 27 October 1974. In his youth he played for TuS Schwarz-Weiß Elmschershagen. The qualified policeman joined Holstein Kiel in 1993. Two years later he moved on to VfB Lübeck in Bundesliga two. After relegation with Lübeck in 1997 he came to attention of SC Freiburg and they signed the defender. The team relegated from the Bundesliga went straight back up with Torben who moved under the Bayer Cross in 1999 after another year in the Bundesliga. However, he was unable to establish himself at Leverkusen making only sporadic appearances and he was rarely in the starting XI. He played in a total of 30 games for the Werkself.
Show moreThomas ‘Thommy’ Reichenberger was born in Bad Kreuznach on 14 October 1974. The son of a former Bundesliga player – his father Max made 38 Bundesliga appearances for 1860 Munich – played for Eintracht Bad Kreuznach as a youth player before moving up to the first team.
Show moreManfred ‘Manni’ Pomp was born in Aachen on 25 October 1964. His first football club was the Aachen police sports club (PSV) but he signed for Alemannia Aachen after a year.
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