Walter Hanke
Birth date18 March 1910
Birth placeBreslau, German Empire
Death date2 September 1980 (aged 70)
PositionForward
Years 1(...)–1931
Clubs 1Breslau 06
Years 21931
Clubs 2Wiener AC
Years 31932–1934
Clubs 3DSV Saaz
Years 41934–35
Clubs 4SK Prostějov
Years 61935–1937
Clubs 6FC Metz
Caps 649
Goals 615
Years 71937–1939
Clubs 7Stade Rennes
Caps 752
Goals 715
Nationalyears 11930
Nationalteam 1Germany
Nationalcaps 11
Nationalgoals 11

Richard (real name: Walter) Hanke (18 March 1910 – 2 September 1980) was a German international footballer.[1] He left Germany and went professional in 1931 which was most unusual at the time, spending eight seasons in Austria, Czechoslovakia and France.

Soon after joining Wiener AC he was in the team that finished runners-up in the 1931 Mitropa Cup. He scored in both finals but asked for a transfer only a few weeks later.[2] Hanke subsequently joined DSV Saaz during that same season. He also played for DSV Saaz for several years in a league organized by the German Football Association for Bohemia Deutscher Fußball-Verband für Böhmen, which was a football league primarily for German clubs in the Sudetenland. In the 1932/33 season, he even became the second top scorer in the league. Unfortunately, the number of goals is not recorded—only the ranking of the scorers. In later years, he was with SK Prostějov for a while[3] and then, during the second half of the 1930s, found success in France.

Hanke has signed autograph pictures as Walter Hanke. For unknown reasons, he was mistakenly referred to as Richard in later years.[4]

Some sources[5] have confused Walter and Josef Hanke, an Austrian player who was with a couple of (different) French clubs at the same time.

References

  1. ^ Kicker Fußball-Almanach 2011: Mit aktuellem Bundesliga-Spieler-ABC. Stiebner Verlag GmbH. August 2010. pp. 115–. ISBN 978-3-7679-0914-4. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
  2. ^ Prager Tageblatt, Dec 23, 1931, p. 5
  3. ^ Wiener Sport-Tagblatt, June 5, 1935, p. 4
  4. ^ Lorenz Knieriem & Hardy Grüne: Spielerlexikon 1890-1963, Kassel, p. 130
  5. ^ e.g. Marc Barreaud: Dictionnaire des footballeurs étrangers du Championat Professionell Francais (1932-1997), Paris 1998, p. 22 and p. 26... and David Forster et alii: Die Legionäre. Österreichische Fußballer in aller Welt, Vienna 2013, p. 268