Otto Faist

Otto Faist (11 March 1903 – 1 February 1946) was a German athlete and football coach.

Faist was an active track and field athlete for the Karlsruher FC Phönix, making a name for himself as a runner on the short and medium distances. After retiring from sprinting, he led the Bulgarian national team to a Balkan Cup title in 1931. He then took charge of FC Schalke 04, whom he led to three Bundesliga titles in 1939, 1940, and 1942.

Early life Otto Faist was born on 11 March 1903 in Karlsruhe, where his parents Wilhelm and Luise Faist ran the Zum Scheffelhof inn in their own house at Ludwig-Wilhelm-Straße no. 12. ), and German championships as well as many other placements in the top three. Despite being his first time outside of German football, Faist adapted quickly and after losing his first two games to Yugoslavia and Romania, he led Bulgaria to a 2–2 draw against the B team of the then world champions Italy in a friendly match on 17 May 1931. He then won three competitive games in a row, two of which for the 1931 Balkan Cup, a 5–1 trashing of Turkey, and an epic 3–2 victory over Yugoslavia after being 0–2 at half-time; two impressive performances that sealed Bulgaria's first-ever piece of silverware, for which he was awarded the Grand Medal of Honor from the Bulgarian Olympic Committee. In 1938, on the recommendation of the then national coach Sepp Herberger, Faist replaced "Bumbes" Schmidt as the new coach of SC Schalke 04,

Military career Faist was a "convinced supporter of Adolf Hitler" and joined the Nazi Party on 1 May 1933 and briefly held the position of district sports officer for the Nazi organization Kraft durch Freude (KdF) in Gelsenkirchen. During the Second World War, in January 1942 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht, but received special leave for the championship finals. After training at various locations in Germany, he was briefly deployed as a radio operator in the Luftwaffe in Hamburg and Norway and then in the General Government near Kraków. The Luftwaffe used him as a coach for the Air Force Sports Club LSV Mölders Krakau, which won the General Government Cup under him in 1943 and 1944.

In a letter from March 1945, front-line soldier Faist wrote to his wife about "believing in our ultimate victory". Only when he was fleeing the Eastern Front and retreating from the advancing Soviet army, did the experiences of hardship and misery of the civilian population as refugees make him realize that the regime of the Third Reich was a criminal one, writing in a field post letter that his enthusiasm for National Socialism had evaporated. At the end of the war, Faist was taken prisoner by the Soviets in what is now Saxony and was first sent to the Elsterhorst camp, and later to the Kovel prison camp in the Ukrainian SSR, where he died in February 1946, probably from typhoid fever and from exhaustion. The exact date of his death is unknown, as is his final resting place. His widow and three children did not receive the news of his death until April 1948.

Honours As a coach Bulgaria Balkan Cup: Champions (2): 1931 and 1932

FC Schalke 04 Bundesliga: Champions (3): 1938–39, 1939–40, and 1941–42

DFB-Pokal: Runner-up (2): 1941 and 1942