German champion 1970. Weisweiler's masterpiece

As assistant coach, Rudi Schlott is not only the head coach's right-hand man, but also a calm counterbalance to the sometimes impulsive Weisweiler. He is responsible for conditioning and gymnastics exercises, but also trains the players in combination play and heading.

Employed full-time as a sports and math teacher at a Solingen high school, Schlott is sometimes called "Max" by the team - because he trains as hard as the redoubtable Max Merkel. 

"But even though they often grumble to themselves," Schlott said, "they know how important this work is to them, and I've never heard a loud word to the contrary."

The second youngest in the team at 19, he may not have been the technically strongest player, but certainly the one with the hardest shot. Because of his passion, he is affectionately called "Bolzer" by his teammates. However, he is overshadowed by the other defensive players.

His big moment came in the second half of the season, when first Bleidick and later Müller dropped out. Zimmermann does a good job and is a rock in one of the best games of the second half of the season, the 4:1 win at 1. FC Kaiserslautern.

When all his colleagues are fit again, Zimmermann's only option is to return to the second tier - and, after winning the championship, to move to Fortuna Cologne.

For the 23-year-old Kleff, it is his first season as a regular goalkeeper at Borussia. Volker Danner injured his knee at the end of the pre-season and Weisweiler expressed his confidence in the Schwerter native.

Kleff is improving as the season progresses. His already good reflexes are joined by ever-improving timing in penalty area control - something he trains over and over again together with the substitutes. The reward is an extremely consistent season.

When Kleff is allowed to lift the championship trophy to the sky at the end of his second season with Borussia, the experienced head of defense Luggi Müller praises him: "He's even capable of development! In two to three years, he will be one of the greats."

Danner is one of the big losers in the championship season. At the end of the 1968/69 season, he lost his place in goal to Wolfgang Kleff due to knee surgery. He fight back in pre-season, but Hennes Weisweiler continues to rely on the young Kleff.

Danner's contract is not extended. In the last game of the season in Oberhausen, which has no sporting significance, he stands between the posts once again - a farewell gift.

Hennes Weisweiler got to know Bleidick at the Cologne Sports University. This is not the first time Borussia's coach has used his lectureship to look around for talents for his Fohlenelf. Weisweiler took a liking to the German studies and sports student:

That's because he was faster than almost everyone else - ideal for Gladbach's offensive soccer. Bleidick joined the team in 1968. In the status of contract amateur, he played all the games in his first year - and is also set as a left-back this season.

His special role as an amateur leads to one or two quips from his professional colleagues. Bleidick can laugh about it; his status was chosen voluntarily: In order to be able to play in the 1972 Olympics, he is not allowed to become a professional and must remain an amateur.

Peter Dietrich, then 25, is one of the heroes of Borussia's 1-0 win at 1. FC Köln on Matchday 14. He, who shadows Cologne's playmaker Overath over 90 minutes, attacks him, wears him down. There is little to see of Overath. 

He fights tenaciously and tirelessly, runs more than many others and maintains a tactically disciplined basic order. Dietrich's word, he is a quiet contemporary, carries weight in the team. Alongside Netzer and Vogts, he is part of a kind of team council.

Arriving from relegated Rot-Weiss Essen in the summer of 1967, Dietrich had quickly won his place in the defensive midfield - as a backup for the attack-minded Netzer and Herbert Laumen. 

Winfried "Winnie" Schäfer, the fourth-youngest player in the league at the start of the 1969/70 season at just nineteen and a half, is something of a diamond in the rough in Borussia's squad. 

The junior international, who joined Borussia a year ago from Verbandsliga club TuS Mayen, is getting his feet wet. And the media agree that the redhead would probably have a regular place at almost all other Bundesliga clubs. 

But not at Borussia, and certainly not in this brilliant central midfield. The sturdy Peter Dietrich is indispensable as a cool clearer behind the many offensive players, as are the brilliant Netzer and the experienced Herbert Laumen. 

But at least Schäfer, who can be deployed flexibly, has earned himself something like the position of the "12th man," because he is often the first option when one of the regulars is absent due to injury. Sometimes he even has the "10" on his back: the number of the playmaker.

Just like Netzer, he plays spectacular long balls, hits pinpoint crosses - and yet, when everyone is fit again, has to return to the second string. But Schäfer wants to be more than just the twelfth man. So Schäfer moves to Kickers Offenbach for 175,000 deutschmarks.

The shin guard should protect Ulrik Le Fevre less from bad omens than from bad kicks. The piece of hard plastic is a good ten centimeters wide and about 25 centimeters long.

Its weight is hardly worth mentioning, and yet its significance weighs heavily for Borussia's left winger. After all, this shin guard probably saved him from many a bruise in his first Bundesliga season.

Le Fevre's shins first have to get used to the tough pace in the Bundesliga after switching from Danish amateur to German professional soccer. But after just a few weeks, he becomes the best left winger in the league and a "golden boy" for Borussia.

The season begins with bad news: Peter Meyer continues to have afflictions in his fibula. Meyer had fought his way back after suffering a fractured tibia and fibula in training in 1968 and had announced his comeback with such glee. 

In August 1969, Meyer tries to take the field once more, but is substituted after 45 minutes due to pain. A few weeks later, the doctor, club and player decide to apply for disability. The end of Peter Meyer's career is decided.

As early as the middle of the 1968/69 season, Borussia Mönchengladbach showed interest in the seasoned Bundesliga defender Ludwig Müller from 1. FC Nürnberg, but at that time a transfer was not yet on the cards. However, Müller remained in contact with Weisweiler and Grashoff.

On the last matchday of the season, 1. FC Nürnberg was relegated and Müller decided to move to the Niederrhein for financial reasons. He signed the contract on a car hood in the parking lot of the Müngersdorf stadium in Cologne.

Müller came to stabilize Borussia's defense - together with Klaus-Dieter Sieloff, who also already had international experience. The plan worked. The team managed to reduce the number of goals conceded from the usual 50 to less than 30.

Spinnler, a native of Mönchengladbach who had been with Borussia Mönchengladbach since his youth, made his dream come true in 1965 and made the leap to the pros. He made many appearances in his first two years, but his career came to a halt in 1969:

Spinnler has to do his military service and loses touch with the regulars during this phase. He made two short appearances, but then had no chance against Vogts and Bleidick. As a newly crowned champion, he finally moves to Kickers Offenbach.

When Peter Kracke of the class-lower SSVg Velbert is introduced as a newcomer at the beginning of the season, he initially stacks up low: "For the time being, I don't think I have a chance to make the team." This chance, however, comes immediately:

Because Netzer and Wimmer are out injured for the season opener, Kracke is suddenly in the starting eleven as a right winger. However, the attack with the so far rather luckless Köppel and newcomer Le Fevre is a motley crew - it just doesn't fit.   

Borussia loses 0:2, Kracke can't take his chance. And also because the injured come back one by one, the adventure in the Bundesliga is quickly over: Until the end of the season, Kracke is only substituted once and then moves to 1. FC Saarbrücken. 

On matchday 14, the Rhineland derby is on the agenda. The season so far has made it an absolute top match between two championship contenders: top-ranked Borussia will face second-placed 1. FC Köln in front of 54,500 spectators at the Müngersdorf stadium.

But it is also the 150th consecutive Bundesliga game for Vogts. He has been on the pitch for all 13,500 minutes played by Borussia in the Bundesliga so far. It seems as if the premise "Not without our Berti" has applied since he joined the team in the summer of '65.

In the FohlenElf, where Netzer is admired for his strokes of genius, Laumen, Le Fevre and Köppel for their goals and Wimmer for his running ability, Vogts takes the role of the honest fighter.

However, he never gets sent off in a competitive match. Vogts himself says: "When I play, I play properly. Otherwise, I prefer not to."

The young international and Swabian Horst Köppel, who had come from VfB Stuttgart for the Bundesliga record transfer fee of a quarter of a million deutschmarks, had played for Borussia since 1968. He did not live up to the high expectations for a long time.

Köppel and his wife also suffer from homesickness - but "Swabian chats" with the Sieloff family, also from Baden-Württemberg, don't necessarily help. The homesickness probably comes more from a sporting dissatisfaction. 

Weisweiler, however, has been patient with the as swift as an arrow attacker and brings him in week after week. Not only because of his speed, but also because of his commitment. 

But against his hometown club VfB Stuttgart, of all places, Köppel will finally rid himself of his worries: He scores three times. Köppel is celebrated by the spectators with chants. 

He contributed five more goals to the championship and extended his contract with Borussia for another year.

The quick-witted right winger, who is also technically skilled and has a huge fighter's heart, is regarded as a reserved contemporary who did not like giving interviews. The man at second glance. 

The season was initially unsatisfactory for the mid-twenties player. After an injury, he misses only a few matches, but his sensational timing and spectacular switching play only gradually return. 

Hennes Weisweiler can't understand why Borussia reportedly wants to sign Austrian international Thomas Parits during the winter break: "What are we supposed to do with a new right winger? I still expect a lot from Hacki!" 

It's no wonder that every coach likes players like him: Versatile in his use and in terms of fitness, the man with the number 7 at the back runs around the pitch in a large radius week after week and drives his opponents to despair. 

Weisweiler had brought Heinz Wittmann from SC Zwiesel to the left side of the Lower Rhine for the 1965/66 season and also used the midfielder from the start.

His success story at VfL came to an abrupt end in the 1968/69 season when he broke his leg in a match against Hannover 96 and was thus unable to play in the 1969/70 championship season. He only played his part in defending the title the following season.

Werner Kaiser's role before the season is clear: watch, learn, train. A year earlier, the 19-year-old had transferred from VfB Hochneukirch to Borussia's A-youth team and earned a squad spot in the professional squad.

In view of the great competition in attack, it is not initially expected that the blond would make his contribution to the championship. However, Hennes Weisweiler is already dependent on Kaiser on the second matchday: 

Herbert Wimmer was still missing through injury at the start of the season and center forward Peter Meyer had to be substituted at the break. Shortly after his substitution, he headed in the equalizing goal, helping the team to its first ever win against Bayern.

In the weeks that followed, he replaced the injured Netzer and played his way in. But after a strain in a friendly match, he has to take a four-week break, during which Ulrik Le Fevre gradually gets into shape and doesn't give up his place. 

In the second half of the season, Kaiser only played 120 minutes. And when Jupp Heynckes was brought back as another goal scorer, Kaiser decided to end his professional career and move to 1. FC Saarbrücken.

Laumen's efficiency as an attacking midfielder was impressive: he scored 121 goals in 267 Bundesliga games. He had played for Borussia since his D youth. He thrived on his speed and two-footedness. 

And after he had convinced coach Hennes Weisweiler that he was better positioned behind the top players than at right wing, there was a rattle in the (opponent's) box. 

In the 1969/70 championship season, Laumen, together with Günter Netzer, was the last remaining member of the 1965 promotion team and was one of the experienced performers.

If anyone still doubted what the brilliant element in Borussia's game is, they found it in the 31st minute of the home match against FC Schalke 04 at the latest:

Netzer lovingly lays the ball out for a corner kick and circles it from there directly onto the short post of the Schalke goal. Keeper Nigbur sees the disaster coming, rushes with his fist in the direction of the ball, but in the end can only steer it into his own goal.

1:0 for Borussia through a directly converted corner kick - long live the "King vom Bökelberg".

At the end of the season, it is team captain Netzer who receives the championship trophy. Deservedly so. He's not always there, but when he is, he's almost always brilliant: he plays 29 times, and twelve times he gets a grade of 1 from Kicker. 

"This Netzer is a downright brilliant playmaker on good days," Weisweiler says. 

"But you don't win a German championship with playing skill alone. Günter Netzer had to realize clearly: For his game, he needs our team, and his art of play had to have its basis in physical fitness."

It was a minor sensation when the blond Klaus-Dieter moved from VfB Stuttgart to the Lower Rhine shortly before the end of the transfer period in 1969. It's no secret that, despite his famous name, he by no means cost big money.

It had become quiet around Sieloff. It was said that he was no longer getting along as well at VfB as he had in earlier years. His contract with Borussia looked accordingly. 

t was based entirely on the performance principle: low basic salary, but high bonuses. For Sieloff, that meant he had to play a lot of matches to earn as much money as possible.

He trained obsessively, more often and harder than most. During the season, he bit through many an injury pain, kept working to be used again on Saturdays. 

And Sieloff proved himself several times. In Borussia's 34 games, he was absent only once, when it really didn't work.

The start was a failure. Due to the absence of the two important midfielders Günter Netzer and Peter Dietrich and the right winger Herbert Wimmer due to injury, Weisweiler has to put together a completely new starting eleven. 

The newly formed defense plays well, but the midfield is too pomaded and the attack too slow - the opening match goes down the drain with a 0:2 score. 

The 2-1 victory over Bayern Munich was not one of footballing beauty, but a victory of fighting spirit over technique. In the course of the first half of the season, however, a team was formed that scored goals up front and didn't let any in at the back.

After the match against Alemannia Aachen, they take over the top of the table ahead of Bayern. The Foals end the first half of the season as clear leaders and autumn champions. 

When the ball finally started rolling again in the Bundesliga, the FohlenElf went on a winning streak in the second half of the season, making even a brief period of weakness before the season finale forgivable.

Before the penultimate game against HSV, there are still four points to be awarded, and Borussia needs two more to be German champion for the first time. It succeeds: With a 4:3 win against HSV, Borussia wins its first championship title in the club's history on April 30, 1970.

Since the end of the 1950s, the sculptor, modeller and designer Hans Achtziger has been head of the artists' department at the renowned porcelain factory Lorenz Hutschenreuther.

He probably doesn't have much to do with football, and yet he manages to pack Borussia's entire championship season into a single sculpture. For it is Achtziger who created the "Young Horses" out of porcelain.   

Mönchengladbach's Lord Mayor Wilhelm Wachtendonk presents this sculpture to Borussia's president Dr Helmut Beyer at town hall on May 4, 1970. The newly crowned German soccer champions are in the town hall to sign the city's Golden Book.