As of: March 30, 2024, 8:00 a.m
By: Nick Scheder
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At home in Bad Tölz: Despite his injury, Hans Zach celebrates his 75th birthday in Gran Canaria. Photo: dpa © dpa
Ice hockey legend Hans Zach celebrates his 75th birthday – Axel Kammerer about the Alpine volcano: “Very convincing on his way”
Bad Tölz – German champion as a striker, national player, German champion as a coach, national coach and firefighter: Hans Zach has achieved pretty much everything in his ice hockey career. A man with rough edges who worked hard for his nickname “Alpine Volcano” and flirted with it, even naming his autobiography after it. “That’s just how I was and it didn’t bother me,” he told the dpa press agency. But anyone who knows Tölzer better knows: Hans Zach is a kind-hearted and incredible, funny, sociable person and a gifted storyteller. The Tölz ice hockey legend is celebrating his 75th birthday this Saturday in Gran Canaria.
Tough but warm
Someone who has known him very well for a long time is Axel Kammerer, current coach of the Tölzer Löwen. “I played with him in Rosenheim, was later his assistant as a trainer and got an incredible amount from him.” The trained butcher – he grew up in the “Zach House” above a butcher shop on Marktstrasse – also kneaded meat as a masseur and became a medical lifeguard. Above all, he shaped the hard plastic disc as a player and goal scorer and later as a coach for ice hockey teams. Zach was the first qualified coach in ice hockey.
Disputes fought out, but not followed through
The Alpine volcano was particularly notorious for his eruptions as a coach, who repeatedly emphasized in recent years that he had become much calmer. “He used to be explosive, impulsive, and he didn’t like to hear contradictions,” says Kammerer with a smile. Disputes, no matter how fiercely Zach fought them, were then forgotten again. “He doesn’t hold grudges,” says Kammerer, who tries to summarize the many facets of the Alpine volcano in three words: “Hard, but warm.”
Team like a family
Because his players were important to Zach, he always stood behind his team and defended them. “His team was like a family to him; he protected the players,” says Kammerer, for whom the companion, 16 years his senior, was a mentor with whom he shared many stages of his life. “And family is important to him.”
But Kammerer also remembers many anecdotes where the Alpine volcano was boiling: For example, goalkeeper Leonid Fatikov, who always did different exercises than the rest of the team in Kassel and was crushed by the Alpine volcano during the third training session.
Water bottle puts out cigar
Many a smoker also got the Alpine volcano to smoke: he personally threw a young couple who were indulging in their cigarettes in the dark upper stands of the Kassel stadium out of the stadium. “When he discovered them, he skated across the tar and chased them out.” He once emptied a water bottle over the burning stub in the face of a spectator who was puffing on a cigar in the seat behind Zach.
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Impressive expertise
Kammerer is impressed by Zach’s enormous expertise in sports – ice hockey, but also football. “Talking to him for an hour is the best training.” His good connections to the officials – Kammerer: “He knows God and the world, and vice versa” – opened many doors for Zach that were closed to others: a call to the former national coach Berti Vogts sometimes gave Kammerer and him the best seats in the sold-out stadium.
More often on the mountain or for fishing
After his last engagement, the volcano was no longer bubbling quite so much. After he led Mannheim back into calmer waters as a firefighter in 2014, he retreated into private life and went up the mountain more often or to the Isar to fish. He also rejected offers to get more involved in Tölzer ice hockey - although he was a regular at Tölzer Löwen games in the arena - until during the interlude of the DEL 2 seasons, his own young players were not included enough for his liking. According to reports, he returned his season ticket to the office himself.
Presence on and off the ice
A gesture that resonates. The man celebrating his birthday was always considered to be quick-tempered. But his opinion has weight and is taken seriously - and seriously. In all areas. He had a presence on the ice before. As a coach. Zach became German champion four times with Düsseldorf and the Hannover Scorpions in the top German league. Led the German national team to the World Cup quarter-finals three times as national coach. “He can be very convincing,” says Kammerer.
Last year, Hans Zach had to have heart surgery. He had stents inserted. But the operation actually gave him a positive boost. But now he has to give it a little rest again. Not too long before his special day, he sustained an injury in his garden at home. But he went through with his trip to Gran Canaria. And has a lot to celebrate there.
“Conversations with him are the best training”: Axel Kammerer (right) with his mentor Hans Zach. Photo: Archive © Archive