From the Hitler Youth and fighting against the British in World War II to breaking his neck in the FA Cup final... the incredible story of German goalkeeper Bert Trautmann is brought to life in a new film
- MailOnline has the exclusive UK trailer for the new film The Keeper
- The story of Bert Trautmann has been told in the movie, released on April 5
- Trautmann won the FA Cup with Manchester City and played with a broken neck
- He was a prisoner of war and caused protest before a rabbi intervened
The incredible story of Bert Trautmann has been immortalised in a new film and MailOnline has an exclusive first look at the first UK trailer.
Trautmann was in the Luftwaffe before becoming a prisoner of war. He turned down a return to Germany, settled in England, fell in love, fought against a public backlash and eventually won an FA Cup while playing with a broken neck.
New film The Keeper dramatises his story and the realities of his relationship with Margaret amid the tragic circumstances of his life.
Trautmann is played by David Kross in the film, which will be released in UK and Irish cinemas on April 5.
![The story of Bert Trautmann's life has been immortalised in a new film to be released this year](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/05/16/9423784-6669701-The_story_of_Bert_Trautmann_s_life_has_been_immortalised_in_a_ne-a-58_1549382950717.jpg)
The story of Bert Trautmann's life has been immortalised in a new film to be released this year
![Trautmann was a prisoner of war, settled in England, fell in love and eventually won the FA Cup](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/05/15/9419050-6669701-image-m-39_1549381721370.jpg)
Trautmann was a prisoner of war, settled in England, fell in love and eventually won the FA Cup
Trautmann's story begins in the darkest of times. He was born in Germany in 1923 and, as was expected of someone of his era, he became a Hitler Youth after the rise of the Nazis. He joined because, as he put it: 'Growing up in Hitler's Germany, you had no mind of your own.'
He would serve in the Luftwaffe as a paratrooper and fought on the Eastern Front. While in Ukraine, he stumbled upon an SS massacre of Jews with a friend at the age of 18 and was terrified by the experience. 'Of course it touched me seeing this. If I'd been a bit older I'd probably have committed suicide,' he told the Evening Standard.
He earned five medals for his service but was eventually captured as the war came to an end and sent across Europe. He thought the Americans would shoot him. Instead, he ended up at a prisoner of war camp in Ashton-in-Makerfield, Lancashire.
It was there that years of brainwashing from Nazi Germany was undone. He was told of concentration camps and and shown a film about Belsen. In an interview with the Guardian a few years before he died, he said: 'My first thought was: "How can my countrymen do things like that?" But Hitler's was an utter totalitarian regime.'
![The official poster for the new film about Trautmann's life, which will hit UK cinemas on April 5](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/06/07/9454164-6669701-image-m-7_1549438520821.jpg)
The official poster for the new film about Trautmann's life, which will hit UK cinemas on April 5
![The film, called The Keeper, tells his story from being a prisoner of war to FA Cup glory](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/05/16/9423786-6669701-The_film_called_The_Keeper_tells_his_story_from_being_a_prisoner-a-57_1549382946774.jpg)
The film, called The Keeper, tells his story from being a prisoner of war to FA Cup glory
![The film also tells the story of his relationship with Margaret, who he met at St Helens Town](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/05/16/9424448-6669701-image-a-56_1549382945994.jpg)
The film also tells the story of his relationship with Margaret, who he met at St Helens Town
![Trautmann, pictured with Margaret and their son John in 1955, when he was settling in England](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/05/16/9424634-6669701-image-a-59_1549382973812.jpg)
Trautmann, pictured with Margaret and their son John in 1955, when he was settling in England
The anti-Semitism that was endemic in Germany was eventually driven from his system too. He worked under Jewish Sergeant Hermann Bloch as a driver. Over time, he turned around years of manipulation and eventually came to the realisation that Jewish people were just other human beings too.
Eventually, his own attitude would be reflected in the way the Jewish community responded to him — which would prove crucial to his own football career.
Trautmann had played football for a youth team called Blau und Weiss in Germany and eventually got involved in PoW matches. He would usually play in defence. An injury in one game saw him swap positions with the goalkeeper. A legend was born.
He had been offered repatriation and decided to turn it down in order to stay in England, the country he had grown to love.
![Trautmann was known as one of the only world-class goalkeepers in football at the time](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/05/15/9419020-6669701-image-a-42_1549382046331.jpg)
Trautmann was known as one of the only world-class goalkeepers in football at the time
While working on bomb disposal in Huyton, he played amateur football for St Helens Town. It was there that he met Margaret Friar, the club secretary's daughter. Friar and Trautmann would eventually wed.
On the pitch, he was becoming a star. A record 9,000 attendance at the local cup competition came on the back of the growing reputation of the man in goal for St Helens.
As Lev Yashin — viewed by many as the greatest goalkeeper ever — put it, 'There have only been two world-class goalkeepers. One was Lev Yashin, the other was the German boy who played in Manchester – Trautmann.'
Manchester City, now owned by billionaires and the current Premier League champions, were a top-level side — unlike St Helens. They took an interest in the man causing a stir on the local scene before bringing him in in October 1949.
![He began playing football for St Helens but his ability meant he was signed by Manchester City](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/05/15/9419028-6669701-image-a-43_1549382070625.jpg)
He began playing football for St Helens but his ability meant he was signed by Manchester City
There was significant discontent among the City fans at the club hiring someone who had been part of the Luftwaffe, especially one who so noticeably fit Hitler's blonde-haired and blue-eyed Aryan model.
There was the threat of a boycott. Letters of complaint were sent in. Manchester's sizeable Jewish community also mobilised. One day, 25,000 people stood outside the club shouting 'Nazi' and 'War criminal' in protest.
Dr Alexander Altman, Manchester's communal rabbi — and someone who had had to flee Nazi Germany in 1938 — intervened.
In the Manchester Evening Chronicle, he wrote: 'Despite the terrible cruelties we suffered at the hands of the Germans we would not try to punish an individual German, who is unconnected with these crimes, out of hatred.
![Initially, there were protests over Trautmann (back row, centre) playing for City due to his role in the Luftwaffe. The communal rabbi eventually intervened and said he was not to blame](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/06/07/9419030-6669701-Initially_there_were_protests_over_Trautmann_back_row_centre_pla-a-3_1549437851362.jpg)
Initially, there were protests over Trautmann (back row, centre) playing for City due to his role in the Luftwaffe. The communal rabbi eventually intervened and said he was not to blame
'If this footballer is a decent fellow, I would say there is no harm in it. Each case must be judged on its own merits.'
Trautmann later said, 'Thanks to Altmann, after a month it was all forgotten'. Without the rabbi's intervention, the rest of his tale may never have been told.
He would also go into the Jewish community over the years and speak to people so they could understand why he had done what he did: 'I asked if they had been in the same position, under a dictatorship, how they would have reacted? By talking like that, people began to understand.'
City and Trautmann would eventually reach two FA Cup finals in a row. Their inexperience cost them in 1955, when Trautmann became the first German to play in a Cup final.
![Trautmann played in the 1955 FA Cup final for City but they lost due to their inexperience](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/05/15/9419040-6669701-image-a-45_1549382303393.jpg)
Trautmann played in the 1955 FA Cup final for City but they lost due to their inexperience
![The German and his team-mates went back to Wembley again in 1956 and played Birmingham](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/05/15/9419042-6669701-image-a-46_1549382329462.jpg)
The German and his team-mates went back to Wembley again in 1956 and played Birmingham
But in 1956 they reached the showpiece game again. City scored early against Birmingham. Birmingham levelled but City struck twice in two minutes to go 3-1 ahead.
With a quarter of an hour to go, the diving Trautmann collided with Peter Murphy. Unlike modern football, no substitutes were allowed and City would have had to put an outfield player in goal and finish the match with 10 men.
Dazed, Trautmann received treatment and chose to play on. He made a series of heroic saves and City held on. When Trautmann went to collect his medal, Prince Philip asked him: 'Why is your head crooked?'
A day later he went to the hospital after the pain failed to recede. He was told there was no problem. It emerged three days later, after another appointment, that he had dislocated five vertebrae.
![During that match, Trautmann would make an exceptional save with his side 3-1 ahead](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/05/15/9419044-6669701-image-a-47_1549382352776.jpg)
During that match, Trautmann would make an exceptional save with his side 3-1 ahead
![He was treated in the goalmouth and thought he had only hurt his neck — he had broken it](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/05/15/9419036-6669701-image-a-48_1549382368234.jpg)
He was treated in the goalmouth and thought he had only hurt his neck — he had broken it
![The lack of substitutes in football meant that Trautmann decided to play on for the whole game](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/06/07/9424636-6669701-The_lack_of_substitutes_in_football_meant_that_Trautmann_decided-a-4_1549437851375.jpg)
The lack of substitutes in football meant that Trautmann decided to play on for the whole game
![City and Trautmann would go on to lift the FA Cup after his heroic saves in the last 15 minutes](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/06/07/9419032-6669701-City_and_Trautmann_would_go_on_to_lift_the_FA_Cup_after_his_hero-a-5_1549437852165.jpg)
City and Trautmann would go on to lift the FA Cup after his heroic saves in the last 15 minutes
![The goalkeeper would only find out he had broken his neck three days after the final](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/05/16/9419046-6669701-image-a-51_1549382485507.jpg)
The goalkeeper would only find out he had broken his neck three days after the final
Had the third vertebra not wedged against the second, Trautman might have died.
The FA Cup triumph was the peak of his football career. Tragedy soon struck in his personal life. John, his firstborn son, was killed in a car accident a few months later. He would have two further children with Margaret, but they divorced in 1972. 'Margaret didn't get over John, she had no interest in life any more,' Trautmann said in 2010.
He would marry twice more and eventually settled in Valencia. An estranged daughter, born out of wedlock before his marriage to Margaret, tracked him down. He spent the last few years of his life working to foster Anglo-German relations through football, before dying in July 2013.
It's a story that even Hollywood would struggle to script from a standing start. With The Keeper, they have plenty of inspiration.
![Trautmann's son John would die tragically in a car accident, which would end his marriage](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/06/07/9419022-6669701-Trautmann_s_son_John_would_die_tragically_in_a_car_accident_whic-a-2_1549437851336.jpg)
Trautmann's son John would die tragically in a car accident, which would end his marriage
![Trautmann spent the last years of his life helping to foster Anglo-German relations](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/06/07/9419026-6669701-Trautmann_spent_the_last_years_of_his_life_helping_to_foster_Ang-a-1_1549437851303.jpg)
Trautmann spent the last years of his life helping to foster Anglo-German relations
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