Karl-Heinz Wildmoser

Karl-Heinz Wildmoser has been headlining all the local Munich newspapers this past week. In case you're wondering who he is, here's a 60 second profile. Karl-Heinz Wildmoser is was the president of Munich's second most successful football club, TSV 1860 Muenchen. He is (was?) also the owner of one of the Oktoberfest tents. ...read more

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Wildmoser made his fortune in the hotel and catering industry in Munich. Since 1981 the Wildmoser family has owned the Hühner- und Entenbraterei Wildmoser tent at the Oktoberfest. This is one of the smaller tents with capacity for 320 guests.

In 1992 he was elected president of TSV 1860 football club. During his first decade at the helm he proved to be an extremely successful and popular president. Under his guidance the football club was brought from near financial ruin to national league success.

His style was to rule with an iron fist. TSV 1860 are known as "Die Löwen" (Eng: The Lions) and their emblem is a lion. Wildmoser himself was often called "The King of the Lions". In 2001 Wildmoser helped found Munich's new football stadium, the Allianz Arena, which will be shared by the two clubs FC Bayern and TSV 1860. More recently his luck has begun to falter. In 2003 he was fined 27,000 euros for tax evasion. He has also suffered health problems and had to undergo operations on his heart and stomach.

Wildmoser's biggest problems came March 2004 when he was arrested on charges of bribery. Both he and his son, Karl-Heinz Wildmoser Junior, are alleged to have taken 2.8 million euro from Alpine in return for helping that company to win the contract for building the Allianz stadium. Wildmoser senior spent 3 nights in jail before being released on a 200k Euro security. His son has admitted corruption and has taken 100% of the blame in order to clear his father's name. He remains in jail in Augsburg. Wildmoser Junior was a manager of the new stadium. That position has now been cancelled with immediate effect. Wildmoser Senior has refused to resign his presidency of TSV 1860. Whether he will be forced to resign remains to be seen.

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Random trivia: Karl-Heinz Wildmoser Senior was born 5th May 1939 which makes him 64 years old. He lives in Pöcking, a small town on the shores of the Starnberger See south of Munich. For many decades he used to sport a fine Bavarian moustache but seems to have gone clean shaven recently.

About TSV 1860 Muenchen: this football club was founded in 1848 but then quickly banned under accusations of "republican activities". Whatever that means. The club was re-founded in 1860, hence the name. TSV is an acronym for "Turn Sport Verein" which in English means something like "Sport and Athletics Club". Check their website: TSV 1860. Oddly enough, the site is also available in Chinese. Presumably because one of their mid-fielders, Jiayi Shao, comes from Peking.

Yesterday evening he finally resigned. End of an era. The sausage maker Karl Auer will take over.

Don't confuse Alpine with McAlpine. McAlpine is a second rate British building contractor. The builder of the Allianz Stadion is Alpinebau which is an Austrian firm. The branch dealing with the Stadion is in Eching, bei Freising.

Roger Swainson