Ala Urban

Ala Urban was a legend on the Schalke football scene. He made his international début against Luxembourg in 1935 and in his second game against Hungary the following year, he scored the first of his 11 goals. He won a total of 21 caps between 1935 and 1942, and at the 1936 Berlin Olympics played in Germany’s second match against Norway, which they lost 0-2. Urban was a member of the famous “Breslau 11”, but could not participate in the 1938 World Cup due to injury.

Throughout his life, Urban played for FC Schalke 04 and was one of their best players of all time. He was a left-sided forward but later played as a left-midfielder. Schalke dominated the “Gauliga Westphalia” in those days and reached five national finals, winning all of them in 1934-35, 1937, 1939 and 1942. Urban trained as a house painter, but was recruited as a soldier in 1935. Nevertheless he continued playing for Schalke until the spring of 1943, when the Infantry Regiment 422, to which he belonged, was deployed to the Eastern front in the struggle for Demjansk. He was severely injured in May 1943 after receiving head and lung injuries and, despite emergency surgery, lost his life. He was buried in the war cemetery of Korpovo, and in November 2013, Urban’s remains were transferred to his hometown Gelsenkirchen.