Frankfurt am Main – “I can forgive, I can also forget. But the scars that remain” – and yet Helmut “Sonny” Sonneberg († 91) never lost the joy of life and his heart club Eintracht Frankfurt. Probably the most famous supporter of the SBU died on Friday, leaving behind a huge gap, but also a lot of memories.
On October 5, 2022, Helmut “Sonny” Sonneberg’s († 91, photo) path even led to Markus Lanz’s (53) studio. © ZDF
Born in 1931, his life was turned upside down at a young age. In the context of the November pogroms, initially cut off from access to education, the Hitler regime deported him to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1944 at the age of 13 – but “Sonny” survived.
Badly marked by the horrors of the Nazis – after his liberation he weighed only 30 kilograms – he decided to live. And that went hand in hand with a membership in the Diva vom Main. What he had to go through before, however, he kept secret for decades.
With the Adlerträger, for whom no distance was too far for him, he experienced sporting highlights such as the German championship in 1959 as well as two European Cup triumphs (1980 and 2022) and all five DFB Cup victories.
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In addition, he cheered for legends of Eintracht history such as Jürgen Grabowski († 77), Karl-Heinz “Charly” Körbel (68), Ralf Falkenmayer (60) or the heroes of “Football 2000” around Jay-Jay Okocha (49), Anthony Yeboah (56) and Maurizio Gaudino (56) to.
While he was considered an integral part of Eintracht in his decades, “Sonny” only really became known to the general public in old age.
In 2018, he explained his terrible experiences during the Holocaust in an interview – and touched several generations of Eintracht fans. After an emotional documentary by Hessischer Rundfunk, Sonneberg’s path in 2022 also led to Markus Lanz’s (53) studio.
His death leaves a gap, as a moving obituary on the social media channels of Frankfurt Eintracht made clear.
With the words “Eintracht Frankfurt mourns Helmut ‘Sonny’ Sonneberg. Such an important part of the Eintracht family, who has impressively passed on his life story to the following generations”, the Hessian Bundesliga club commemorated one of his most loyal, longest and most important supporters .
“Sonny” never scored an important goal or won a trophy in his life for unity. However, his memory will live on forever in the hearts of his second family.
