joined the SA, in which he rose to rank of Obersturmbannführer by the end of the Second World War. This, combined with his success in the World Cup, meant that the German government placed a high level of expectation on Nerz's team for the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, for which he was team coach. However, Germany was eliminated early in the tournament after a shock defeat to rank outsiders Norway. Shortly thereafter, Nerz was relieved of his duties as coach and replaced by assistant coach Sepp Herberger. Following his dismissal from the Germany national team, Nerz took an administrative and coaching position with the football association of Berlin. In 1936 he became lecturer at the Reich Academy for Physical Exercise and in 1938 he was appointed by Hitler as a professor in philosophy at the University of Berlin. During the Second World War he was deployed to a military hospital Reserve-Lazarett 21 at Berlin-Britz. In December 1944 he introduced daily exercise regimes for military hospital patients. Due to his Nazi Party membership, he was arrested as a prisoner of war by the British after the Battle of Berlin, then handed over to the occupying Soviet authorities who later interned him in a camp in Sachsenhausen; after four years of imprisonment, he died of cerebral edema on or around 18 April 1949 and was buried in a mass grave on the site of the camp. References External links 1892 births 1949 deaths People from Hechingen Sportspeople from Tübingen (region) German football managers 1934 FIFA World Cup managers Germany national football team managers People from the Province of Hohenzollern Tennis Borussia Berlin players VfR Mannheim players Tennis Borussia Berlin managers Association football forwards Footballers from Baden-Württemberg German footballers Nazi Party members People who died in NKVD special camp Nr. 7 German prisoners of war in World War II held by the Soviet Union World War II civilian prisoners Sturmabteilung officers German Army personnel of World War I Nazis who died in prison custody