Born in 1897, Behrens was a well-respected journalist in Frankfurt; he used to write for Eintracht’s club newsletter, among other publications. He suffered persecution at the hands of the National Socialists due to his Jewish beliefs, and on 16 November 1936 he was remanded in custody due to alleged “racial defilement” and was later sentenced to 30 months in prison.
Following his release on 22 June 1939, Behrens was forced to leave his home in dramatic circumstances after the authorities threatened him with further imprisonment in a concentration camp. Edwin Van D’Elden from the US Consulate in Stuttgart acquired the essential paperwork for him, allowing Behrens to flee from Hamburg on the America-Line bound for New York in July 1939. His sister, Grete, who already lived in the US, lent him the money for his passage across the Atlantic, as the once-affluent Behrens was by now destitute.
In America, he was initially only able to earn a living as an unskilled labourer due to his poor health as a result of the hardship of almost three years in prison. In 1945 he eventually found a more suitable job as a sports reporter for the New York State newspaper. In 1949 he was once again the recipient of the Eintracht badge of honour. A passionate sports reporter and football fan, Behrens was also a member of the German-American Football Federation and from 1950 onwards he organised tours around America for German teams.
This was how Eintracht made their first trip to the USA in 1951 and they returned home with a donation of $50,000 – funds that went towards construction of the new stand at the Riederwald stadium. Behrens died of a heart attack on 12 November 1952 in New York at the age of just 52, with various doctors testifying that it was due to the long-term after-effects of his persecution by the Nazis in Germany.
Behrens was honoured in obituaries back in Frankfurt. “We know that a great many older footballers are now mourning this man, who had so many friends in Frankfurt,” wrote the Frankfurter Rundschau. “Good old ‘fat Max’ didn’t have any enemies among the people who knew him, and only racism could drive him from the city where his friends lived. Max would never have left voluntarily. The visits of German football teams to the USA were all his doing.”
The laying of the commemorative plaque for Behrens will take place at his former home at Rotteckstraße 2 on 20 June at 12:20 CEST.
