On 25 October 2025, kicker sport magazine and the German Academy for Football Culture had a stumbling stone laid for Walther Bensemann. As a football pioneer in Germany, Bensemann founded “kicker” magazine and helped create the German Football Association (DFB). In 1933, Bensemann fled to Switzerland.

Walther Bensemann was one of the most important pioneers of football in Germany. Born on 13 January 1873 in Berlin as the son of the banker Berthold Bensemann and his wife Eugenie, née Marckwald, Walther came into contact with football at a private school in Montreux, Switzerland. There, British classmates showed him this new sport.

In 1889, he founded the Karlsruhe International Football Club together with his classmates. This was the first southern German football club. In the formative years of football in Germany that followed, Bensemann founded many clubs, organized international meets and helped create the German Football Association (DFB).

In 1920, he founded “kicker” in Konstanz. The sports magazine was a symbol of international reconciliation through sport for Bensemann. As the editorial office moved to Nuremberg in 1926, Bensemann moved into the Grand Hotel Fürstenhof.

Walther Bensemann’s commitment to football in Germany ended with the National Socialists’ assumption of power. His pacifistic ideas and dedication to cross-cultural cooperation contradicted the ideology of the new ruling powers and, in addition, he was Jewish. Bensemann fled to Switzerland in 1933, where he died on 12 November 1934.