Kurt Landauer, a Jewish-German businessman, First World War veteran, and football official, began his career as a player for Bayern München. From 1913 to 1914 and again from 1919 to 1933 he was president of the club. During his presidency, the number of members quadrupled and FC Bayern became one of the best football clubs in the country. In 1932, Bayern won their first German championship. Nevertheless, on 22 March 1933, Landauer resigned from his post. The reason was the openly antisemitic climate ever since the Nazi Party had seized power. Not long after, Landauer left the club completely. Jews could not be at the helm of football clubs in the Nazi era. Other resignations prove this to be true, for example those of Paul Eichengrün, president of Schalke 04, or Alfred J. Meyers, president of FSV Frankfurt.

On 1 April 1933, Landauer was fired by his employer, the Munich newspaper Neuesten Nachrichten. From 1935, he worked at a laundry. Like many other Jewish men, Landauer was arrested on 10 November 1938, after the November pogrom, and deported to Dachau concentration camp. He was released after about one month and in May 1939 was able to flee to Switzerland. At least four members of Bayern supported him. One of those helpers was Richard Amesmaier, a member of the SA and the Nazi Party. In exile in Geneva, Landauer was dependent on financial aid from friends for his livelihood. Lonely, without a job, and worried about his family, Landauer anxiously awaited the end of the war. Four of his siblings, his sister-in-law, and his nephew were murdered in the Holocaust. After the war, Landauer was one of only 57 Jewish residents of Munich to return to the city of his birth. Despite the persecution of his family and his exclusion from the club, from 1947 to 1951 he again became president of FC Bayern. And he also supported Bayern financially, although it took years – despite clear evidence of his family’s stolen assets – before his restitution procedure was decided in his favour and he began to receive payments. Kurt Landauer died in 1961, before the beginning of Bayern’s heyday in the mid-1960s with Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller, and Sepp Maier. Although he had laid the foundation for that success, FC Bayern München did not uphold his memory. On the occasion of his 125th birthday in 2008, a group of fans made sure that Kurt Landauer was honoured posthumously, finally securing his rightful place in the history of the club.