He and his wife thought the German national football team would not progress further than the quarter-finals in the 1954 World Cup, so his wife showed up at the team's hotel in Spiez with their friends and luggage for a holiday in Italy where they planned to travel to right after what they thought would be the team's last game during the World Cup. She instead ended up staying in Spiez for an additional week and accompanying her husband back to Germany after the final.