Toni Turek: “I didn’t have much luck in life.” Turek said that late in life – and understandably so when one looks at the years after his career. Until 1973 he worked largely out of the public eye in the administration of Düsseldorf’s Rheinbahn. Then fate struck on a Sunday morning in September 1973. Toni Turek could no longer get up: paraplegia, apparently caused by a virus, though it was never fully clarified.\n\nYears of suffering followed.
Countless operations changed nothing for the better. In 1977 Turek took early retirement, sitting in a wheelchair or walking on crutches.\n\nOn 11 May 1984, the hero of Bern died after suffering a stroke. He was buried at Lindenheide cemetery in Mettmann.