Peter Rauchfuß 1944 - 2016

It is with sadness that the European Handball Federation has to report on the death of Peter Rauchfuß, a former EHF delegate and one of the most prolific German handball referees. Rauchfuß passed away at the age of 71 on Saturday in his hometown Chemnitz.

Peter Rauchfuß was a delegate for the European Handball Federation from the 2000/01 to the 2007/08 season, but it was in particular in refereeing - on the German as well as on the European and international level - that Rauchfuß made a name for himself. Up until his death, he was a member of the German Handball Federation's referee commission.

"We have lost the engine behind handball refereeing in Germany. He was the one who always took care and all the time supported our referees. We mourn the death of a great personality," said the DHB's president Andreas Michelmann.

Together with his refereeing partners Herbert Hensel and Rudolf Buchda, Rauchfuß participated at the Olympic Games in 1976, 1980, 1984 and 1988, officiating - among many other games - the women's final in Seoul in 1998.

At the end of his active career he had officiated at nine World Championships, at almost 100 European Cup games including nine finals, at 350 international matches and at countless matches in Germany.

In 2002 he joined the German federation's referee commission within which he was responsible for Germany's top referees. His motto: "Who wants to have good handball, needs to have good referees."