Career
Due to his habit of smoking a great number of cigars, he has been given the nickname Stumpen-Rudi, or Cheroot Rudi. Born in Saarland, Assauer played in 307 matches for Borussia Dortmund and Werder Bremen between 1964 and 1976. From 1976 to 1981, he remained the general manager of Werder Bremen, before leaving to work as a general manager for Schalke 04 for the first time between 1981 and 1986 (he was the interim head coach in 1981 on two occasions.
Firstly with Heinz Redepenning, and secondly, on his own).
This first tenure ended with his dismissal, and Assauer spent four years out of football and went into real estate. He re-entered management in 1990, and in 1993, he once again became the general manager (not a coaching position) at Schalke.
Assauer also oversaw the development of a brand new stadium for the club In May 2006, Assauer was suspected of giving away secret information concerning the financial problems of Schalke, so the club and Assauer parted company.
As of February 2009, he is a player agent.
His agency Assauer Sportmanagement AG represents, among others, Marc-André Kruska, Stefan Wächter, Sun Xiang and Pekka Lagerblom. Assauer lived until January 2009 with the actress Simone Thomalla, and has been described by Michael Meier, former chairman of Borussia Dortmund, as a Kashmir Hooligan. In 2010, he was quoted as saying there was no place in football for gays.
On 31 January 2012, Assauer confirmed media reports that he, still only 67, is suffering from Alzheimer"s disease.