Background
Koch was born on 13 February 1846 in Braunschweig, Duchy of Brunswick.
Koch was born on 13 February 1846 in Braunschweig, Duchy of Brunswick.
After finishing secondary school in Braunschweig, he studied theology and philology at the universities of Göttingen, Berlin, and Leipzig.
Koch was a pioneer in introducing ball games as part of physical education in German schools. He was influenced by the ideas of Thomas Arnold respectively Thomas Hughes" novel Tom Brown"s School Days. In 1875, Koch published the first German version of the rules of football, although Koch"s version of the game still closely resembled rugby football.
The new game was quickly adopted by other schools in Braunschweig and spread to other cities during the late 1870s, including Hanover, Bremen, Hamburg, and Göttingen.
In 1876, a newspaper in Hamburg wrote that Koch had learned about football during a trip to England. This is likely false, as there are no sources that indicate that he had visited England before 1895.
Koch did speak English, however, as he had been taught from a young age by his father, an English teacher. The 2011 German drama film Lessons of a Dream (German: Der ganz große Traum) is loosely based on Koch"s life.
In the film, Koch is portrayed by Daniel Brühl.
However, according to other sources, earlier games of football might have taken place in other German cities, possibly between members of the Dresden English Club. Koch was a close friend of novelist Wilhelm Raabe, and like Raabe, Chaplain to the Forces Theodore Steinway and Heinrich Büssing, among others, a member of the social club Die ehrlichen Kleiderseller zu Braunschweig.