was having this conversation with a few friends and couldnt really come to a consensus. the leading contenders for me are: uwe seeler karl-heinz rummenigge matthias sammer oliver kahn bernd schuster from more recent times i'd probably also throw in michael ballack. if you have an opinion let me hear it!
I pick Seeler. Always felt bad for him. Played in four World Cups (2 semis-finals and a Final) but they were sandwiched by the victories of 1954 and 1974. Similar with Rummenigge: Three World Cups (two Finals) sandwiched by the triumphs of 1974 and 1990.
i'd probably have it down to those 2 as well. seeler was hands down the biggest icon in german football between the fritz walter and beckenbauer era's. unfortunate that he made his national team debut shortly after that '54 win. on the other hand rummenigge wasnt far off winning 3 consecutive ballon d'ors - 2nd in '79 before winning back to back in '80 and '81. almost impossible to compare where a goalkeeper should fit in this type of conversation but for me oliver kahn would be on a very short list as greatest goalie of alltime. people always talk about yashin being the only goalkeeper to win the ballon d'or but by the same token, kahn is the only goalkeeper to win the world cup golden ball as best overall player.
Probably Seeler or Rummenigge. A few more.... Willi Schulz Karl-Heinz Schnellinger Horst Szymaniak KH Forster Effenberg
I agree it's between Rummenigge and Seeler - I can't make up my mind who is better between these two.
I'd have to admit my perception would be Rummenigge. Maybe it's too simplistic to simply break it down into attributes like this, but I guess I'd see it as somewhat like comparing either Cristiano Ronaldo, or Bobby Charlton, to Alan Shearer. It's probably evident I'm not CR's biggest fan lol (maybe there can even be parallels here but I'm not sure - Rummenigge after playing career and maybe even during possibly the more spiky/divisive in terms of character in some moments with Seeler universally popular and 'down to earth' - I'm not really sure but anyway I don't get the opposite impression at least so no reason I'd feel favouritism to Rummenigge from that point of view I don't think), but I'd say that it could be seen like this: Shearer perhaps about his equal in certain aspects like finishing and maybe not so far away in basic passing/crossing etc, but not with the same athletic and individualistic (skills, dribbling etc) capabilities. Again Charlton might be similar to Shearer with the shooting, but with added dimensions in his locker in terms of breaking teams down by going past players and playmaking etc. So yeah, I guess I'd see it like that: Rummenigge similarly good to Seeler at Seeler's top strengths (maybe even more spectacular/varied with some volley finishes, again coming into the 'individualistic' qualities bracket), but Seeler not matching Rummenigge in terms of wider abilities and affect on the game (and versatility too). I didn't see a lot of Seeler though overall. In a way this question might even be more interesting for some other nations because a lot of the German stars did win World Cups! The likes of Kaltz, Karlheinz Forster and perhaps even a Mehmet Scholl going more recent for example could be named in a more thorough breakdown I suppose though.
some pre-war names to be added: fortuna duesseldorf's paul janes and the 2 schalker's fritz szepan & ernst kuzzora. hard to give opinions with no real footage available but all 3 are very highly regarded. will also throw in the man city goalie from 50s-60s bert trautmann, even though he was never capped by germany.
100% Seeler and Rumenigge for me, whilst Schuster was great at club level in both quality and longevity, he only played two international tournaments (a win at EC and a win at Runner at at WC so not bad!) and played his final game for West Germany aged just 24.