FC Kaiserslautern from relegated Braunschweig that summer, Franke rejected the chance of staying a Bundesliga player in the year before the 1974 FIFA World Cup.
[2] Raising eyebrows due to his games for Eintracht Braunschweig, Bernd Franke established himself as a backup choice for Sepp Maier and Wolfgang Kleff in the affairs of West Germany, debuting for his country on 28 March 1973, in a friendly.
His decision to stay on with his club after relegation in 1973 ruined Franke's hopes of getting a spot in the 1974 FIFA World Cup winning squad of West Germany.
Even more tragic for Franke was an injury he sustained in May 1978 in a meaningless friendly of the 1978 FIFA World Cup squad, for which he had been called up, against a local amateur selection in Frankfurt.
[3] Already out of contention for Die Nationalmannschaft, Franke was given the chance to represent West Germany as starting keeper in all of their four matches in the football competition at the 1984 Summer Olympics.