He joined SV Werder Bremen in the founding year of Bundesliga from boyhood outfit Schweinfurt 05, for whom he had played top-tier matches in the Oberliga Süd since 1958.

He stayed loyal to Bremen until his retirement in 1974 and was the club's first choice in their surprise Bundesliga winning campaign in 1965.

[1] His West Germany career started with a youth call-up in 1961 that prompted Sepp Herberger to take him to the senior level a year later.

The Bundesliga trophy he won with Werder Bremen, three years later, helped him to achieve a spot in Helmut Schön's squad for the 1966 FIFA World Cup, but did not give him the competitive edge he had been longing for.

Bernard made his fifth and final game for West Germany as a substitute for Horst Wolter against Wales in 1968.