HITLER’S CHAMPION

Today is the birthday in 1905 of a boxing hall of famer.  Max Schmeling got hooked on boxing when his father took him to see a movie of a Jack Dempsey fight.  His father was a ship’s navigator and had been enthralled with the sport on his travels.  Max began training and eventually fought in some amateur tournaments.  In 1924, he turned pro. In 1927, he became the first German to win the European heavyweight championship. He now was a celebrity and was friends with artists, actors, playwrights and race car drivers in Germany.  He married a famous actress.  He went America because it was the boxing capital of the world.  His promoter was Jewish.  In 1930, he defeated Jack Sharkey to become heavyweight champion, the first German to hold the title. He defeated Jack Sharkey by foul.  He was the only heavyweight champion ever to win on a foul.  He became known as the “low blow champion”.  In the rematch, he lost to Sharkey on points.  The loss was controversial with many boxing experts believing Schmeling was the winner.

He returned to Germany to find that many of his friends had fled Germany because of the rise of Germany.  He met the Fuhrer, who told him that when he returned to America he should tell reporters that things were not bad in Germany.  He was also used to spread the falsehood that nothing was happening to Jews.  In 1936, he got a fight with Joe Louis.   He had studied film and discovered a weakness in his style.  Hitler was not happy that he was fighting a “Negro”, but was thrilled when Schmeling won.  It proved that whites were superior to black, according to the dictator. Max return trip was on the Hindenburg.  By the time of the rematch in 1936, Schmeling was now associated with Nazism and was now a bad guy in America.  This was not fair because he never became a Nazi.  When he entered the ring, trash was thrown at him.  Louis was carrying the weight of America, especially Black America. on his shoulders.  He did not let them down.  He pummeled Schmeling and won by knockout in the first round.  Back in Germany, he hid two Jewish teenagers on Kristallnacht and then helped them leave the country.  A modest man, he did not mention this in his autobiography.  He was drafted for WWII and became a paratrooper. He participated in the invasion of Crete and was wounded in the knee by shrapnel.  His war was over.  After the war, he failed at several jobs before he became rich selling coca-cola.  He visited America and befriended Joe Louis.  He died at age 99.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/fight-max-schmeling-1905-2005/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Schmeling