Max Schmeling

[molly00000]

German Boxer. Max Schmeling won the world heavyweight boxing championship from Jack Sharkey in 1930 and held the title for two years when he lost it to Sharkey in a much-disputed decision. He was one of the few fighters to ever defeat Joe Louis, knocking him out in a fight (1936) generally considered to be the greatest upset in boxing history. Louis knocked out Schmeling in the first round of their rematch, giving him a savage beating. These bouts between Louis and Schmeling took place on the eve of World War 2 and the atmosphere was tense. However, both men refused to take part in the hype of the event and, after the bouts, they became friends.



During the World War 2 era, Schmeling, a German hero, was asked by Hitler to join the Nazi Party but he refused to do so. Pressure was put on Schmeling to leave his non-German wife but, again, he refused to cave in to the Nazis. Schmeling also helped several Jewish people escape possible death by hiding them. He served in the German Paratroops during the war and participated in the paratroop jumps onto the island of Crete during the bloody battle for that Greek island.



After World War 2, Schmeling made a brief comeback and used the money to become a successful businessman. Schmeling was a very generous and kind soul and it is said he generously helped Joe Louis with gifts of money when the brown bomber fell upon hard times after his boxing career was over. He also paid for Louis' funeral. He did this even though Louis had slaughtered him, mercilessly, in their famous rematch.



Max Schmeling died at age 99 on February 3, 2005. He was one German that refused to become a Nazis.

[tony stone]

What a great story about an amazing man. The man obviously had strong beliefs and was not willing to bend them for anybody, not even the Fuehrer. And he believed in serving his country. It just goes to show that not all Germans during the war were ideological racists hell bent on murdering everyone opposed to them. I'm sure there were many Germans like Schmeling during the Second WW. What a great man of much conviction. I admire him.

[Dave]

Good bump there Tony, two great men Schmelling and Louis.

[ghguenthoer]

Originally Posted by molly00000

German Boxer. Max Schmeling won the world heavyweight boxing championship from Jack Sharkey in 1930 and held the title for two years when he lost it to Sharkey in a much-disputed decision. He was one of the few fighters to ever defeat Joe Louis, knocking him out in a fight (1936) generally considered to be the greatest upset in boxing history. Louis knocked out Schmeling in the first round of their rematch, giving him a savage beating. These bouts between Louis and Schmeling took place on the eve of World War 2 and the atmosphere was tense. However, both men refused to take part in the hype of the event and, after the bouts, they became friends.



During the World War 2 era, Schmeling, a German hero, was asked by Hitler to join the Nazi Party but he refused to do so. Pressure was put on Schmeling to leave his non-German wife but, again, he refused to cave in to the Nazis. Schmeling also helped several Jewish people escape possible death by hiding them. He served in the German Paratroops during the war and participated in the paratroop jumps onto the island of Crete during the bloody battle for that Greek island.



After World War 2, Schmeling made a brief comeback and used the money to become a successful businessman. Schmeling was a very generous and kind soul and it is said he generously helped Joe Louis with gifts of money when the brown bomber fell upon hard times after his boxing career was over. He also paid for Louis' funeral. He did this even though Louis had slaughtered him, mercilessly, in their famous rematch.



Max Schmeling died at age 99 on February 3, 2005. He was one German that refused to become a Nazis.

Bevor the 2nd World war we all admired Max as a great Sportsman.

[Jim]

Max Schmeling shocked the world by beating America's Joe Louis and then took part in a return contest that became the most racially and politically charged fight of all time.
In his long life, Schmeling experienced fortunes of dramatic contrast. Born in 1905 during the days of the Kaiser, he went hungry during the "Turniptop Winter" of World War I.

Schmeling was held up as an example of Aryan supremacy

But he took up professional boxing in the 1920s and at the start of next decade he became world heavyweight champion.

By the time of his first fight with Louis at the Yankee Stadium in New York six years later, Schmeling was considered past his best and the Nazis tried to have the fight called off.


Louis was 22 and unbeaten, but complacent and out of condition. Even so, the world gasped when he was knocked out in the 12th round by Schmeling, who then carried Louis to his corner.

The Hindenburg airship carried Schmeling back to Germany, where Hitler invited him to lunch.

"I had to go," he said later.

Together, they watched a film of the fight and Hitler slapped his leg each time Schmeling scored a telling blow.

Schmeling held the title for two years and when he met Louis again in 1938, the American was world champion.

In a tidal wave of pre-fight publicity, both men were exploited by their governments to try to shape the patriotic consciences of their nations.


However, the re-match, on 22 June, turned out to be one of the briefest of fights. Schmeling threw only one punch and was knocked down three times.

While he was taken to hospital with two of his vertebrae broken, Goebbels sent flowers and Hitler a message of sympathy to Schmeling's wife, the glamorous film actress, Anny Ondra, who starred in Alfred Hitchcock's first talkie, Blackmail.

Schmeling was outclassed in his second bout with Louis

But within a year or so, the regime had turned against Schmeling because he refused to act as a Nazi spokesman.

He revealed his relief at losing the fight, as it meant that he could no longer be touted as a symbol of Aryan physical supremacy.

In November 1938, less than six months after his defeat, Schmeling came to the aid of a Jewish friend who had to flee Germany in the wake of Kristallnacht.

He hid the friend's two sons in his Berlin apartment and later helped them to escape from the country.


The episode only came to light in 1989, when one of the sons invited Schmeling to Las Vegas to thank him for saving his life.

After serving as a paratrooper during World War II, Schmeling attempted a boxing comeback. He eventually bowed out in 1948.

But, outside the ring, he prospered. While Joe Louis struggled with tax problems and drug dependency, Schmeling became a wealthy man by running the German operation of perhaps the most American of all companies, Coca-Cola.

In 1954, he sought out Louis in Chicago to explain that he had never borne him any malice. Their meeting led to a friendship that endured until Louis' death in poverty in 1981.

Schmeling (right) was a reluctant Nazi icon, pictured with Joe Louis

Long before the end of the Millennium, Schmeling had dispelled the myth that he was a symbol of Nazi evil, and established his claim to dignity.


BBC: Sport

[Jim]

Such was the case in the epic battle between the German boxer Max Schmeling and his black American rival, Joe Louis. By the mid-1930s Joe Louis was a rising star in international heavyweight boxing. He dealt his first blow against fascism in 1935 when he defeated Primo Carnera, the Italian heavyweight champion, in just six rounds.

A confident max Schmeling arrives in the USA for his re-match with Joe Louis in June 1938. Schmeling was projected as the symbol of Nazi Germany and Aryan supremacy,

The US public was confident that Louis would thrash his next opponent, the former German heavyweight champion Max Schmeling. The fight was scheduled for 19 June 1936. It was a contest heavily infused with ideology. Louis himself had struggled against racism within the US sports community, but through a good promoter was gradually accepted by the white sporting fraternity. The US Jewish population was especially eager to see him smash the German boxer and dent the confidence of German racial superiority. Across the Atlantic, the Germans also realised that much was at stake, as Schmeling was promoted as a specimen of supreme Aryan breeding.

The US heavyweight boxer Joe Louis In 1937, he defeated world heavyweight champion James J. Braddock. He then stated: "I don't want anybody to call me champ until I beat Max Schmeling."

In the US Schmeling was massively underestimated. He had been heavyweight champion in 1930 and 1932, but now was under betting odds of 10-1 against. Louis himself believed this propaganda, and slackened his training schedule in preference for the golf course. It was a big mistake. On the night of the fight, in front of 45,000 people at the Yankee Stadium, Schmeling battered Louis for round after round until Louis went down and out in the 12th. The victory caused dismay in the United States, euphoria in Nazi Germany. In the Nazi worldview, Schmeling's triumph confirmed the position of white German manhood over "lesser" races. Schmeling became a national hero. Hitler himself cabled Schmeling directly and praised him for a "splendid patriotic achievement". It was not the end of the story.

Schmeling in a hospital bed following his defeat at the hands of Joe Louis. Schmeling was a paratrooper in World War II and resumed his career when the war ended. He fought until 1948 before retiring.

In 1937 Louis won the heavyweight championship back after defeating James J. Braddock. A re-match with Schmeling was scheduled. This time, the ideological fervour was even greater as a heavyweight championship was at stake. The match was seen entirely in national and racial terms. By 22nd June 1938 the date of the contest, the US public was intimately acquainted with the facts about German political and racial intolerance. With its massive Jewish and African-American communities, the US lent on Louis to produce victory. President Franklin Roosevelt himself told Louis at a White House dinner: "Joe, we need muscles like yours to beat Germany." Schmeling's arrival by ship at New York harbour was greeted by hundreds of demonstrators from the Anti-Nazi League and the American Jewish Congress. Schmeling himself received another telegram from Hitler: "To the coming World Champion, Max Schmeling, wishing you every success.”

Louis in training for the re-match with Schmeling. This time he took the bout seriously, and trained hard. In the ring Schmeling fell to the floor in just two minutes and four seconds.

This time, Louis was ready. In front of a 70,000-strong crowd, again in the Yankee Stadium, a 40-punch barrage from Louis finished the fight in the first round in two minutes and four seconds. The result dismayed the German authorities, who quickly distanced themselves from Schmeling. In the United States the Americas Hebrew summed up the mood by saying that Louis had struck "a terrific blow to the theory of race supremacy". The ironic counter note is that neither of the protagonists was really interested in politics. Schmeling, in fact, was actively opposed to Nazi racial policy. Louis expressed his feelings: "I had nothing personally against Max. But in my mind, I wasn't champion until I beat him. The rest of it - black against white - was somebody else's talk." Following the war Louis and Schmeling even became firm friends.

[Dave]

Great story well-told, and the photos

The fights can be watched in excellent quality. The first fight isn't so one-sided, Louis wins a few rounds. See him knocked down at about the six minute mark for the beginning of his end. By round 9 on about 16m20s you could say he's getting a beating, and the end is brutal. Right through you can tell both fighters respect each other, with only one or two low punches from Louis and maybe a few after the bell from Max. Schmelling can be seen racing over to pick Louis up as soon as the fight is over...

YouTube Video

In the second fight Louis destroys Schmelling, as advertised! Scroll to 5mins20s of this vid:

YouTube Video

[Jim]

Nice addition Dave, this is the first i have seen of these fights and the second one is exactly as is written, the first figfht is clear the Louis wasn't fit and one could see in the early rounds the fight was Schmelling's

Need to remember that YouTube is not just for silly moments caught on screen ...