Germany has a Heavy World Champion! Did you know?

BubiScholz · Post by **BubiScholz** » 11 Aug 2004, 10:30

we also have someone like Harrison, an alphabet-soup-champ. Who is it?

J · Post by J » 11 Aug 2004, 10:34

are you stuill having a pop Bubster

Loynesy · Post by **Loynesy** » 11 Aug 2004, 10:35

Mighty Andreas Sidon (spelling?). Once got Koed in one by our own Wayne Llewellyn

BubiScholz · Post by **BubiScholz** » 11 Aug 2004, 10:45

Loynesy wrote:Mighty Andreas Sidon (spelling?). Once got Koed in one by our own Wayne Llewellyn

jup, he follows the steps of Max Schmeling

Loynesy · Post by **Loynesy** » 11 Aug 2004, 10:47

he's almost as old as him.

REAL_DEAL · Post by **REAL_DEAL** » 11 Aug 2004, 10:51

Vitali Klitschko :P

bennie · Post by **bennie** » 11 Aug 2004, 10:54

When is Max Schmeling 100?

BubiScholz · Post by **BubiScholz** » 11 Aug 2004, 11:02

bennie wrote:When is Max Schmeling 100?

next year

Loynesy · Post by **Loynesy** » 11 Aug 2004, 11:10

Apparently someone has wriiten a great biog of Max. I don't think I have ever heard anyone say a word against him

bennie · Post by **bennie** » 11 Aug 2004, 11:15

Loynesy wrote:Apparently someone has wriiten a great biog of Max. I don't think I have ever heard anyone say a word against him

Max Schmeling was Joe Louis' only true friend. Despite all the big names at Joe's funeral (Sinatra, Cosby, etc), guess who paid for it?

knockout · Post by **knockout** » 11 Aug 2004, 11:22

he was very anti-hitler as well!!!!!

Ended up as a pawn in Hitlers propoganda as the world champion

Loynesy · Post by **Loynesy** » 11 Aug 2004, 11:26

Have just bought his autobiography - will post a review on here in a couple of weeks if anyone is interested

bennie · Post by **bennie** » 11 Aug 2004, 11:28

Yes, indeed. Max Schmeling is remembered by some as a willing model for Adolf Hitler and The Third Reich - one of Adolf's 'Aryan Supermen' as undisputed world heavyweight champion from 1930 to 1932. Schmeling may indeed have lunched with Hitler, and had lengthy conversations with Goebbels, that master propagandist of the Nazi regime.
But he was no Nazi.
On several occasions Hitler tried to cajole the respected boxer into joining the Nazi Party. Schmeling refused - just as he refused to even publicize the Nazi Party through his boxing exploits. He also refused to stop associating with German Jews, or to fire his American-Jewish manager, Joe Jacobs, despite Goebbels's insistence.
So the story of Max Schmeling is more than that of a boxing hero. It's the story of a hero.
During the 'Kristallnacht' anti-Jew programme of November 1938 (labelled 'Crystal Night' due to the effect given off after thousands of Jewish shop windows were smashed in one night), Max saved the lives of two young Jewish brothers named Lewin. In an article published in 'History Today', it was told how Schmeling hid two teenage sons of a Jewish friend, David Lewin.
He kept the Lewin boys, Henry and Werner, in his apartment at the Excelsior Hotel in Berlin, leaving word at the desk that he was ill and no one was to visit him. When the rage had died down, he helped them flee the country to the United States, where Henry Lewin later became a prominent hotel owner. To this day, Henry believes he and his brother owe their lives to Max. He is also convinced that Schmeling himself could have been shot for his humanitarian gesture.
Hitler, too, never forgot Max - he never forgave him for refusing to join the Nazi party. 'The Fuhrer' had him drafted into the Paratroops and sent him on countless missions during the war, from which Max suffered inevitable back injuries that would impede and curtail his boxing career.
Schmeling fought only five times after the war in fact, and never made the top 10 rankings again. But he made enough money to purchase the Coca-Cola dealership in Germany - and is known as one of the most generous philanthropists in Germany.
More than that, all of his ring opponents became his friends, especially the man he possibly had most cause to despise, Joe Louis. He regularly - and quietly - gave the down-and-out Joe gifts of money, and his friendship continued after Joe's death.
Schmeling paid for his funeral.

BubiScholz · Post by **BubiScholz** » 11 Aug 2004, 11:39

bennie, your knowledge is incredible.

jamesmcdonnell · Post by **jamesmcdonnell** » 11 Aug 2004, 11:45

Loynesy wrote:Apparently someone has wriiten a great biog of Max. I don't think I have ever heard anyone say a word against him

Bet Louis had a word or two to say when he thought Schmelling was a Nazi.

knockout · Post by **knockout** » 11 Aug 2004, 11:58

jamesmcdonnell wrote:
Loynesy wrote:Apparently someone has wriiten a great biog of Max. I don't think I have ever heard anyone say a word against him
Bet Louis had a word or two to say when he thought Schmelling was a Nazi.

at that time I dont think America knew what was going on in Europe!!!!

And as a black american growing up when he did, Joe Louis wouldnt have seen Hitler any different than the next white ruler I am sure

DavidPayne · Post by **DavidPayne** » 11 Aug 2004, 11:59

BOXING lads, boxing.

Stick to topic before this gets messy.

knockout · Post by **knockout** » 11 Aug 2004, 12:00

DavidPayne wrote:BOXING lads, boxing.

Stick to topic before this gets messy.

ok ok......

Eric the Viking · Post by **Eric the Viking** » 11 Aug 2004, 12:11

DavidPayne wrote:BOXING lads, boxing.

Stick to topic before this gets messy.

But as with Ali, Max's story is compelling because it's about so much more than boxing. You can't separate the man from the times he lived in.

jamesmcdonnell · Post by **jamesmcdonnell** » 11 Aug 2004, 12:14

Yes exactly.

Sad that Louis is now dead and gone, and had a sad and lonely life after boxing, was hounded by his government until his dying day despite all he did for his country, whilst Max is a national and international Hero, don't you think.

It's all well and good saying that Louis is one of the immortals, but what good is that when you're dead?

Ali may be impaired, but he enjoys a pretty good life, as good as a man with parkinson's syndrome can be expected to.

Louis' story really is very tragic.

DavidPayne · Post by **DavidPayne** » 11 Aug 2004, 12:21

I thought we were going to meander into some ill-conceived racist rumblings.

And I think suggetion we could guess how Louis must have felt or thought in 1936 is a little self-indulgent too.

jamesmcdonnell · Post by **jamesmcdonnell** » 11 Aug 2004, 12:26

In their second match up, Louis had been primed by Roosevelt (I think it was him)who told him that he wasn't just fighting a boxing match, but the entire Nazi war machine, I've heard before (though where i remember not), that Louis thought Schmelling was a Nazi pig, (incorrectly of course),

There's nothing vaguely racist about that. The Nazi's thought Schmelling was a Nazi sympathiser, they had no idea that he was actually helping Jew's escape from Germany later on. The Americans knew about the Nazi's by that time, as did Europe, they knew Hitler wasn't a nice guy.

bennie · Post by **bennie** » 11 Aug 2004, 12:34

Is there a link to this current biography on Max?

bennie · Post by **bennie** » 11 Aug 2004, 12:43

You can almost see Max trying to distance himself from Hitler in this pic. The body language between them is not good.

Loynesy · Post by **Loynesy** » 11 Aug 2004, 12:45

1 of Max Schmeling: An Autobiography [Hardcover] by Lippe, George B.Von Der

Bennie - not really a link but I have just bought it on Amazon. Apparently Max wrote it and the guy mentioned above translated it. Its quite an old book but as it is a bit obscure and about an absolute ring legend it may be worth a story in Boxing News (I'll happily do a review of say 500 words)