Happy 98th Birthday, Champ!
I know it's a few days early, but it's never too early to celebrate a great man's life. (Born Sept. 28, 1905.)
Happy Birthday, Max!
Happy Birthday, Max!
Happy 98th Birthday, Champ!
I know it's a few days early, but it's never too early to celebrate a great man's life. (Born Sept. 28, 1905.)
Last edited by Ric on 25 Sep 2003, 13:49, edited 1 time in total.
some more facts:
...defended the title July, 3rd 1931
...is 4-3 against his fellow-hall-of-famers:
losses to sharkey (controversial), baer and louis
wins against sharkey (disq), stribling, walker and louis
Saved the lives of hundreds of jews and americans during ww2....risking his own live.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAXIE
...defended the title July, 3rd 1931
...is 4-3 against his fellow-hall-of-famers:
losses to sharkey (controversial), baer and louis
wins against sharkey (disq), stribling, walker and louis
Saved the lives of hundreds of jews and americans during ww2....risking his own live.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAXIE
Linktipp:
http://www.sbrowning.com/whowhatwhen/in ... 2&pid=2402
besides...Max is still in good health, meeting with friends every wednesday to play "skat", a german card game. he celebrated his birthday very privatly at home with his best friends....and cake, coffee and champaign !
http://www.sbrowning.com/whowhatwhen/in ... 2&pid=2402
besides...Max is still in good health, meeting with friends every wednesday to play "skat", a german card game. he celebrated his birthday very privatly at home with his best friends....and cake, coffee and champaign !
Hi. Cause this interesting text is in German I tried to translate it for you american and english guys. sorry, if there are some faults in it, my school time is some years behind me.
"The best Boss of the World"
Max Schmeling: On Sunday the box Idol celebrates his 98th Birthday. 170 co-workers in Wandsbek will be in thoughts with him.
Of Lutz Wagner
Hamburg - the roomy office in the first floor of the office building of the "beverage industry Hamburg Max Schmeling & CO. Kg "at Wandsbeker road works, as if its inhabitant would come again through the door at annytime. On the heavy desk we find documents and framed pictures with family photos. In the large shelf behind the black chief armchair books pile up themselves, and a group of chairs in the corner seem ready for the next conference.
For 37 years Max Schmeling, Germanys most popular sportsmen of all times, went here nearly daily in and out. As a personally responsible partner the enterprise with the only Coca Cola concession of the city was a substantial component of his after-war life. The office still seems to be full of live, although the Boxidol stopped his regular visits at the age of 94 in 1999. In addition, without his physical operational readiness level his spirit still flows. "Catch the spirit", says managing director Heiko Stoehr, if he leads a visitor into the “holy place”. The enterprise without Schmeling - inconceivable. Also the co-workers see that in such a way, from the doorman to the attorney.
Gertrud Peter knows Schmeling since 1946. The Woman from Hollenstedt, Schmeling’s hometown, had been engaged by his 1987 deceased wife Anny Ondra as a personal secretary for her husband. When 1962 the address moved to its current location, Gertrud Peter got a small secretarian room equal beside the office of the boss. "I always was there half an hour before him", remembered the 91-year old, "I had still the letters to sort." Apart from the business correspondence daily also hundreds of letters of fans with the request for autographs and dedications.
"When Mr. Schmeling arrived punctually a quarter past nine, he always looked briefly after me to wish a good morning", said Gertrud Peter. Still before the call of the current sales figures he asked after my personal condition. "the well-being of his co-workers was very important to him. When I was once in the hospital, he sent an enormous bunch flowers to me." Together with a small sweets-present always to their birthday, which the boss did not forget once.
The first Heavyweight Champion of the World from Europe loves flowers just like coffee. "fresh, dark and strong he had to be, in addition always milk and sugar." And what did he drink otherwise? "no question, Coca Cola naturally", says Diethard Boehringer, since 1970 the attorney of the company. Even at ceremonies Schmeling drank Coke instead of beer. There were also times with a glass sparkling wine or wine. "however I would not know that he ever had been drunken. No alcohol is one of his ideals, and he lived that way consistently ", said Boehringer.
Just like his performance of punctuality. Before official travel Max Schmeling was fetched often from his home in Hollenstedt. "We could arrive at every time, he always already stood at the gate and waited for us", reported Boehringer. Also the infinite patience admires Schmelings. "he could not even eat in the restaurant in peace, without people asked him for autographs. But he put the cutlery to the side and fullfiled each desire. He is a man, who rests in himself, and you could feel that when you were together with him."
This was experienced by Gerhard Hamann too. The 66-year old was eye-witness of the solemn delivery of the Coca Cola address to the "beverage industry Max Schmeling & CO. Kg in 1957 taking place at in the noble Atlantic-Hotel Atlantic. As a 20 years old bung from the automobile workshop he met Max Schmeling for the first time personally and was immediately impressed. "He didn’t appear at all as the large star, but was reserved and very natural. With his open smile it took all his shynes away”, remembers Hamann.
The same way he presented himelf as a boss. "Mr. Schmeling had an open ear for each co-worker and did know most of them by name. “He is the best boss of the world ", says Gerhard Hamann. In the 80ties there was installed a “prominent layer” especially in hot summers. "Because of the increased demand extra shifts had to be driven, placed themselves Mr. Schmeling and other gentlemen of the management starting from 22 o'clock against the racking plant or stacked pallets", tells Hamann. In addition the boss from Hollenstedt often came along with fresh strawberries for the workers. "and in the morning he said good-bye with a common cup of coffee." That brought in Max Schmeling more attention among his coworkers than each extra money.
Hamann, today doormen, did the service of Schmeling’s car. Since OPEL 1948 gave a P4 to him, he always held the loyalty for this firm. Mostly Schmeling steered the car himself, because he did not want to entrust himself to other drivers. But he scrolled up every two days with Gerhard Hamann in the workshop. Because his house in Hollenstedt was to be reached only by means of a fastened crushed stone runway, the lacquer was regularly covered with a fine dust, which he wanted to be removed. A t that point Max Schmeling, otherwise unpretentiously and not at all vainly, was special. That was no problem at all constituted Gerhard Hamann , as long as in the trunk again once dead hares or pheasant weren’t found. Those brought the inspired hunter Max Schmeling regularly to the distance, in order to give it away to his co-workers.
A more intimate relationship between boss and staff was rarely experienced by managing director Heiko Stoehr. "Max Schmeling never liked this hierarchical gap and he bridget it in his completely own stile", said Stoehr. When he turned 97 last year, Schmeling had rather considered everyone of his co-worker with a money gift instead of expecting large gifts from them. Stoehr: "And that in this difficult economic situation. This it makes perhaps clear why every worker here is proud to be allowed to work for this unusual man."