Bernhard Skamper

Bernhard Paul Julius Skamper (born October 5, 1898 in Hanover , † March 3, 1964 in Cologne ) was a German swimmer, sports journalist , trainer and association official.

Bernhard Skamper was described as the “Rhenish boy wonder” of swimming at a young age. He won a total of five German championship titles and swam ten German records.

First World War and the interwar period

In 1916 in Berlin, at the age of 18, he won the German War Championship over 1500 m freestyle. From 1916 to 1918 Skamper had to take part in the First World War as a Bavarian mountain trooper and was awarded for bravery.

In 1920 he became German champion in Darmstadt in both the 100 m back and the 1500 m crawl, a feat that no other swimmer could manage before or after him. With his winning time of 1: 18.6 minutes over 100 m back and a time of 2: 56.8 minutes over 200 m back (not an official championship discipline at that time), he would have been the favorite for the Olympic Games in Antwerp . However, as a result of the First World War, Germany was excluded from all international sports associations and was not invited to the 1920 Olympic Games.

After completing his career as an active swimmer, he became the coach of SC Sparta Cologne . At the same time, he made a name for himself as a sports journalist. Based on his extensive specialist knowledge and his own experience as an active athlete, he created a relaxed, columnist style of writing that was new in sports journalism at the time. He wrote mostly about swimming, boxing, and cycling for virtually every newspaper that was leading in sports coverage at the time , including a. for "Der Mittag" in Düsseldorf.

National Socialism

In 1934 Bernhard Skamper married his swimming student Elisabeth Dahlen, who gave birth to their son Karl-Bernd Skamper in 1936 , who later also became a sports journalist. At the same time, Bernhard Skamper had to accept severe professional restrictions since the seizure of power , as his father was Jewish and he was therefore considered a " half-Jew ". At the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin , he was even expelled from the press box as undesirable .

The marriage ended in divorce in 1940, and Bernhard Skamper got by with odd jobs. Around 1943 he was taken to the Lönnewitz forced labor camp near Herzberg , where he had to work for the Todt Organization . A few weeks before the end of the war, he managed to escape and went into hiding with friends.

post war period

After the liberation of Germany, Skamper was initially unable to work as a sports journalist because there were hardly any newspapers. That is why he organized professional boxing events z. B. with Max Schmeling and Hein ten Hoff , worked as referee in boxing matches and stadium announcer in bicycle races.

At the same time he was involved in the reconstruction of German swimming and at the meeting of the World Swimming Association FINA in Milan in 1949, he ensured that the German Swimming Association was the first German sports association to be re-accepted into the world association. His status as a persecuted by the Nazis contributed to his international acceptance. In the same year he also founded the trade journal "German Swimming Sports".

Also in 1949, Bernhard Skamper was one of the re-founders of the National Olympic Committee for Germany . In the meantime he had become one of the most respected sports journalists in Germany again. In 1958, now already 60 years old, he accepted for the first time an offer for a permanent position as head of sport for radio at Westdeutscher Rundfunk , after having worked as a freelance journalist up until then. He retired in October 1963.

On March 3, 1964, at the age of 65, he died of a stroke in his apartment in Cologne. His grave in Cologne's southern cemetery was cleared after the period of use had expired .

literature

• Idealism carries the great work. For the 75th anniversary of the German Swimming Association , published by the German Swimming Association, 1961
• 100 years of the German Swimming Association . Editor Karl Adolf Scherer. Publisher of the German Swimming Association Wirtschaftsdienst GmbH. 1986
• West German Swimming Association District Cologne. Festschrift for the 50th anniversary . Published by West German Swimming Association, Cologne District, 1996
• Swimming in the past and present , Sportverlag Berlin 1979

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Death certificate no. 389 from March 4, 1964, Cologne Old Town registry office. LAV NRW R civil status register, accessed on July 31, 2020 . 
2. ^ Bernhard Skamper in the Find a Grave database . Accessed July 31, 2020 (English).