Charly Graf

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Charly Graf boxer
Charly Graf (2012)

Charly Graf (2012)
Data
Birth Name Charles Graf
Weight class Heavyweight
nationality German
birthday November 16, 1951
place of birth Mannheim
style Normal display
size approx. 1.82 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles 26th
Victories 18th
Knockout victories 11
Defeats 4 (1 by KO)
draw 4th

Charles "Charly" Graf (born November 16, 1951 in Mannheim ) is a former German heavyweight professional boxer . Graf's eventful life as a "black occupation" and "mixed race child", "barrack child", boxer, criminal, prisoner and German boxing champion in 1985 and later as a "refined" and social worker attracted public attention several times and a. processed in three documentaries and his autobiography .

Life stations

Origin, childhood, youth

Charles "Charly" Graf was born in the post-war period as the illegitimate son of the German worker Elisabeth Graf and the Afro-American soldier Charles Blackwell. His father was a member of the US armed forces, at that time he was a private and was stationed in West Germany as an occupation soldier or as part of the Cold War . He was ordered back to the United States shortly after his son was born .

Charly Graf grew up in what was then the barracks district, the so-called Benz barracks , in the Waldhof district of Mannheim ; a housing estate with "simplest apartments", which was located north of Oberen Riedstrasse in Waldhof-Ost. The makeshift settlement was built by the city of Mannheim for residents who could no longer pay the rents for social housing . In the barracks district "there was poverty with all the problems that go with it".

Graf was exposed to various hidden and open discrimination due to his ancestry as an illegitimate " occupation child " and his skin color as a "mixed race child", comparable to the " Brown Babies " during the actual occupation period after the end of the Second World War . In addition, he was also because of his background as "Barack child" and coll. Stamped "Barackler" from the notorious barrack and slums in Mannheim-Waldhof an outsider. He only found recognition in sports.

Career as a boxer

Amateur career

1969 Charly Graf German youth champion of weightlifting in the middle heavyweight and second in the German junior championship boxing in the heavyweight division .

Professional career

On November 14, 1969, Graf, who was announced by the media as " Ali vom Waldhof ", made his debut as a professional boxer. He had previously broken off his apprenticeship as a plumber . Since he was only 17 years old, he received from the BDB special permission and struck in the Frankfurt Festhalle Lutwin Hahn in the first round ko "He looks like a million dollars," enthused his promoter Joachim Göttert, the media cheered him " Cassius Clay vom Waldhof ”and wrote headlines such as“ Germany's brown bomber ”. At that time he was about 90 kg. After six quick knockout victories against opponents with a negative match record, Graf lost in his first real test against the Yugoslavian professional Ivan Prebeg, who had been European light heavyweight champion until the beginning of the year, on October 2, 1970 in the sixth round by knockout

This defeat slowed his athletic zeal. Graf got into the red light district of Mannheim and ultimately became a criminal. He was imprisoned for around ten years, with interruptions, for gambling, pimping and brutality . When he was not allowed to visit his sick mother, he instigated a prison mutiny in the Mannheim JVA in 1980 and was then transferred to the Stuttgart-Stammheim JVA . There met Graf in regular exercise yard earlier RAF -Terroristen Peter-Jürgen Boock know. The two became friends and Boock not only brought Graf into contact with world literature , but "got him to reflect". In addition, Graf was encouraged to start boxing again in prison.

On July 20, 1984 Graf, who had meanwhile been transferred to the JVA Ludwigsburg and had continued training there with external support from the Stuttgart amateur boxer and local hero Eugen Gruber, was allowed to get back into the ring. For the first time a prisoner was able to prove himself in a boxing match in Germany. Although he was escorted by judicial officers on the march into the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle in Stuttgart , despite these circumstances he made his comeback and knocked out the previously undefeated Dutch heavyweight boxer Andre van den Oetelaar in the second round, coached by his guards and Eugene Gruber. Against Thomas Classen , who was still undefeated , he managed a six-round tie three months later in the Frankfurt Festhalle.

On March 9, 1985 Charly Graf competed against German champion Reiner Hartmann in Düsseldorf . After Hartmann's eyebrow injury, the fight was controversially canceled by the referee in the seventh round. At this point Hartmann was ahead on the scorecards, but the audience's sympathy was for Charly Graf, who was declared the winner. In the revenge battle three months later, there was a controversial tie and Graf retained the championship belt.

On November 29, 1985 he went to defend his title as German champion and met Thomas Classen again, to whom he was subject in a highly controversial decision on points. After this defeat, Graf finally resigned from boxing in frustration. In 2012 Thomas Classen admitted that he had won undeservedly and presented Graf with the championship plaque 27 years after the fight. Classen said in the NDR - Documentation A German Boxer of Eric Friedler "Charly is German Champion" and thus indirectly confirmed the manipulation and influence of his then Boxstalls: literally (2012) according to a recent sighting of the former struggle Sauerland Event and the incorrect decision of Referee of the competition at that time.

Charly Graf was looked after by manager Wolfgang Müller during his career as a boxer.

successes

  • German junior middle-heavyweight weightlifting champion 1969
  • Second place at the German heavyweight junior championships in 1969
  • German heavyweight champion 1985

After boxing, family

After his release from prison in 1988, Graf lived for twelve years in Kempten (Allgäu) , where he worked in various professions, including as a truck driver and for a cattle auctioneer. He then returned to Mannheim, where he volunteered at several schools as a lay teacher, including for young people who were difficult to educate, and lived on social welfare. In April 2008, Graf found a permanent job with the city of Mannheim as a supervisor for socially conspicuous young people.

Charly Graf was married twice, both marriages were divorced. He is the father of three children (one adopted). His son Charly Graf junior also briefly became a professional boxer and completed four successful professional fights in 1996.

Charly Graf describes his life in his autobiography Fighting for Your Life , published in 2011 , which he wrote together with the journalist Armin Himmelrath .

Quote

“My name is Charles Graf, I was born on November 16, 1951 in Mannheim. Most see me as a boxer with limited horizons. And for me the victories are when I destroy their demeanor. Negro, Negro! I always had to fight. It was always a struggle. For me it was a fight, easy, easy ... to make it clear that I am human. "

- Charles "Charly" Graf : In: NDR documentary Ein deutscher Boxer by Eric Friedler, 2012

Publications

literature

  • Helmut Fritz: Charly Graf is not fighting through. In: Pardon , September 1972 issue, ISSN  0031-1855 .
  • Karin Thimm , DuRell Echols: Blacks in Germany. Protocols (=  Piper Series , Volume 73). Piper, Munich 1973, ISBN 3-492-00373-7 , pp. 100-101.

Movies

  • Just punch yourself through - the by no means ideal world of Charly Graf , documentary by Helmut Fritz, production from 1973 for the TV series Sport under the magnifying glass of Südwestfunk , length: 30 minutes
    • TV broadcast and a. the first on December 4, 1973
  • Der Schwarze Graf (TV title: Bomber Charly - career of a boxer ; DVD title: Schwarzer Graf ), documentary by Walter Krieg for Das Erste , production for the BR from 2007, length (TV version): 75 minutes (as a feature film and DVD: 90 minutes)
    • World premiere on November 26th, 2011 in the Atlantis Kino in Mannheim
    • First TV broadcast on April 13, 2008 on Das Erste
    • The black count , TV recording , VHS cassette, 75 minutes, OCLC 553012218
    • Schwarzer Graf , Basis-Film Verleih Berlin, DVD (basisdvd), 90 minutes
  • Ein deutscher Boxer (reference title: Charly Graf - Ein deutscher Boxer ), documentary by Eric Friedler for Das Erste, production for NDR from 2012, length: 90 minutes

Web links

Commons : Charly Graf  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Charly Graf, with Armin Himmelrath : Fight for your life. The boxer and the children from the Waldhof. Patmos, Ostfildern 2011, ISBN 978-3-8436-0015-6 ( autobiography ).
  2. ↑ a b Michail Krausnick , Jürgen Enders: It's the last dirt for them! Young people in a homeless community. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1980, ISBN 3-499-20244-1 .
  3. ^ A b Johannes Schwitalla: Vogelstang. In: Werner Kallmeyer (Ed.): Communication in the city. Part 2: Ethnographies of Mannheim districts (=  writings of the Institute for the German Language , Volume 4.2). de Gruyter, Berlin a. a. 1995, ISBN 3-11-014381-X , pp. 189-343, here p. 218.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Michael Hanfeld : TV preview: The boxer Charly Graf. You are a German master . In: FAZ from June 11, 2012; Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  5. ↑ Boxing. Federal Republic. Completely at the end . In: Der Spiegel , No. 42/1970 of October 12, 1970, p. 210; Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  6. ↑ Free in the ring . In: Der Spiegel No. 44/1984 of October 29, 1984, pages 220-221; Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  7. ↑ Charly Graf jr in the BoxRec database; Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  8. ↑ a b c Charly Graf - A German boxer . Report on NDR.de ; Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  9. ↑ a b The Black Count in the Internet Movie Database (English); Retrieved July 5, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Count, Charly
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Count, Charles
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German boxer
DATE OF BIRTH November 16, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Mannheim