Christian Meller

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Christian Meller (born before 1869; died after 1882) was a German-American artistic gymnast and 1880 Gymnastics Festival winner and, as the winner of the purely gymnastics disciplines of eight combat, also German masters in apparatus gymnastics .

Life

Meller had received his main gymnastics training in America, where he was a member of the New York gymnastics club from 1869 to 1877. The New York Gymnastics Club, at the corner of Lexington Avenue and 85th Street , was one of the three main gymnastics clubs in New York City . He had his own German school. As a member of the New York Club, he took part in various federal and district gymnastics and in 1875 at the National Tournament in New York. He won several prizes, including eleven first prizes in popular gymnastics until 1880 .

In 1880 Meller, then a member of the Frankfurter Turnverein, became the first German champion in the German eight-fight at the 5th German Gymnastics Festival in Frankfurt am Main and won the price gymnastics with a large margin of 69.2 with 75 possible points over all other participants, including German- American gymnasts of the Milwaukee Gymnastics Club. In pole vaulting, he reached the record height of 2.80 meters without a springboard - he jumped with bamboo sticks. As a gymnastics festival winner, Meller was awarded a certificate and a silver oak wreath, weighing over a pound, with golden acorns, according to the satirical sheet Frankfurter Latern, differently with a silver laurel wreath. The Americans of German origin counted Christian Meller among the German-American participants during the event, despite his membership in the Frankfurt Gymnastics Club, because, according to Wilhelm Mayerhöfer, editor of the newspaper Der Deutsche Pionier , he was forced back to America by the German Reich after his participation . In the same issue, Heinrich Metzner summarized: “Meller's victory is also a victory for German-American gymnastics, because he mainly acquired gymnastics training during his stay in America. For example, the Frankfurter ' General-Anzeiger ' praises it. ”At that time Meller intended to return to the United States in the fall of 1880. The number 65 of the weekly advertisements for the Principality of Ratzeburg is on the statement that Meller had to leave Germany again Can be seen on page 2: "Since he had previously failed to meet his military obligations in Germany, he had received a hint from the authorities to leave Germany within 14 days."

His youngest brother Michael, belonging to "the seventh club in Nuremberg", who achieved 22nd place and last place with 45 points at the same event in 1880, was successful at the four following German gymnastics festivals in 1885 in Dresden, 1889 in Munich, and in 1894 in Breslau and in Hamburg in 1898.

Christian Meller, later obviously again or still in Germany, was also the initiator for the addition of the addition "Vorwärts" when the gymnastics club Bockenheim was founded - Bockenheim was incorporated into Frankfurt in 1895 - as the gymnastics club Vorwärts Bockenheim in 1882.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ German Gymnastics Championships (I) - German all-around champions of apparatus gymnastics, men . Gymmedia.de.
  2. ↑ Albert Bernhardt Faust: The Germanness in the United States in its meaning for American culture. Volume 2, BG Teubner, 1912, p. 356.
  3. ↑ Gymnastics. In: HW Schultze-Altenwalde: Illustrated guide through New York and the surrounding area. Original edition from 1908.
  4. ^ German gymnastics club in New York. In: Globus - Journal for German Cultural Relations Abroad , Volume 48 , Issue 3/2016, p. 25, vda-kultur.de (PDF)
  5. ^ A b c Heinrich Metzner: Christian Meller. The winner at the Frankfurt Gymnastics Festival. In: The German Pioneer. Memories from the pioneering life of Germans in America. Vol. 11, German Pioneer Association of Cincinnati, 1880, p. 283.
  6. ↑ American Turner Calendar. Dörflinger, 1880, p. 97.
  7. ^ A b Hans Brendicke : The fifth general German gymnastics festival in Frankfurt am Main. From July 25 to 29, 1880 . In: The Gazebo . Issue 35, 1880, pp. 571-575 ( full text [ Wikisource ]).
  8. ^ Epilogue to the 5th German Gymnastics Festival. In: Frankfurter Latern , Volume 16, No. 31, July 31, 1880.
  9. ^ Professor Wilhelm Mayerhöfer. Editor. In: The German Pioneer. Memories from the pioneering life of Germans in America. Volume 11, German Pioneer Association of Cincinnati, 1880, p. 282.
  10. ↑ Weekly advertisements for the Principality of Ratzeburg , Vol. 50, No. 65, August 20, 1880, p. 2. ( available online )
  11. ↑ According to the American Turner Calendar of 1880, p. 98, Michael Meller was a member of the Nuremberg gymnastics club
  12. ^ Herbert Neumann : Frankfurt, the gymnastics festival queen . FAZ, May 29, 2009.
  13. ↑ About us . TGS Forward Frankfurt.
personal data
SURNAME Meller, Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American gymnast
DATE OF BIRTH before 1869
DATE OF DEATH after 1882