Ferry Ohrtmann

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Franz "Ferry" Ohrtmann (born February 2, 1894 in Aschersleben , † August 8, 1969 in Berlin ) was a German hall manager , organizer and Nazi sports official.

Career as an organizer until 1945

After graduating from high school, Franz Ohrtmann completed a commercial apprenticeship with the Berlin trading company . At 26 he was already on the board of a bank, on whose behalf he had the Berlin Sports Palace redesigned in 1921 . He was also a cuirassier officer and a successful tournament rider. In the First World War he served as Rittmeister in the General Staff . Because he had spent some time in Hungary in his youth , he called himself "Ferry" (Hungarian nickname of Ferenc ).

From the 1920s to the 1930s, Ferry Ohrtmann headed various event halls in Germany: the Jahrhunderthalle in Breslau , the Berlin Sports Palace (1921–1925) and the Dortmund Westfalenhalle (1925–1933) as well as the Rhineland Hall in Cologne . In 1933 he returned to Berlin as head of the hall when “ Deutschlandhalle AG” was founded and he took over as its chairman. He commissioned the Dortmund company Wiemer & Trachte , with whom he had already built the Westfalenhalle, to build the “largest multi-purpose hall in the world”, which was completed in just nine months. Ohrtmann, who is said to have attached great importance to the address "General Director", is considered to be the "inventor" of numerous then new types of events such as indoor riding tournaments and people, animals, sensations (circus show) , which took place in the Deutschlandhalle from 1937 to the 1990s.

Ohrtmann as Reichsradsportführer

From August 1933 to 1935, Ohrtmann was, according to the Berlin journalist Fredy Budzinski, a member of the SS and since 1925 of the NSDAP , as leader of the " German Cyclists Association " (DRV) Reichsradsportführer. He brought the 40 individual cycling associations together in the DRV in the course of the synchronization . When the Reichssportführer Hans von Tschammer und Osten considered banning six-day races, Ohrtmann, who himself had given the starting shot for the Berlin six-day race in November 1933, tried to turn this ban. In a letter from Tschammer und Osten, he explained the importance of six-day races for sport and business and proposed new rules for a “German” six-day race (no entry fee, no jersey advertising, etc.). As a result, two of these events were held in Berlin and Dortmund in accordance with the new rules in 1934, but they were unsuccessful because, for example, the foreign cycling stars refused to start under the new conditions. Without these crowd pullers, the spectators would also stay away. After that, the organization of six-day races was discontinued. Ohrtmann himself is said to have been released from his post as Reichsradsportführer at his own request in order to devote himself more to the construction of the Deutschlandhalle and the organization of events.

After the war, Carl Diem issued the former Reichsradsportführer Ohrtmann with a “ Persilschein ”: “I know that Mr. Ohrtmann has joined the party, but I have not heard of any activity in favor of the party, and this would contradict the picture that I have gained from the personality of Mr. Ohrtmann. "

After the war

In 1957 the Deutschlandhalle, which had been largely destroyed in a bombing raid in January 1943, was rebuilt. Ohrtmann became head of the hall again and remained so until his death. Shortly before that, he had received the “German Equestrian Cross” in gold and was honored as “Showman Number One in Europe” on his 75th birthday. He died in 1969 of a pulmonary embolism. In a laudation it was said: “One of the few greats from an era in which the noble and noble still counted.” Budzinski, who after the war criticized Ohrtmann's political past as a member of the NSDAP, but then he turned 80 in 1959. Birthday as a guest, wrote in a condolence letter to his widow: “Not everything in the period between 1920 and 1945 was good and enjoyable, but we as men talked hand in hand and face to face to get together again to serve sport and thus our fatherland. "

In memory of Ohrtmann, the Ferry-Ohrtmann trophy was awarded after his death at the indoor riding tournament “Grand Prix of Germany” .

Individual evidence

  1. Place of birth according to Fischer: Berlin sports facilities , other sources indicate Halberstadt.
  2. ^ A b Gerhard Fischer: Berlin sports facilities. History and stories . Berlin 1992, p. 134f.
  3. 50 years of Deutschlandhalle . Edited by AMK Berlin, Berlin 1985 p. 50f.
  4. ^ Historical archive of the city of Cologne, Best. 1259 (Diem), sheet 134 v. April 14, 1957
  5. Alfons Arenhövel (Ed.): Arena of Passions - The Berlin Sports Palace and its Events 1910–1973 , Arenhövel, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-922912-13-3 , p. 34
  6. ^ Letter from Reichsradsportführer Franz Ohrtmann to Reichssportführer Hans von Tschammer und Osten dated December 11, 1933, Fredy Budzinski archive in the Central Library of Sports Science of the German Sport University Cologne, No. 94
  7. Historical Archive of the City of Cologne, Best. 1259 (Diem), No. 1064, Sheet 1 (Ohrtmann)
  8. 1967 on evvc.org
  9. 1969 evvc.org
  10. ^ Letter from Fredy Budzinski to Mrs. Ohrtmann v. August 18, 1969, Fredy Budzinski archive in the Central Sports Science Library of the German Sport University Cologne, No. 171
  11. gabathuler.li ( Memento of the original from January 9, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 97 kB)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gabathuler.li