Fritz Schaumburg

Friedrich "Fritz" Ernst Johann Schaumburg (born December 30, 1905 in Hagen ; † December 18, 1988 in Duisburg ) was a German athlete and multiple German champion in the 1,500 meter run .

Athletic career

Fritz Schaumburg grew up with relatives in Hünxe , where his sporting career began - not as a track and field athlete, but initially as a football player. After making contact with long distance runners from his club, he decided to switch to athletics at the age of 19 . From Hünxe, his sporting career then took him via Münster to Oberhausen .

For his new club, the Police SV Oberhausen, he won the title in the 5000-meter run at the German Athletics Championships in 1931 . However, Schaumburg did not specialize in the 5000 meters, but ran all distances from 800 to 10,000 meters. His most successful discipline over the next few years was the 1,500 meter run. At the German Championships in 1934 he won this distance for the first time and successfully defended the title three times from 1935 to 1937 (most recently in the service of Police SV Berlin ). During his time in Oberhausen, he also started for the police sports club in neighboring Mülheim an der Ruhr , where he served as a police officer.

In international competitions he competed several times against the Finnish world-class runner Paavo Nurmi and took second and third place once. In 1935, Schaumburg was the first German to beat all English runners who dominated the 1500 meters at the time. In 1936 he set a new German record over 3000 meters in Stockholm , after having run the 2000 meters in the German best a year earlier. In view of the strong European competition, however, it was only enough for fourth place in Sweden. At the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin , he competed for Germany and made it to the final of the 1500 meters. Here, however, the world's elite proved to be superior and relegated him to tenth place.

In 1942, Schaumburg was drafted into the Wehrmacht and relocated to Russia on the Eastern Front. He lost his right foot in fights, which put an end to his career as a runner for all time. After the end of the war he returned to Oberhausen, where from then on he coached the middle-distance runners of the Oberhausen gymnastics club in 1973.

annotation

Some historical (newspaper) sources incorrectly speak of "Fritz Schauenburg" instead of "Fritz Schaumburg". This is clearly refuted by documents from the Mülheim registry office (marriage certificate).

swell

• Willi Rüter: Mülheimer in the national jersey - Fritz Schauenburg . In: Neue Ruhr Zeitung from 24./25. May 1955
• West German General Newspaper v. August 12, 1978
• City archive Mülheim an der Ruhr, holdings 1195, 1295 a. 1550