Fritz Schilgen
Friedrich "Fritz" Schilgen (born September 8, 1906 in Kronberg im Taunus ; † September 12, 2005 ibid) was a German athlete and final runner in the torch relay at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin .
Life
Friedrich Schilgen was born in Kronberg im Taunus in 1906 as the second son of the rector of the Kronberg secondary school. After the First World War he started his career at MTV Kronberg as an athlete in medium and long-distance running .
He studied electrical engineering with a focus on communications engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt . In his diploma thesis, he designed a loudspeaker system for the university stadium of the TH Darmstadt, which was needed for the 4th International Student Championship, which took place in Darmstadt at the beginning of August 1930. On the mediation of Waldemar Petersen , he went to AEG in Berlin after graduating . As a laboratory engineer at AEG, he later developed 35 patents.
With the support of Ernst Söllinger and one of his professors, he also became known nationally. In 1929, 1931 and 1933 Schilgen was third in the German championships in the 1,500 meter run . At the University World Games in 1928 he won the silver medal with the 4 x 400 meter relay and in 1930 in Darmstadt the bronze medal in the 5000 meter run in 15: 27.7 minutes.
He started from 1926 to 1932 for ASC Darmstadt , 1933 for SG Siemens Berlin, 1935 to 1935 for Telefunken Berlin and later for SC Victoria Hamburg and ASC Darmstadt.
On March 21, 1936, he married Ursula Gerlach. He had five children with her.
On August 1, 1936, Fritz Schilgen lit the Olympic flame of the XI. Olympic Games in Berlin. Fritz Schilgen always refused membership in the NSDAP and was never a member of the Olympic team himself. However, Leni Riefenstahl proposed him as the final runner in the torch relay because his body " optimally brought out the ideal of the Germanic athlete " in the film . In an elimination, he prevailed with his "floating step" against the decathlete Hermann Lemperle and the discus thrower Erich Reymann.
Six years earlier, to the exact day, Fritz Schilgen had already taken the opening oath at the 4th International Student Championships in the university stadium of the TH Darmstadt.
After the end of the Second World War , Schilgen became an advisor to the Olympic Committee. In 1972 he was involved in the organization of the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. In 1996 Schilgen lit the Olympic flame in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin for the 100th anniversary of the modern Olympic Games .
He died four days after his 99th birthday in Kronberg im Taunus, the place where he was born.
Publications
- 1931: The loudspeaker system in the stadium of the Technical University of Darmstadt, in: Elektrotechnische Zeitschrift, 52nd year, December 31, 1931, pp. 1589–1592.
literature
- Raimund and Ilse Lore Kluber: Ernst Söllinger - a Munich resident in Darmstadt, Darmstadt 1996, self-published.
- 100 years of university sports - Technical University of Darmstadt, commemorative publication on the occasion of the 100th anniversary, Darmstadt 2012.
Web links
- “Olympic flame flickers in Berlin. The last torch-bearer from 1936, Fritz Schilgen, lit the flame " (dpa report from April 16, 1996)
- Arnd Krüger : The Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda and the Nazi Olympics of 1936. In: RK BARNEY, KB WAMSLEY u. a. (Ed.): Global and Cultural Critique: Problematizing the Olympic Games. (⇐ 4th International Symposium for Olympic Research). London, Ont .: University of Western Ontario 1998, 33 - 48. http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/ISOR/ISOR1998g.pdf
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Schilgen, Fritz |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Schilgen, Friedrich |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German athlete |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 8, 1906 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kronberg im Taunus |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 12, 2005 |
| Place of death | Kronberg im Taunus |