Georg Fink (wrestler)

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Georg Fink (born May 11, 1915 in Göppingen , † June 25, 1994 in Wangen in the district of Göppingen) was a German wrestler in the light, world and middleweight classes in both styles (Greco-Roman and freestyle).

Georg Fink, 1941

biography

Fink's athletic career began with athletics and football before turning to wrestling with great success. On the mat for the first time at the age of sixteen, he was already six months later in the active team of the Göppingen sports club , which was then the South German champion.

Fink was not bursting with strength, but was a technically skilled wrestler who, thanks to his sensitive specialty, the swing of the hips, brought many of his opponents into difficulty and was able to defeat them.

In 1932 he took part for the first time in German youth championships and was third in the welterweight division. A year later he became German junior middleweight champion. In the same year he defeated the probably best wrestler of the time, the Munich European Champion Sebastian Hering on points at a tournament in Göppingen. In 1936 he was the first German vice-champion in welterweight in the Greco-Roman style. He got into the Olympic squad, but three weeks before the start of the Berlin Games he broke his arm while fighting the later silver medal winner Wolfgang Ehrl (Munich) and spent the time of the Olympic Games in hospital with "wrestling pains".

After his recovery, Fink continued to mix in the top German class. From 1937 to 1940 he was on the podium at the German welterweight wrestling championships in the Greco-Roman style. He was runner-up twice and came third twice. Again and again he met the multiple European and Olympic champion Fritz Schäfer , whom he was able to beat in friendship but never in title fights, and there was also bad luck like at the German championships in 1937. The Kölnische Zeitung reported at the time: “... Fink already moved in the first minute a hip pull, with Schäfer coming on both shoulders, but this moment of defeat was unfortunately missed by the judges. ”Fink represented the German colors six times in international matches. He was successful five times.

Fink was able to get through war in his best wrestling age - he fought as a group leader with the rank of sergeant in a tank destroyer unit in the French and Russian campaigns and was awarded the Iron Cross 1st class in Russia on August 4, 1943 - and was not captured from 1941 to 1946 Compete in competitions.

After the war, he was three times in a row, now starting for TV Jahn Göppingen , South German lightweight champion (1947-1949), leaving such renowned wrestlers as the Olympic champion Wolfgang Ehrl and the later German champion and teammate Walter Hahn behind. At the German championships in 1949 he was third in the lightweight (Greco-Roman). In total, he was eight times Württemberg champion in wrestling.

At the end of his career he only made himself available for team fights before he retired completely in 1954 at the age of 39 and after more than a thousand fights on the mat. In the same year he was awarded the sports plaque of honor from his hometown Göppingen.

swell

  • One hundred years of wrestling in Germany, Der Ringer Verlag, Niedernberg, 1991.
  • NWZ Göppingen, Kreisnachrichten, article from October 18, 1977, author Heino Andre, "Lommelig auf Kreuz".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kölnische Zeitung, Stadtanzeiger, Morgenblatt No. 121, March 8, 1937.
  2. ↑ Certificate of the award of the "Sports Plaque of Honor of the City of Göppingen", Göppingen, in January 1954.
personal data
SURNAME Fink, Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German wrestler in light and welterweight in both styles (Greco-Roman and freestyle)
DATE OF BIRTH May 11, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Goeppingen
DATE OF DEATH June 25, 1994
Place of death Wangen in the Göppingen district