Georg Hackenschmidt

Georg Hackenschmidt
Hackenschmidt 1903
Data
Ring name	George Hackenschmidt
height	175 cm
Fighting weight	99 kg
birth	July 20, 1878 Dorpat , Russian Empire
death	February 19, 1968 Dulwich (London) , England
Trained by	Georg Lurich
debut	1896
retirement	1911

Georg Hackenschmidt (born July 20, 1878 in Dorpat , Estonia Governorate , Russian Empire , † February 19, 1968 in Dulwich (London) , England ) was a wrestler and weightlifter . He was world champion of professional wrestlers in Greco-Roman style in 1901 and in free style ( catch-as-catch-can ) from 1905 to 1908.

Development and first successes as an amateur

Georg Hackenschmidt was the son of a Baltic German father and an Estonian-Swedish mother. He grew up in Dorpat, where he also attended the German-language secondary school. He was a good gymnast as a kid and began exercising with dumbbells when he was 13. In 1895 he left school and did an internship in Reval (Tallinn) to study engineering. In 1896 he became a member of the athletics and cycling club Reval and trained there under the guidance of coach Andruschkewitsch weightlifting and wrestling. In September 1896 he met the then famous wrestler and weightlifter Georg Lurich and trained with him for a few weeks. At the end of 1896 he reached 97 kg in pushing and 55 kg in one-armed snatch.

In February 1897 the German wrestler Fritz Konietzko came to Reval from Magdeburg . Georg Hackenschmidt, who meanwhile weighed almost 90 kg, could not defeat the fast and agile Konietzko, who weighed only 75 kg. He therefore intensified his strength training and in July 1897 was able to push 110 kg. In December 1897, Georg Hackenschmidt suffered an arm injury that caused him major problems in training. So he went to Saint Petersburg and had Dr. Wladislaw von Krajewski , the founder of the local athletics and cycling club. Krajewski immediately recognized the unusual potential that was in Georg Hackenschmidt and initiated his relocation to St. Petersburg. Dr. Krajewski became Georg Hackenschmidt's great mentor for the next few years, and he supported him in all matters.

Georg increased his weightlifting performance continuously. In January 1898 he already brought 122 kg to the high distance. In February 1898 he won a weightlifting competition in Saint Petersburg, where he hit a phenomenal 115 kg with one arm. In April 1898 he became Russian weightlifting champion.

In April 1898, the French professional wrestler Paul Pons , who at that time was already one of the best professional wrestlers in the world, visited Saint Petersburg. Georg Hackenschmidt competed against him in a challenge fight and, to everyone's surprise, defeated Pons in 5 minutes. Then he also won over the Pole Jankowsky in 11 minutes. These were Georg Hackenschmidt's first major successes as a wrestler.

In the summer of 1898 Georg stayed in Vienna , where he competed in weightlifting against world champion Wilhelm Türk . Türk won this competition ahead of Wiener Binder and Georg Hackenschmidt. In Vienna he fought for the first time against the Russian master Alexander Schmelling in the Greco-Roman style. In two fights none of the opponents succeeded in defeating the other, so that these fights were rated "without result". At the same event Georg defeated the German Michael Hitzler in 5 minutes and the Viennese Burghardt and Wetesa in 2 minutes each.

In 1898 Georg Hackenschmidt became the Russian heavyweight amateur champion, defeating Alexander Schmelling with a half-Nelson in 25 minutes in the final.

In August 1898 he became European heavyweight champion in Vienna , defeating Michael Hitzler, Andreas Wallisch, Austria, Xaver Blätte , Germany, and Burghardt. Alexander Schmelling was eliminated in the preliminary round against Burghardt.

Finally, Georg Hackenschmidt also won the Finnish championship for amateurs in 1898, ahead of Carl Allén and L. Tscherepanoff.

In the early summer of 1899, Georg Hackenschmidt hit 148 kg, but again injured his shoulder and right arm during weightlifting training, so that he could not train fully for a few months.

Success as a professional wrestler

Postcard around 1900

After Georg Hackenschmidt was recovered to some extent, he started at the world championship of professional wrestlers in Paris in 1899 . He won his first fight there against Porthos, France in 18 seconds, shouldered Robinet from France in 4 minutes and Aimable de la Calmette from France in 47 minutes. In the 4th fight he fought against Laurent le Beaucairois from France in 30 minutes. Then his injury made itself so noticeable again that he had to give up the tournament.

In 1899 Georg Hackenschmidt also took part in a world championship in Saint Petersburg. In the early years it was common for world championships to be held several times in one year. In Saint Petersburg he came in 3rd place behind Nikola Petrow from Bulgaria and John Pohl from Germany. No individual results are known for this championship.

At the beginning of 1900 Georg won a large professional wrestler tournament in Moscow and shortly afterwards won another tournament in Moscow, where he won the world class wrestlers Aimable de la Calmette , Nikolai Petrow, Constant le Boucher , Belgium, Peyrousse, France and Michailow, Bulgaria defeated.

In 1900 a big tournament took place in Vienna , which was won by Paul Pons in front of Kara Ahmet , Turkey and Laurent le Beaucairois. Georg Hackenschmidt was late for this tournament, so that he could no longer take part in the competition. At the request of the public, he took part in a number of challenging fights and defeated the Spaniard Chosella in 29 seconds, the Dutch Dirk von den Berg in 22 minutes, the German Fengler in 26 minutes and Laurent le Beaucairois in 60 minutes. The other top wrestlers had refused to take on Hackenschmidt.

In September 1900 Georg Hackenschmidt won the "Grand Prize of Saxony " in Dresden . He defeated among others Winzer, Hamburg in 7 minutes, Burghardt in 6 minutes, Emilio Raicevich from Trieste in 3 minutes, Giovanni Raicevich from Trieste in 6 minutes, Fengler in 2 minutes, Konietzko in 1 minute, Sebastian Müller, Germany, in 3 Minutes, Maurice Gambier , France in 5 minutes and Michael Hitzler in 23 minutes.

At the end of September 1900, Georg wrestled in another tournament in the Kaufmannschen clubhouse in Chemnitz , which he won ahead of Hitzler and Gambier. At the same time Georg Lurich started a tournament in the Mosella Hall in Chemnitz. Hackenschmidt challenged Lurich. Lurich agreed to take on Hackenschmidt on September 19, 1900, but left before that.

Georg Hackenschmidt then went to Budapest and won a tournament there ahead of Kara Ahmet , Dirk van den Berg and Aimable de la Constant. In this tournament he defeated Robinet in 8 minutes, Albert de Paris in 5 minutes and Kara Ahmet in 60 minutes. Finally, in October 1900, he also won a tournament in Graz in front of the German Rasso.

1901 to 1905

In the first few months of 1901, Georg Hackenschmidt took a long break from training and competitions to heal his arm and shoulder injuries. He only started again in October 1901 at a tournament in Munich , which he won with victories over Burghardt in 6 minutes, Cassino, France in 30 seconds, Michael Hitzler in 23 minutes, Rödel, Germany in 27 minutes, Xaver Blätte in 2 minutes , Jakob Koch , Germany in 25 minutes and Heinrich Eberle , Germany in 5 minutes, won.

Georg Hackenschmidt also visited the famous athlete and innkeeper Hans Steyrer in Munich. On this occasion he also lifted the legendary stone of "Steyrer Hans" weighing 508 pounds with one hand. It is not known how high he lifted it.

The first high point in Georg Hackenschmidt's career was the world championship for professional wrestlers from November 30th to December 19th, 1901 in the Cassino de Paris. Georg Hackenschmidt was unbeaten world champion there. On the way he defeated Mario, France in 3 minutes, Buisson, France, in 3¼ minutes, Alexander le Marseilles, France in 20 minutes, Omer de Bouillon , Belgium in 20 minutes, Jakob Koch in 20 minutes, Maurice Gambier in 2 minutes, Emile Vervet, France in 6 minutes, Raoul le Boucher , France in 21 minutes and Constant le Boucher in 8 minutes. Since the audience was so enthusiastic, he went to a second fight against le Boucher, from which he emerged again as the winner.

Georg Hackenschmidt also won the revenge tournament in Paris at the end of December 1901, ahead of Constant le Boucher, Omer de Bouillon, Raoul le Boucher, Michael Hitzler and Emile Vervet.

In January 1902 Georg Hackenschmidt visited the German master trainer Theodor Siebert in Alsleben in Saxony-Anhalt . He trained with him for a few weeks and received valuable tips on how to treat his vulnerable arm.

In the summer of 1902, Georg Hackenschmidt went to England with his friend Jakob Koch . He trained there and started at several smaller events, where he usually shouldered six to seven wrestlers in a short time. At the same time, the American Joe Carkeek was in England, who had recently defeated Laurent le Beaucairois, Maurice Gambier and Stanislaus Pytlasinski from Poland in France . Hackenschmidt challenged Carkeek and after a long back and forth it came to two fights Hackenschmidt against Carkeek, which Hackenschmidt won in 22 minutes and 18 minutes.

In the late summer of 1902, Georg and Jakob Koch took part in three tournaments in Belgium. In Brussels , Liège and Namur , he won ahead of Koch.

In 1903, again in England, Georg Hackenschmidt defeated the strong wrestlers Tom Cannon, Tom Connors, Tom Mac Inerney and Tom Clayton and then also Bech-Olsen, the best Danish professional wrestler.

He then wanted to start again at the World Championship of professional wrestlers in Greco-Roman style in Paris, but had to cancel because of rheumatic complaints. Nevertheless, he was able to defeat the Greek Antonio Pieri ("the terrible Greek"), a very experienced, 45-year-old wrestler, in 25 minutes in the Oxford Music Hall in London in October 1903 . In the revenge between Hackenschmidt and Pieri in November 1903, Hackenschmidt won in the Greco-Roman style in 17 minutes, 11 seconds and in the American catch-as-catch-can, a wrestling style that Georg had acquired in England, in 15 minutes and 25 seconds.

Pieri, who also appeared as a promoter, then paired Hackenschmidt with the dreaded Turk Ahmed Madrali. Georg made short work of this opponent and threw him on his shoulders in 45 seconds. Madrali injured himself in the process, so that he could no longer compete for the intended second encounter.

On July 2, 1904, Georg Hackenschmidt met the American free style master Tom Jenkins in the Albert Hall in London in front of 6,000 spectators . He defeated Jenkins in catch-as-catch-can in the first fight in 20 minutes and 37 seconds and in the second fight in 14 minutes and 27 seconds. With these victories he drew attention to his claims for the world championship title in catch-as-catch-can.

In September 1904 Georg Hackenschmidt traveled to Australia and New Zealand for four months . There he fell ill and was hospitalized for five weeks. Recovered, he defeated the Indians Buttan Singh and Gunga Brahm and also the Australian champion of professional wrestlers Clarence Weber in 10 minutes and the South African champion Grotz in 15 minutes. In Australia, Georg Hackenschmidt only competed in the catch-as-catch-can, because the Greco-Roman. Wrestling was completely unknown there.

After a short stay in New Zealand, where Georg Hackenschmidt defeated several unknown opponents in a short time on several evenings, he traveled to the United States.

On May 4, 1905, the revenge fights against the US master Tom Jenkins were in Madison Square Garden in New York City . The fight was catch-as-catch-can and Georg Hackenschmidt left the mat in two fights, after 31 minutes and 15 seconds and after 22 minutes and 4 seconds, as the winner. He was then recognized as the unrestricted world champion in catch-as-catch-can.

Subsequently, Georg Hackenschmidt defeated James Parr from Lancashire in 7 minutes and 50 seconds and won three times in Canada against Emile Maupass in less than 8 minutes of fighting time.

After his return to England, Georg defeated the Scottish champion Alexander Munro in Ibrox Park of the Glasgow Rangers in 22 minutes 40 seconds and in 11 minutes and 11 seconds.

From 1908

After this fight Georg Hackenschmidt took a longer break. He only wrestled against a known opponent on February 6, 1908, winning against Meanwhile Rogers at the Oxford Music Hall in London in 7 minutes, 35 seconds and in 6 minutes and 45 seconds.

Then Georg Hackenschmidt traveled back to the United States because he had to defend his world title against the American Frank Gotch . First he defeated Neil Olsen and Steg Miller in New York in Grand Central Park and won in Boston over John Perelli, Albert Ouvray and seven other lesser-known wrestlers. On this occasion Georg Hackenschmidt was received by President Theodore Roosevelt , who was in Boston .

In Philadelphia, victories over Carl Darschn in 3 minutes and 45 minutes and Henry Paulson in 5 minutes and 9 seconds followed.

After these fights, Georg Hackenschmidt was invited by Theodore Roosevelt to the White House, where they talked for a long time.

Finally, on April 3, 1908, in front of 40,000 spectators in the Dexter Park Pavilion in Chicago, the encounter "Hackenschmidt versus Gotch" took place. After a long and tough struggle, Frank Gotch finally won in 2 hours and 3 minutes of fighting time. Gotch was the new world champion.

After this fight Georg Hackenschmidt took on Stanislaus Zbyszko from Poland in London , but suffered a serious knee injury and had to give up.

Gotch's revenge fight against Hackenschmidt, which was longed for by the American audience, only took place on September 4, 1911 in Corniskey Park in Chicago in front of 33,000 spectators this time. The younger Gotch proved to be the stronger wrestler again and won against George Hackenschmidt in 27 minutes and in the second fight in 6 minutes.

After this fight, however, accusations of Georg Hackenschmidt against Frank Gotch were loud, in which Hackenschmidt accused Gotch that he had oiled himself before the fight so that he could not get hold of him, and that he had rubbed oil in his eyes and was very hard and in general fought brutally. Of course, these allegations no longer changed the outcome of the fighting.

After this fight, Georg Hackenschmidt did not take part in any further fights.

He was surprised by the outbreak of war in Germany in 1914 and spent the years 1914 to 1918 in a German internment camp. After the First World War , he went to France, got married there and received French citizenship . He wrote training instructions and even a philosophical work consisting of six volumes with the title “Man and the Cosmic Contrast to Sense and Spirit”, which he published in 1935.

Georg Hackenschmidt finally went to England and, at the age of 74, received the British citizenship he so much wanted. He was one of the few professional wrestlers who knew how to profitably invest the prize money he received for his victories. He therefore died as a wealthy man on February 19, 1968 in Dulwich, England, at the age of 90.

Hackenschmidt squat in weight training

The so-called Hackenschmidt squat is a reminder of Georg Hackenschmidt , an exercise that is still performed today in weight training. In this exercise, the athlete holds the barbell behind his thighs with both hands and performs the squats in this way. Alternatively, the exercise is performed on a machine, the vertical or slightly inclined sled of which is moved up and down by the athlete. With this exercise, especially the leg extensors (to be quadriceps ) and buttocks muscle ( gluteus ) trained.

literature

• “Athletics” No. 10 of March 8, 1934, pages 2 to 4
• A. von Guretzki: The modern wrestling match , Verlag FW Gloeckner & Co., Leipzig, 1922,

Web links

Commons : Georg Hackenschmidt  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Georg Hackenschmidt on postcards