Gretel Bergmann

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Margaret "Gretel" Bergmann-Lambert (born April 12, 1914 in Laupheim , † July 25, 2017 in New York City ) was a German athlete . Although she was one of the best German high jumpers at the time , the Nazi regime did not nominate her for the 1936 Summer Olympics because of her Jewish origins , but rather prevented her from participating for anti-Semitic reasons . She had been a US citizen since 1942 . She won several British and US American as well as regional German athletics championships.

Life and sporting success

Memorial plaque in the house at Rudolstädter Strasse 77 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf

Gretel Bergmann was the daughter of the entrepreneur Edwin Bergmann ( Bergmann GmbH & Co. KG ) from the small town of Laupheim in Upper Swabia. She started her career in her hometown. In 1930 she joined the Ulmer Fußball-Verein 1894 (UFV) and, as a 16-year-old, achieved second place in the southern German championships in the high jump with 1.47 m. The following year she won the title with a skipped height of 1.46 m; before that she had already jumped 1.50 m, the annual best performance in southern Germany. In 1932 she was also the South German Champion. Despite continued superiority in the region, she did not appear at German championships . At the 1932 Olympic Games took Helma Notte and Ellen Braumüller part as German vaulters.

After the National Socialists came to power , Gretel Bergmann was expelled from her sports club in April 1933 because of her Jewish origins. She then left Germany and took part on June 30, 1934 for the Polytechnics Ladies AC in the open British championships (Women's AAA Championships) . She won the high jump with 1.55 m.

The Nazi regime forced Gretel Bergmann to return and train for the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin by threatening her family who had remained in Germany with reprisals. The background was his aim to present Germany as a cosmopolitan and tolerant country. It should also have been decisive that the Americans demanded the participation of German Jews, since otherwise they would have boycotted the games. Without suitable training opportunities, their situation with regard to a competition was made more difficult because there were no longer any equivalent training opportunities for Jews in Nazi Germany. Although she was supposed to be part of the Olympic team, she was not allowed to start in any club, but instead joined the Jewish sports association Schild . She was out for hours practicing on a sports field in Stuttgart .

Despite these adversities, she jumped 1.55 m again in the women's Olympic competition in Ulm in the summer of 1935 and a few weeks later, in early July, she won the Württemberg championship with 1.50 m. However , she was not involved in the next Olympic competition immediately afterwards in Hamburg (12 jumpers took part) and she was also absent from the German championships on August 3rd and 4th of that year, although only four of the 20 participants jumped higher that year . On August 25, she won the Reich Championships of the Sportbund Schild and came again to 1.55 m. In September she jumped 1.53 m in Munich, which had been enough for the title in the DM.

In the Olympic year Bergmann defended her championship title in Württemberg at the end of June; she set the German record (1.60 m) in Stuttgart. This record was only officially recognized by the DLV in 2009 , but with this performance " Der Leichtathlet " correctly moved her to the top of the year's best list in 1936 and immediately after Stuttgart Bergmann was highlighted in the daily press as an Olympic hope and a favorite at the German championship.

The sequence of the previous year was repeated: The chance to improve your performance at the DM on 12./13. To confirm July in Eichkamp near Berlin , Gretel Bergmann did not receive. Her name was already missing in the preview in the trade press. Bergmann's absence was also not mentioned in the competition report a week later ( Dora Ratjen won ahead of Elfriede Kaun ).

On July 15, 1936, the ship left the USA with the US crew on board; a day later, the Reich Sports Leader Hans von Tschammer and Osten informed Gretel Bergmann that she would not be taken into account because her level of performance was insufficient. The nominees were Ratjen and Kaun, who had also already jumped 1.60 m; the third starting place remained vacant. To prevent a public scandal during the Olympic Games, her exercise bike was taken into protective custody for the duration of the Games .

In the following year Bergmann's performance was already deleted from the world's best list in Germany. Bergmann emigrated to the USA , where her brother was already staying. She could take ten marks or four dollars with her and had to earn a living doing odd jobs. In 1938 she married the doctor Bruno Lambert from Germany, who had emigrated from Germany with her financial support; none of his family survived the Holocaust . She lived with him for over 75 years until he died in November 2013 at the age of 103. Bergmann's family was also affected by Nazi persecution. Her father spent six weeks in a Nazi camp and suffered from consequential health problems throughout his life.

Margaret Bergmann-Lambert also won the US national championships in high jump (1937, 1938) and shot put (1937). When the war began in 1939, her sporting career came to an end, and she devoted herself to her family and raising children. In 1942 she received American citizenship. She lived in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens in New York City, where she died in 2017 at the age of 103.

Honors

Cinematic reception

Gretel Bergmann Stadium in Laupheim 2015

In August 2008, Gemini Film filmed Gretel Bergmann's Life for the cinema. The film ran on September 10, 2009 in German cinemas under the title Berlin 36 . The director was Kaspar Heidelbach , the role of Gretel Bergmann was played by Karoline Herfurth . In the context of artistic freedom, among other things, a relationship with a "Marie Ketteler" (real Olympian: Dora Ratjen ) from the Olympic squad is shown, which according to the documents did not take place.

In the ARD docudrama The Dream of Olympia - The Nazi Games of 1936 (2016) Gretel Bergmann's prevented participation in the Olympics is also discussed, here she is portrayed by Sandra von Ruffin .

Movie

radio

  • Karin Sommer: The stolen medal. The Jewish high jumper Gretel Bergmann and the Olympic Games of 1936. Bayerischer Rundfunk , March 19, 1994.
  • Natalja Kurz: The Saturday evening from the country: Germany no longer deserves my hatred. Feature (59 min), Südwestrundfunk (SWR2), March 6, 2004.

Autobiography

  • Gretel Bergmann: “I was the great Jewish hope.” Memories of an extraordinary sportswoman. Edited by House of History Baden-Württemberg. Translated from English by Irmgard Hölscher. 245 SG Braun Buchverlag, Karlsruhe 2003, ISBN 3-7650-9056-5 .
    • 2nd extended edition, 392 pages with 65 mostly color illustrations, Verlag Regionalkultur, Ubstadt-Weiher-Heidelberg-Basel 2015, ISBN 978-3-89735-908-6 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Gretel Bergmann  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jutta Braun: Gretel Bergmann. In: Berno Bahro, Jutta Braun, Hans Joachim Teichler (eds.): Forgotten Records - Jewish athletes before and after 1933. vbb, Berlin 2009, p. 96.
  2. ↑ a b Sebastian Moll: Sports jubilarian Gretel Bergmann: The Alibi Jewess. In: taz.de . April 13, 2014, accessed December 16, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Berliner Volkszeitung of July 22, 1930, p. 1.
  4. ↑ Der Kicker , No. 29 of July 14, 1931, p. 1131 f.
  5. ↑ Der Kicker , No. 26 of June 21, 1932, p. 1022.
  6. ↑ In 1930 there were no South German jumpers at the start, in 1931 Bergmann was initially announced as a South German participant in Kicker (No. 30 of July 21, p. 1168), but then apparently not there. In 1932 her name was missing in the preview and in the competition report.
  7. ↑ "In the letter (dated April 12, 1933) I was informed that my membership in the UFV had been terminated and that I was no longer welcome there." Gretel Bergmann, quoted from Lorenz Peiffer: Gretel Bergmann - "Spielball" der Nazis , in: Diethelm Blecking / Lorenz Peiffer (eds.): Sportsmen in the “Century of Camps”, Göttingen 2012, p. 151.
  8. ↑ The Times (London) July 2, 1934, p. 5
  9. ↑ 5 ft. 1 in = 1.5494 m ( The Times (London) of July 2, 1934, p. 5) - See also: Jutta Braun: Gretel Bergmann. In: Berno Bahro, Jutta Braun, Hans Joachim Teichler (eds.): Forgotten Records - Jewish athletes before and after 1933. vbb, Berlin 2009, p. 92.
  10. ↑ Daily news report on the return ( memento from August 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ For the Olympic course for athletes from October 12, 1934, "six members of the sports federation of the Reich League of Jewish Front Soldiers were called up", including Bergmann "from the Laupheim sports group", according to the Neue Freie Presse (Vienna) on October 19, 1934, p. 10 .
  12. ↑ Karlsruher Tagblatt of June 3, 1935, page 6: “The high jumper Miss Bergmann (Stuttgart) also achieved a very good performance. She jumped 1.55 meters in bad ground conditions. "
  13. ^ The athlete from July 9, 1935, page 20 (Gaume Championship). In the same issue (page 4) she appears in fourth place in the annual best list with 1.55 m.
  14. ↑ Der Leichtathlet of July 9, 1935, page 7, and July 16, 1935, p. 7 ff.
  15. ↑ Der Leichtathlet from July 30, 1935, pages 4 and 12. Lorenz Peiffer: Gretel Bergmann - "Spielball" of the Nazis , in: Diethelm Blecking / Lorenz Peiffer (eds.): Sportler im "Jahrhundert der Lager", Göttingen 2012, p 152 writes that Bergmann "as a Jew was not allowed to participate in the championships of the German Reich Association for physical exercises ". Formally, as an athlete without a club, she was not an RBL member, but that was apparently irrelevant for the Gaume Championships.
  16. ↑ Lorenz Peiffer: Gretel Bergmann - “Spielball” of the Nazis , in: Diethelm Blecking / Lorenz Peiffer (ed.): Sportler im “Jahrhundert der Lager”, Göttingen 2012, p. 153.
  17. ↑ Der Leichtathlet from September 17, 1935, page 16. An Austrian newspaper wrote that "Miss Bergmann" was "one of the few non-Aryans who are allowed to start publicly as Olympic candidates" ( Neues Wiener Journal from September 19, 1935, page 18 )
  18. ^ Wiener Sport-Tagblatt of July 4, 1936, p. 6 .; see also Gerd Michalek: Jüdische Olympia-Hope - In 1936 Gretel Bergmann's chance for a medal was destroyed by the Nazi regime. In: Deutschlandfunk . April 13, 2009, accessed December 16, 2018 .
  19. ↑ Late honor: DLV recognizes Bergmann record after 73 years. In: Spiegel Online . November 23, 2009, accessed December 16, 2018 .
  20. ↑ " Ratjen jumped again 1.57 1/2 meters high, where she was trumped by Bergmann from Stuttgart with 1.60 meters. If there is no one-day performance, an Olympic hope has risen just before the gate closes. ” Hamburger Anzeiger of July 7, 1936, p. 7, in an overall review of all Gaume Championships (Ratjen was from Bremen, did not start in Stuttgart).
  21. ^ "Ratjen (Bremen), Bergmann (Stuttgart), Hagemann (Hamburg) and Kaun ( Kiel ) do the high jump among themselves". Hamburger Anzeiger of July 10, 1936, p. 11.
  22. ↑ The athlete No. 27 of July 7, 1936 names the names of 11 participants under the heading New Champion expected (there were then 12), but does not justify Bergmann's absence.
  23. ↑ Ibid., No. 28 of July 14, 1936, p. 23.
  24. ↑ Jutta Braun: Gretel Bergmann. In: Berno Bahro, Jutta Braun, Hans Joachim Teichler (eds.): Forgotten Records - Jewish athletes before and after 1933. vbb, Berlin 2009, p. 96.
  25. ^ Arnd Krüger : The Olympic Games of 1936 and the world opinion. Bartels & Wernitz, Berlin 1973, ISBN 3-87039-925-2 .
  26. ↑ See Der Leichtathlet No. 8 of February 25, 1937, p. 5. With her 1.60 m she should have appeared in 2nd place with Kaun, but her name is completely missing.
  27. ↑ Athletics: The German Mädel. In: Spiegel Online . August 24, 2009. Retrieved December 16, 2018 .
  28. ↑ Gretel Bergmann: "I was the great Jewish hope." Memories of an exceptional sportswoman . 2nd Edition. Regional culture publishing house, Ubstadt-Weiher 2015, ISBN 978-3-89735-908-6 , p. 265 .
  29. ↑ Sebastian Moll: Gretel Bergmann: The Reconciliatory. In: Frankfurter Rundschau . September 18, 2009, accessed December 16, 2018 .
  30. ↑ Ira Berkow: Margaret Bergmann Lambert, Jewish High Jumper Excluded From Berlin Olympics, Dies at 103. In: nytimes.com. July 25, 2017, accessed December 16, 2018 .
  31. ↑ Gretel Bergmann. In: International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. Retrieved December 16, 2018 .
  32. ↑ Margaret Lambert. (No longer available online.) In: National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. March 26, 1995, archived from the original on April 27, 2010 ; accessed on December 16, 2018 .
  33. ↑ Anno Hecker: Hall of Fame: The good spirits. In: FAZ.net . May 29, 2012, accessed December 16, 2018 .
  34. ^ Marie-Laurence Jungfleisch congratulates Gretel Bergmann. In: Leichtathletik.de. April 12, 2014, accessed December 16, 2018 . ( mp4 video , 6.6 MB, 55 seconds).
  35. ↑ Stefan Berg: Olympia 1936: Scandal about Dora. In: Spiegel Online . September 17, 2009, accessed on December 16, 2018 (Spiegel-online article on the film (Quotes: “For researchers and journalists who investigated the Bergmann case and thus also the Ratjen case, the story is like the movie now processed, not covered by the facts. ”The Potsdam historian Berno Bahro, who is responsible for the book for the film, speaks of“ clear deviations between reality and representation. ”)).
  36. ↑ Klaus Brinkbäumer: Ten truths from ... Gretel Bergmann: "I wanted to show that a Jewish girl can defeat the Germans". In: Spiegel Online . August 25, 2009, accessed December 16, 2018 (interview).
personal data
SURNAME Bergmann, Gretel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bergmann-Lambert, Margaret; Lambert, Margaret
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American high jumper
DATE OF BIRTH April 12, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Laupheim , Kingdom of Württemberg , German Empire
DATE OF DEATH July 25, 2017
Place of death New York City