Hans Günter Winkler

Hans Günter Winkler medal table
Hans Günter Winkler, 1966
Show jumping
Germany
Olympic games
Participants for the all-German team
gold	1956	Show jumping, singles (with Halla )
gold	1956	Show jumping, team (with Halla )
gold	1960	Show jumping, team (with Halla )
gold	1964	Show jumping, team (with Fidelitas )
Olympic games
Participant for the Federal Republic of Germany
bronze	1968	Show jumping, team (with Enigk )
gold	1972	Show jumping, team (with Torphy )
silver	1976	Show jumping, team (with Torphy )
World championships
gold	1954	Show jumping, singles
gold	1955	Show jumping, singles

Hans Günter Winkler (born July 24, 1926 in Barmen ; † July 9, 2018 in Warendorf ) was a German show jumper . Between 1956 and 1976 he won five gold and one silver medal with his mare Halla, among others , which made him one of the most successful German Olympic athletes . He was also twice world champion.

Life

youth

Winkler came into contact with horses at an early age because his father worked as a riding instructor. He himself was a trained banker .

After his father, who died in World War II in 1945 , Hans Günter Winkler was also drafted into military service towards the end of the war and deployed as an anti-aircraft helper in Thuringia . Here he was taken prisoner by the US, from which he was able to escape. His escape led him to Frankfurt am Main to live with his mother. In nearby Kronberg im Taunus he found a job as a stable boy and gave riding lessons to members of the American occupation forces, including Military Governor Dwight D. Eisenhower .

At the end of the 1940s, Winkler took part in the re-emerging tournament equestrian sport in post-war Germany . In 1950 Gustav Rau brought him to Warendorf to do the DOKR . He earned his living here at a joiner's workshop. In mid-1950 he rode Halla for the first time in an eventing test, but then had to hand the mare over to Otto Rothe . However, since he could not achieve any success with Halla , she should be returned to the breeder. At the request of the breeder, Winkler got the horse riding.

Years of success

At the 1952 Olympics Winkler could not attend because he was due to his riding teacher in Kronberg in the 1940s as a professional athlete. It was only on the initiative of DSB chairman Willi Daume that Winkler was restored to amateur status in autumn 1952, which was necessary for participation in the Olympics.

Winkler was world champion in 1954 and 1955, making him one of the favorites for the 1956 Olympic Games . With a legendary ride, he won his first gold medal at the Olympic Games there. In the first round of the team and individual decision, Winkler tore his muscle on the thirteenth obstacle and was struggling to stay in the saddle . His horse Halla carried him over the obstacles to the finish. After treatment by the team doctor, who had initially only diagnosed a hernia , Winkler was back in the saddle for the second round, but had little opportunity to correct his horse. With great pain, he nevertheless won the gold medal for the team and in the individual standings with him. Since then his horse has been called the "miracle mare Halla".

Between 1956 and 1976 Winkler won five gold medals in show jumping (in addition to the individual medal four with the German team) and one silver medal, which made him one of the most successful German Olympians. At the opening ceremony of the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal , he was the flag bearer of the German team. Winkler was voted Sportsman of the Year in 1955 and 1956 and was also voted Sportsman of the 1950s and 1960s. In 1986, Winkler said goodbye to active equestrian sport at the Show Jumping World Championships in Aachen .

Since the 1950s Winkler has published numerous books on equestrian sport and in 1991 founded the HGW marketing company, which organizes horse shows. For an Ariola record published in 1961, he reported on dealing with horses .

Hans Günter Winkler at the German Show Jumping and Dressage Derby 2012

After an active sports career

Hans Günter Winkler was closely associated with equestrian sports even after his own sports career had ended. In the year of the end of his career, he and Herbert Meyer created the Golden Saddle , a style jumping test with horse changes for four selected young jumpers up to the age of 21 that is held at different locations.

A little later he came up with the HGW federal youth championship held as part of the Dortmund Westfalenhalle tournament. This event for young jumpers up to 25 years of age is still being held today, since 2009 as part of the Löwen Classics Braunschweig.

In addition, he was sports director of the Löwen Classics in Braunschweig and sports director of the Goldstadt Cup in Pforzheim.

Awards

Hans Günter Winkler received the Great Federal Cross of Merit (1975) with a star (2008) as well as the Bambi Media Prize and in 2002 the award as the world's best show jumper at the Olympic Games.

In 2006, Winkler was one of the first athletes to be inducted into the newly established Hall of Fame of German Sports . He was a member of the Honorary Committee of the Spanish Riding School .

Private

From 1957 to 1960 Winkler was married to the show jumper Inge Fellgiebel, a daughter of the hippologist Hans Fellgiebel ; she was later the wife of George Theodorescu and mother of Monica Theodorescu . The following marriage (1962–1970) with the Danish woman Marianne Countess Moltke had a son (born 1965) and a daughter (born 1967). Until the divorce in 1986 he was married to the Venezuelan millionaire daughter Astrid Nunez.

From 1994 to 2011 he was the fourth wife of the American Debby Malloy , who died in 2011 after a riding accident at the age of 51. Hans Günter Winkler died in July 2018 at the age of 91. As part of the CHIO in Aachen, it was commemorated in a memorial event on July 18th

successes

• Olympic games
  • 1956 in Stockholm : gold medal team, gold medal individual on Halla
  • 1960 in Rome : Gold medal team, individual ranking 5th on Halla
  • 1964 in Tokyo : Gold medal team, individual ranking 16th on Fidelitas
  • 1968 in Mexico City : bronze medal team, individual ranking 5th on Enigk
  • 1972 in Munich : Gold medal team on Torphy
  • 1976 in Montreal : Silver medal team, individual ranking 10th on Torphy

• World championships
  • 1954 in Madrid: Gold medal singles on Halla
  • 1955 in Aachen: Gold medal individual on Orient

• European championships
  • 1957 in Rotterdam: Gold medal singles on sun shine
  • 1958 in Aachen: bronze medal singles on Halla
  • 1961 in Aachen: bronze medal single on Romanus
  • 1962 in London: Silver medal singles on Romanus
  • 1969 in Hickstead: bronze medal individual on Enigk

• German championships
  • German champion in 1959 on Halla

• German championship
  • Winner 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955

Works

• Hans Günter Winkler: Halla, my horses and me . FN-Verlag der Deutschen Reiterlichen Vereinigung, Warendorf 2007, ISBN 978-3-88542-430-7 (first published in 1958 as Meine Pferde und ich ).
• Show jumping . Rowohlt , Reinbek 1979, ISBN 3-498-07282-X .

See also

• List of the most successful summer Olympians

literature

• Dieter Ludwig: Hans Günter Winkler . FN-Verlag, Warendorf 1983, ISBN 3-88542-025-2 .
• Eckhard F. Schröter: The happiness of this earth. Life and career of German show jumpers . Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1980, ISBN 3-596-23019-5 .
• Winkler: The Centaur. In: Der Spiegel 34/1955. August 17, 1955, pp. 20-27 . 

Web links

Commons : Hans Günter Winkler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Hans Günter Winkler in the catalog of the German National Library
• Portrait, dates and biography of Hans Günter Winkler in the Hall of Fame of German Sports

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans Günter Winkler in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of the article freely available)
   Dieter Ludwig: Hans Günter Winkler for his 85th birthday. In: Ludwig's horse worlds. July 23, 2011, accessed July 10, 2018 . Evi Simeoni: Hans Günter Winkler. In: Hall of Fame of German Sports . Archived from the original on June 10, 2012 ; accessed on July 10, 2018 . 
    
2. ↑ On dealing with horses. In: Catalog of the German National Library . Retrieved July 10, 2018 . 
3. ↑ Hans Günter Winkler: The "Goldene Saddle - HGW Young Talent Award" is a stepping stone into great sport. HGW Marketing, November 30, 2012, accessed July 10, 2018 . Susanne Hennig: Golden saddle for Andreas Kreuzer. German Equestrian Association , January 21, 2012, accessed on July 10, 2018 . 
    
4. ↑ Hans Günter Winkler: HGW Federal Junior Championships. HGW Marketing, April 20, 2012, accessed July 10, 2018 . HGW Federal Junior Championships. Löwen Classics Braunschweig, March 3, 2010, archived from the original on September 4, 2012 ; accessed on July 10, 2018 . 
    
5. ↑ Löwen Classics Braunschweig from 15. – 18. March 2012. Löwen Classics Braunschweig, March 15, 2012, archived from the original on September 5, 2012 ; accessed on July 10, 2018 . 
6. ↑ Peter Hepfer: Organizers of the S&G Goldstadt Cup: “Not just Ballaballa on the meadow”. In: Pforzheimer Zeitung . June 2, 2008, accessed July 10, 2018 . 
7. ^ Equestrian legend Hans Günter Winkler turns 90. (pdf, 200 kB) In: Warendorfer Drachenköppe. July 13, 2016, p. 27 , accessed July 10, 2018 . 
8. ↑ Dieter Ludwig: HG Winkler's wife Debby was only 51 years old. In: Ludwig's horse worlds. February 21, 2011, accessed July 10, 2018 .