Hans Maier (water polo player)

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Hans Maier (front row, 2nd from right) as a member of the Dutch water polo team at the 1936 Olympic Games

Hans Maier (born July 11, 1916 in Madiun , Dutch East Indies , † November 29, 2018 in The Hague ) was a Dutch water polo player and swimmer . Before his death, he was considered the oldest surviving Olympian in his country.

biography

Hans Maier grew up in the Dutch East Indies on Java . His father Raoul Eduard Philip Maier was an officer of the Koninklijk Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger in the cartographic service , his mother's name was Nelly, née Uljee. He learned to swim and water polo at the Malangse Zwemclub in Malang , which his father had co-founded in 1924. Also in 1924 the family made a trip to Europe during which they visited Switzerland , Italy and the Olympic Winter Games in Chamonix , which impressed the young Hans Maier.

In 1934 the family moved to Amsterdam in the Netherlands , where Hans Maier attended the Hogereburgerschool . In Amsterdam he started for the Het Y club . The trainer there, Fritz Grossmann, was a German Jew who had fled to the Netherlands. Maier developed a new leg technique for breaststroke , with which he set a Dutch record in 1934, which was not recognized because of this technique.

Two years later Maier was nominated for the national water polo team to take part in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin . The Dutch team finished fifth in the Olympic tournament. Maier later reported that most Dutch athletes, like himself, in 1936, out of naivety, had not understood what the German Nazi regime was all about; however, he was impressed by the good organization. In any case, he feared communism more at the time . He later resented the fact that he did not see the true face of this dictatorship. In 1943 he himself sent the Jewish chairman of his association Het Y , Gérard Blitz , his notice of engagement to the Westerbork transit camp without worrying, especially since Blitz had replied.

After completing school, Maier studied economics and found his first job with the van Gend en Loos haulage company . During this time he got to know his future wife Conny, the daughter of his landlady, whose friend and brother had been shot by the Germans fleeing to Switzerland. After the Second World War he joined Shell as an employee , where he worked until his retirement in 1975. The family lived on Curaçao for professional reasons for five years . In 1961 his wife suffered a heart attack , after which she remained partially paralyzed.

Hans Maier, father of two daughters, lived in good health on his own in an apartment in The Hague until old age . In 2008, 74 years after his departure from Java, he returned there for the first time - on the initiative and accompanied by his daughters. After the death of his wife Conny in 2011, who had lived in a home because of dementia since 2006 , he founded the website www.humandutiesnetwork.com to organize a network about the rights and obligations of people as stewards of the earth (no longer online). Until recently he was a sought-after partner for interviews as a contemporary witness.

literature

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ a b Oudste Nederlandse Olympiër Hans Maier (102) overleden. In: nrc.nl. December 3, 2018, accessed June 1, 2019 (Dutch).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Laatste deelnemer aan Spelen van 1936. In: volkskrant.nl. December 17, 2018, accessed June 1, 2019 (Dutch).
  3. ↑ a b c Hans Maier (102) overleden. In: waterpolo.nl. December 3, 2018, accessed June 1, 2019 (Dutch).
  4. ↑ a b c d e Hans Maier (1916-2018): 102 years oud en nog steeds de wereld aan het verbeteren. In: trouw.nl. Retrieved June 1, 2019 (Dutch).
  5. ↑ Richard Schoonderwoert: The infamous 1936 Games in Berlin (pdf) Retrieved June 5, 2019.
  6. ↑ Grossmann and his wife Else were murdered on May 7, 1943 in the Sobibor extermination camp . See [1]
  7. ↑ a b Oudste Nederlandse Olympian Hans Maier stuff. In: olympischsporterfgoed.nl. December 3, 2018, accessed June 1, 2019 .
  8. ↑ a b 'We zijn vergeten wat fair play is'. In: volkskrant.nl. July 8, 2016, accessed June 1, 2019 (Dutch).
personal data
SURNAME Maier, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch water polo player and swimmer
DATE OF BIRTH July 11, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Madiun , Dutch East Indies
DATE OF DEATH 29th November 2018
Place of death The hague