Hans Schwarz (wrestler)

Hans Schwarz (born August 19, 1883 in Berchtesgaden ; † 1960 ) was a German wrestler and multiple world champion in the Greco-Roman style in the heavyweight division of professional wrestlers.

Life

Schwarz grew up as the son of a Munich innkeeper and did gymnastics and wrestling as a teenager . In 1900 his parents sent him to train as a butcher in Vienna . There he was enthusiastic about the competitions of professional wrestlers taking place there and, he was a strong build young man, strove for a professional wrestling career against the will of his parents.

After a long period of preparation in Munich , one of his coaches was the former German champion Michael Hitzler , he took part in many tournaments at home and abroad from 1906. As was customary in Europe at the time, he wrestled exclusively in the Greco-Roman. Style. Initially, he mostly had to bow to the master wrestlers of the time such as Heinrich Weber , Jakob Koch , Ernst Siegfried , Heinrich Eberle , Antonitsch from Bulgaria and others.

In December 1907 he won his first tournament victory in Moscow in the fight for the Golden Belt , which he followed in 1908, again in Moscow, in the championship of Russia in front of the 250-pound Georgi Kaschew. In 1909 he took part in a world heavyweight championship in Saint Petersburg for the first time and immediately won the world title ahead of the German Jakob Koch, the Russians Iwan Schemjakin and Nikolai Wachturow and the Turkish Halil Adali.

In 1910 he won his second world title in his hometown of Munich. This time he won ahead of the French L. le Beaucairois and E. Vervet, the Finn S. Toumisto and the Austrian Reissbacher.

Hans Schwarz also won the 1912 World Cup in Gothenburg . He won ahead of S. Toumisto, Adolph Steurs , Belgium , Järvinen, Finland and Hjalmar Lundin from Sweden . Finally he won his fourth heavyweight world title in Vienna in 1913, ahead of J. Smeykal from Böhmen , A. Anglio, Martinique and others. Aimable de la Calmette, France .

From 1908 to 1913 Black could only defeat two wrestlers. These were Iwan Poddubny from Russia and Stanislaw Cyganiewicz-Zybsko from Poland .

Shortly before Schwarz had to go to the First World War in the German Reichswehr in 1914, he won a strong tournament in Leipzig ahead of Aimable de la Calmette, Georgewitsch, Serbia and Mazetti, Italy . After several wounds, he was released in 1917. Hardly recovered, he was on the mat that same year and won a tournament in Berlin ahead of Paul Schmidt-Westergaard from Hamburg . In 1919 he defeated Georg Strenge (Berlin) in 75 minutes in the fight for the German championship.

In 1920, Hans Schwarz was European heavyweight champion in an international tournament in Berlin, ahead of Tom Jackson from Australia , Hintze, Germany and Bambula, USA . In the years from 1920 to 1925, Hans Schwarz won tournaments in Rotterdam , Prague , Budapest , Munich , Hanover , Berlin and Königsberg and defeated such strong wrestlers as Jan Jaago from Estonia , Ambrosius de Sousa from Portugal , Dostal from Czechoslovakia and Otto Huhtanen from Finland, Leskinowitsch, Romanoff a. Petrovich (exiled Russians), Lassartesse from France and the Germans Georg Strenge, Ernst Siegfried , Karl Saft , Paul Karsch, Hans Steinke and others. Willi Urbach . Of course, this list is not exhaustive. Only one wrestler could not defeat during this time: Paul Schmidt-Westergaard, who replaced him as world champion.

In 1927 he started at a world championship in the Berlin Sportpalast, where he also won the world title ahead of Jan Jaago and Petrovich, a Russian exile. In the same year he won a tournament in Vienna at the Renz circus in front of Jan Jaago, Janos Czaya, Petrowitsch and Josef Steinbach, but was only second in Vienna at a tournament at the Zentral Zirkus behind Otto Huhtanen. In 1928 he finished second in the Renz circus behind Jan Jaago. In 1929 he won a tournament in Bucharest

Hans Schwarz retired from the wrestling mat in 1930 after finishing third in Frankfurt behind Theodor Stekker and Landau and finally after winning a tournament in Budapest in front of Ivan Martinoff and Jan Jaago.

He probably trained his son Hans Schwarz , born in 1909, who also worked as a professional wrestler with great success from 1930, but also made a career as an actor.

literature

• "The modern wrestling" by A. von Guretzki with a historical appendix, published by FW Gloeckner & Co., Leipzig, 1922,
• Portrait of Hans Schwarz in the trade journal " Athletik ", No. 23 from June 7, 1934, pages 2 and 3