Harry yellow color

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Harry Gelbfarb (born October 5, 1930 in Vienna ; † May 27, 2005 in Zell near Schweinfurt ) was an Austrian- American bodybuilder and entrepreneur . He founded the first German bodybuilding studio and the first German bodybuilding association.

Life

Youth: Persecution and Emigration

Yellowcolor was born to a Christian father and a Jewish mother who placed him in an orphanage after he was born. He was adopted by a married couple when he was four years old. After the " Anschluss of Austria ", his adoptive parents were deported to the concentration camp , and Gelbfarb was sent to the Jewish children's home. He was not allowed to go to school and instead had to do forced labor . Yellow color escaped deportation to an extermination camp only because the director of the children's home, Franzi Löw , was able to convince the Catholic clergyman Ludger Born to issue a forged baptismal certificate.

In 1947, Gelbfarb emigrated to New York with his foster mother who had returned from the concentration camp . As a boxer he played around 50 fights and reached the welterweight semifinals at the Golden Glove Championships in New York. Photos in bodybuilder magazines by Steve Reeves inspired Gelbfarb to supplement his boxing training with exercises for targeted muscle building. In 1950, Gelbfarb began bodybuilding. While training at New York's Eastside Barbell Club, he met some of the then famous bodybuilders.

Development of bodybuilding in Germany

In 1951, Gelbfarb was drafted into the army and later stationed in Schweinfurt . There he met his future wife Elly Böttcher, a sports teacher and athlete. After the end of the army, Gelbfarb first returned to the USA. In West Hollywood he worked as a trainer and physiotherapist at the renowned Beverly Hills Health Club. He spent his free time on so-called Muscle Beach in nearby Santa Monica . There he met well-known bodybuilders such as Steve Reeves and Joe Weider . At that time he also worked as a photo model and as a film actor in smaller roles.

In the fall of 1955, Gelbfarb returned to Schweinfurt. In January 1956 he opened Germany's first bodybuilding studio on 70 m². Two years later he held his first studio championships.

When Gelbfarb wanted to take part in the European Championships in Turin in 1959, he was refused entry because only athletes nominated by national associations were allowed to perform there. So, together with members of his studio, Gelbfarb quickly founded the German Body Education Association (DKB) as the first German bodybuilding association. In the end, Gelbfarb was able to start in Turin together with two of his students (one of whom was Hans Glaab ). The first German championship was organized in Munich in 1960 , together with Rolf Putziger . In the same year, Putziger took over the chairmanship of the DKB, which was renamed Bund Deutscher Bodybuilder (BDB). In the following years, Gelbfarb was involved as a jury member and organizer at German championships and organized city comparison competitions, before he withdrew from association work towards the end of the sixties due to differences with Rolf Putziger.

It was not until 1979 that he was re-elected to the board of the Bavarian State Association and the German Bodybuilding and Fitness Association (DBFV).

In 1981, Gelbfarb organized the first German championships in powerlifting for women in his Schweinfurt studio as well as the first German bodybuilding championships in couple posing. For the first women's bodybuilding championships held in Hanover that same year, Gelbfarb helped formulate the guidelines.

Sports scientist Jürgen Gießing paid tribute to Harry Gelbfarb's services to bodybuilding with the words:

“ If Jahn had not created gymnastics ; if gymnastics had not embraced weightlifting; if Sig Klein had not become a Turnverein member and then a gym owner; and if Harry Gelbfarb had not wandered into Klein's gym one day and begun to learn about bodybuilding; . then yellow color might never have returned to the Fatherland and launched the modern era of this sport in Germany " (" (had not invented Friedrich Ludwig) Jahn gymnastics; would gymnastics not include weightlifting, would Sig Klein not a member of the gymnastics club and later owned a studio; and if Harry Gelbfarb had not come to Klein's studio one day and learned bodybuilding; then Gelbfarb might never have returned to his home country and would have ushered in the modern age of this sport in Germany.) "

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Business and personal life

Yellow color operated several fitness studios and physiotherapy centers in Schweinfurt, Würzburg and Nuremberg. From 1983 to the early 1990s he was the owner of a studio in San Clemente / California . After its sale, he withdrew from the studio.

The Sportrevue wrote in 1981: "Yellow color is a vegetarian by conviction, is interested very much for philosophy, metaphysics and parapsychology." Religious yellow color became involved with the Rosicrucians , more precisely in the Rosicrucian Fellowship, based in Oceanside .

The DBFV accepted Harry Gelbfarb into its Hall of Fame in 2010. In 2017, a copy of the expander invented by Harry Gelbfarb was on view in the exhibition “Never walk alone - Jewish identities in sport” at the Jewish Museum in Munich .

literature

  • Erika Dilger: The fitness movement in Germany , Hofmann, Schorndorf 2008, ISBN 978-3-7780-4640-1 , pp. 248-252, 315-322
  • Jutta Fleckenstein / Lisa Maria Tillian-Fink (eds.): Never Walk Alone. Jewish identities in sport , Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-95565-193-0 , p. 215
  • Harry Gelbfarb: The roots of bodybuilding in Germany , in Sportrevue 300/1993, pp. 136–143; 172-173
  • Jürgen Giessing / Jan Todd: The Origins of German Bodybuilding: 1790–1970 , in: Iron Game History, Volume 9, Number 2, 2005, pp. 8-20
  • Earle E. Liederman: How I Overcame a weak heart and tuberculosis, as told by Harry Gelbfarb , in: Muscle Power, November 1955, pp 9-11 and 35-38
  • Hans Georg Ossenbach / Antje Grüning (director): Der Herkules von Schweinfurt - The first studio for bodybuilding in Germany (documentary, WDR, 1991)
  • Rolf Putziger: Second Federal Championships in Bodybuilding , in: Sport und Kraft, 31/1961, pp. 12-15
  • Rolf Putziger: 15 years of weight training in Germany , in: Kraftsportrevue 42/1968, pp. 6–9, 26
  • Peter Steinmüller: "We were just afraid, afraid, afraid" - How Harry Gelbfarb had to suffer as a child under the racial madness of the National Socialists , in: Schweinfurter Mainleite 1/2016, pp. 15-20, here:
  • Peter Steinmüller: Harry Gelbfarb - the cradle of German bodybuilding was in Schweinfurt , in: Schweinfurter Mainleite IV / 2013, pp. 12-19, here:
  • o. V .: Harry Gelbfarb - first bodybuilder in Germany? , in: Sportrevue No. 149, 1981, pp. 10-11

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://harry-gelbfarb.de/Fotos/1,000000744288,8,1  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / harry-gelbfarb.de  
  2. ↑ Earle E. Liederman: How I Overcame a weak heart and tuberculosis, as told by Harry Gelbfarb, in: Muscle Power, November 1955, p 35
  3. ↑ Harry Gelbfarb: The roots of bodybuilding in Germany, in Sportrevue 300/1993, p. 138
  4. ↑ DöW - Documentation Archive of Austrian Resistance ( Memento of the original from January 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / doewweb01.doew.at
  5. ↑ top v .: Harry Gelbfarb - first bodybuilder in the Federal Republic ?, in: Sportrevue No. 149, 1981, p. 10
  6. ↑ Jürgen Gießing / Jan Todd: The Origins of German Bodybuilding: 1790-1970, in: Iron Game History, Vol. 9. No. 2 (2005), p. 16
  7. ↑ top v .: Harry Gelbfarb - first bodybuilder in the Federal Republic ?, in: Sportrevue No. 149, 1981, p. 10
  8. ↑ Erika Dilger: The fitness movement in Germany, Hofmann, Schorndorf 2008, ISBN 978-3-7780-4640-1 , p. 249
  9. ↑ top v .: Mr. Germany 1960. First national championships in bodybuilding , in: Sport und Kraft 27/1960, pp. 4-16
  10. ↑ top v .: Harry Gelbfarb - first bodybuilder in the Federal Republic ?, in: Sportrevue No. 149, 1981, p. 11
  11. ↑ top v .: Harry Gelbfarb - first bodybuilder in the Federal Republic ?, in: Sportrevue No. 149, 1981, p. 10
  12. ↑ Jürgen Gießing / Jan Todd: The Origins of German Bodybuilding: 1790-1970, in: Iron Game History, Vol. 9. No. 2 (2005), p. 18
  13. ↑ top v .: Harry Gelbfarb - first bodybuilder in the Federal Republic ?, in: Sportrevue No. 149, 1981, p. 11
  14. ^ HG: Conference and General Assembly of the Rosicrucian Community Darmstadt e. V., in: Rays of Light, IV / 2001, p. 15 f.
  15. ↑ German Hall of Fame ( Memento of the original from April 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ifbb.de
  16. ↑ http://www.mainpost.de/ueberregional/bayern/Ausstellungen-und-Publikumsschauen;art16683,9514136
personal data
SURNAME Yellow color, Harry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian-American bodybuilder and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH 5th October 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH May 27, 2005
Place of death Zell near Schweinfurt