Heinrich Nettesheim (wrestler)

Heinrich Nettesheim medal table
Wrestler
Germany
European Championship
gold	1937 Munich	Easy freestyle
silver	1938 Tallinn	Easily Greco

Heinrich "Heini" Nettesheim (born October 22, 1915 ; † October 18, 2005 in Cologne ) was a German wrestler and 1937 European lightweight freestyle champion .

life and career

Heinrich Nettesheim started in Cologne with the rings . Together with his younger half-brother Ferdinand Schmitz and Georg Pulheim , he formed the "Kölner Ringer-Kleeblatt". In 1934 Nettesheim was part of the German national wrestling team for the first time. In an international match against France , he celebrated a featherweight victory over Leborre. In the same year he was German runner-up in Greco-Roman style behind Sebastian Hering from Munich . After a somewhat weaker year in 1935, he came up trumps at the German championships of 1936: He was German lightweight champion in both styles, in the Greco-Roman style before the European champion of 1935 Sebastian Hering and in the free style before the European champion of 1934 Wolfgang Ehrl from Munich.

Heini Nettesheim was able to choose the style in which he wanted to take part in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin . He chose the Greco-Roman style. In the first round he met the Finnish favorite Lauri Koskela and lost just on points. He also lost the second fight against former Olympic champion Voldemar Väli from Estonia on points and was eliminated after the second round.

At the European Championships in Munich in 1937 in free style, Heini Nettesheim confirmed this opinion, because he was won with six shoulders, u. a. about the 1932 Olympic champion Hermanni Pihlajamäki and the strong Swede Gösta Jönsson-Frändfors , European champion in a superior style . At the European Championships in the Greco-Roman style in Tallinn in 1938 , Heini then proved that he can also master this style, because he was runner-up behind Lauri Koskela. On the way there he defeated the Swede Gösta Andersson , who ten years later, in 1948 , would become Olympic champion in London .

In 1939, the last European championships before the start of the Second World War took place in Oslo . These championships were held in the Greco-Roman style. After two wins, Heini Nettesheim failed again due to his fearful opponent Lauri Koskela and had to be content with fourth place.

Due to the tense political situation, there were no more free style European championships in 1938 and 1939. Nettesheim, who was only at the beginning of a great career in 1939 at the age of 24, had to interrupt his international wrestling career for twelve years because of the war and the post-war period.

When the German wrestlers were reassigned to the World Wrestling Federation (FILA) in 1951, Heinrich Nettesheim was back at the welterweight championship in Helsinki that year . But he had to realize that the wrestling world had not stopped and that at 36 years of age it is not so easy to catch up with the world's best. Heini lost both fights he had to contest and ended up with two other wrestlers out of eight participants in sixth place.

In 1952 Heini Nettesheim trained in the lightweight class and qualified for the Olympic Games in Helsinki through good performances in the run-up to the Olympics. In an international match against Sweden, he even defeated the 1948 Olympic champion Gustav Freij .

Heini Nettesheim started in Helsinki in both styles. In the free style he got two wins in the first two rounds. But then he lost his fights in the next two rounds and achieved a good sixth place. In the Greco-Roman style Heini was defeated in both fights that he played and was eliminated after the 2nd round. His defeat against Jack-Finn Rasmussen from Denmark was particularly disappointing.

The successes of Heinrich Nettesheim at the German championships were remarkable. He won the German championship title a total of fifteen times. He was the record holder for many years and was only surpassed by Wilfried Dietrich. He was also very successful in the international matches he played. In 26 international fights he achieved 22 victories, 20 of them in 21 fights by 1939.

After his active career, he was a lecturer at the German Sport University in Cologne for 17 years .

Nettesheim, who was an honorary member of the North Rhine-Westphalian Wrestling Association, died of kidney failure in his hometown of Cologne just four days before his 90th birthday .

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship, GR = Greco-Roman style, F = free style, featherweight, up to 61 kg, lightweight, up to 66 kg, welterweight, then 73 kg body weight)

year	space	competition	style	Weight class
1936	14th	OS in Berlin	GR	Light	after losing to Lauri Koskela , Finland a . Voldemar Väli , Estonia
1937	1.	EM in Munich	F.	Light	with victories over Jean Vaissier, France , Giusto Fidel, Italy , Karoly Ferencz , Hungary , Hermanni Pihlajamäki , Finland, Gösta Jönsson-Frändfors , Sweden a . Fritz Vordermann , Switzerland
1938	2.	EM in Tallinn	GR	Light	with victories over Gösta Andersson , Sweden a. Aage Eriksen , Norway a . a loss to Lauri Koskela
1939	4th	EM in Oslo	GR	Light	with victories over Adalbert Toots, Estonia a. Aage Meier , Denmark a. a loss to Lauri Koskela
1951	6th	World Cup in Helsinki	F.	Welter	after defeats against Celal Atik , Turkey a . Aleksanteri Keisala , Finland
1952	6th	OS in Helsinki	F.	Light	with victories over Oh Tai-Kun, South Korea a . Aristides Perez, Guatemala a . Losses against Jahanbahkt Tovfighe , Iran a . József Gál , Hungary
1952	13.	OS in Helsinki	GR	Light	after losing to Jack-Finn Rasmussen, Denmark a. Kalle Haapasalmi, Finland

German championships

in free style

• 1936, 1st place, F, Le, in front of Sebastian Hering , Munich- Neuaubing and Fritz Weikart , Dortmund -Hörde,
• 1937, 1st place, F, Le, in front of Wolfgang Ehrl , Munich and Sebastian Hering,
• 1938, 1st place, F, We, in front of Wolfgang Ehrl and Ewald Tauer, Munich-Neuaubing,
• 1940, 1st place, F, Le, in front of Georg Weidner , Stuttgart and Paul Burbach, Cologne-Mülheim,
• 1941, 1st place, F, Le, before Hermann Brunner, Mannheim -Sandhofen and Grau, Stuttgart ,
• 1943, 1st place, F, Le, in front of Sebastian Hering and Siegmund Bayer, Munich-Neuaubing,
• 1949, 1st place, F, Fl, Heinrich Seher, RSV Cologne
• 1949, 1st place, F, We, ahead of Werner Härtling , Dortmund and Horst Heß , Dortmund,
• 1950, 1st place, F, We, before Ewald Tauer and August Deuschle, Stuttgart-Münster,
• 1951, 2nd place, F, We, behind Anton Mackowiak , Dortmund and in front of Paul Schmitz, Cologne

in Greco-Roman style

• 1934, 2nd place, GR, Fe, behind Sebastian Hering and in front of Bauer, Berlin ,
• 1935, 3rd place, GR, Le, behind Heinrich Schwarzkopf , Koblenz and Wolfgang Ehrl,
• 1936, 1st place, GR, Le, in front of Wolfgang Ehrl and Heini Schwarzkopf,
• 1937, 2nd place, GR, Le, behind Fritz Weikart and in front of Grahli, Essen,
• 1938, 1st place, GR, Le, in front of Wolfgang Ehrl and Rudi Reinhardt, Hohenlimburg ,
• 1939, 1st place, GR, Le, before Otto Freund, Ludwigshafen am Rhein , and Sebastian Hering,
• 1940, 1st place, GR, Le, in front of Otto Freund and Georg Weidner,
• 1941, 1st place, GR, Le, in front of Otto Hirsch, Munich and Sebastian Hering,
• 1942, 1st place, GR, Le, in front of Engelbert Grünkranz, Munich-Neuaubing and Otto Hirsch,
• 1943, 1st place, GR, Le, before Otto Hirsch and Siegmund Schweickert, Wiesental,
• 1949, 2nd place, GR, We, behind Josef Paar , Reichenhall and in front of Franz Wittmann, Friesenheim ,
• 1950, 2nd place, GR, We, behind Anton Mackowiak and in front of Franz Wittmann

literature

• One hundred years of wrestling in Germany , “Der Ringer” publishing house, Niedernberg, 1991.
• Documentation of FILA's International Wrestling Championships, 1936.

Web links

• Heinrich Nettesheim in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Profile of Heinrich Nettesheim at the Institute for Applied Training Science