Heinrich Ratjen

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Heinrich "Heinz" Ratjen , born as Dora Ratjen (born November 20, 1918 in Erichshof ; † April 22, 2008 ), was an intersex German athlete . Under his birth name he took part in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin in the women's high jump competition and reached fourth place. In 1938 he jumped the women's world record and became European champion . In the same year, his sporting career as a woman ended. At the beginning of 1939, his formal legal gender (cf.  civil status ) was changed to “male” and his first name to “Heinrich”.

Dora Ratjen (1937)

Life

Information about Ratjens biography is sparse and partly contradicting, only the section for sexual medicine of the University Hospital Kiel has investigative documents from the years 1938 and 1939.

In 1938, according to these documents, father Heinrich Ratjen reported to the police that the external genital organs of his child could not be clearly assigned to a gender at birth. However, since the parents trusted the midwife's information that the sex was female, Ratjen was brought up as a girl, wore girls 'clothes and attended a girls' school . "I was raised as a girl by my parents," said Ratjen when he was questioned by the police in 1938. “From the age of eleven or twelve I realized that I was not a girl, but a man. But I never asked my parents why I have to wear women's clothes as a man. "

In 1934, after graduating from school, Ratjen took up a “women's job” as a packer in a tobacco factory and joined the Komet Bremen sports club . Ratjen was soon one of the best in the high jump discipline, was multiple gaume master from 1934 , from 1936 to 1938 even German high jump champion three times in a row , making her one of the best performing candidates for the German Olympic squad .

Dora Ratjen (1937)

In 1936 Ratjen was fourth at the Olympic Games in the women's high jump competition with a height of 1.58 m behind the Hungarian Ibolya Csák , the British Dorothy Odam and his teammate Elfriede Kaun . Also in the Olympic film by Leni Riefenstahl Ratjen. As the German champion, Dora Ratjen did not replace the Jewish Gretel Bergmann , who was prevented from starting, as is often assumed , but was qualified as the second team member alongside Kaun with three starting authorizations for the German squad. The third place remained vacant in order to be able to assert to the world public that it is being kept free for the allegedly injured Gretel Bergmann. No reason was given in the specialist and daily press.

At the European Athletics Championships in Vienna in 1938 , where women were allowed for the first time, Ratjen was European champion with the new world record height of 1.70 m. On the return journey, a Magdeburg police doctor found that Ratjen had male genitalia, but had an anatomical deviation from birth due to a scar line. Ratjens father stated during his questioning that "Dora [...] could not urinate while standing." Ratjen himself was glad that his double existence had ended, the police recorded. "He had been expecting this point in time for a long time, because he was aware that one day sporting activity as a woman would no longer be acceptable."

The case remained taboo in public after some daily newspapers reported Ratjens' disqualification. On October 12, 1938, a press instruction was issued that “nothing more should be brought about Dora Ratjen [...]. A message in the press service of the Reichsbund for physical exercises from October 8th is for information only. ”In this message, published in the specialist journal Der Leichtathlet , it was briefly announced that Ratjen was no longer allowed to participate in women's competitions for medical reasons. Ratjen was stripped of the championship title and four world records, the new European champion was the Olympic champion Csák. The Reich Department of Athletics (forerunner of the German Athletics Association ) revoked Ratjen's right to participate in international competitions. The reason was officially "violation of the amateur statute".

Ratjens father initially resisted the fact that "Dora" was a man. He initially refused to change the name and stated that "Dora may not wear men's clothing under any circumstances [...] He will in no case allow Dora to take up a male profession". On January 11, 1939, the sex Ratjens was corrected in the official documents and the first name was changed to Heinrich . On March 10, 1939, the preliminary proceedings against Ratjen were discontinued by the Magdeburg public prosecutor: “The offense of fraud does not apply because the intention to gain a financial advantage cannot be established.” In 1939 Ratjen received a new “work book, an invalidity card and a membership book of the German Labor Front ". In order to separate him from his family, Ratjen was placed on October 1, 1939 in Hanover for the Reich Labor Service .

At the Second World War Ratjen participated as a soldier by its own account. Later he ran the inn in Bremen, which his parents had taken over.

reception

Confusion about the life and role of Dora Ratjen arose mainly from an article in the US American Time Magazine , which reported in 1966: “Nineteen years later, Dora appeared as Hermann, a waiter in Bremen who tearfully confessed that he had been forced by the Nazis was to pose as a woman 'for the fame and honor of Germany'. Hermann sighed: 'For three years I lived the life of a girl. It was dull '. "In 2009 Der Spiegel wrote:" It is unclear whether' Time 'spoke to Ratjen. The information about himself in the article are sparse and imprecise [...] This representation is able to grow hawked ", such as 1967 by Der Spiegel and eventually made its way into the sports literature. The film Berlin 36 from 2009 also takes up the motif of Ratjen, who was instrumentalized by the National Socialists .

Gretel Bergmann , who was prevented from starting at the Olympic Games and who subsequently gave interviews, was also convinced that it was a conspiracy plan, but her information also comes from newspaper articles from the 1960s. Before this point in time, there was no suspicion from her or her team colleague Elfriede Kaun.

There is no evidence of such an intrigue in the documents handed down by the Reich Sports Leadership, police authorities and courts. In a report by the Security Police to State Secretary Hans Heinrich Lammers in the Reich Chancellery , signed by Reinhard Heydrich , there is only a largely objective description of the facts. There is also no official evidence of an operative or hormonal conversion process, despite multiple mentions in press releases.

See also

Literature and film adaptation

Web links

Commons : Dora Ratjen  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Stefan Berg: Olympia 1936. Scandal about Dora. In: spiegel.de, September 17, 2009, accessed on June 27, 2019 (from Spiegel, issue 38/2009; with details of the place of birth).
  2. ↑ Gunnar Meinhardt : The incredible story of Gretel Bergmann. In: The world . August 20, 2009.
  3. ↑ a b c d e Ratjen investigation files, 1938/39, in the holdings of the Section for Sexual Medicine of the University Hospital Kiel. Quoted in: Stefan Berg: The true Dora . In: Der Spiegel . No. 38 , 2009, p. 150-154 ( online ).
  4. ↑ a b c Berno Bahro, Jutta Braun: Berlin '36: The incredible story of a Jewish sportswoman in the "Third Reich". Berlin 2009. Placements at championships according to reports in the daily and specialist press.
  5. ↑ Daniel Wildmann: Desired Body. Construction and staging of the “Aryan male body” in the Third Reich. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1998, p. 100.
  6. ↑ See Der Leichtathlet from July 14, 1936, p. 23. Later the title was withdrawn for the reasons described here and awarded to Kaun, who was second at the time.
  7. ^ "Police doctor's certificate" from September 22, 1938 from the investigation files. (JPG) In: one day . September 16, 2009, archived from the original on July 12, 2012 ; accessed on June 27, 2019 (facsimile).
  8. ↑ z. B. Hamburger Nachrichten of October 1, 1938, page 11
  9. ↑ Helmut Heiber: Joseph Goebbels. Colloquium, Berlin 1962, p. 165.
  10. ↑ Press instructions ZSg. 102/12/298 / (1) of October 12, 1938. In: Hans Bohrmann, Gabriele Toepser-Ziegert (Ed.): NS press instructions of the pre-war period. Volume 6, parts 1-3. Saur, Munich 1999, p. 957.
  11. ↑ a b Stefan Berg: The real Dora . In: Der Spiegel . No. 38 , 2009, p. 150-154 ( online ).
  12. ↑ Jana Haase: End of a lifelong dream. The film "Berlin '36" tells of the fate of a Jewish sportswoman and the secret of her competitor. In: Potsdam's latest news . August 15, 2009, accessed June 27, 2019.
  13. ^ Preserving la Difference. In: Time Magazine. September 16, 1966, archived from the original on June 12, 2008 ; accessed on June 27, 2019 (English).
  14. ↑ A beast . In: Der Spiegel . No. 47 , 1967, p. 113 ( online ).
  15. ↑ Jean O'Reilly, Susan K. Cahn (Ed.): Women and Sports in the United States. University Press of New England, Lebanon NH 2007, p. 105. Scott Plous: Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination. McGraw-Hill, New York 2003, p. 419. Marjorie PK Weiser, Jean S. Arbeiter: Womanlist. Atheneum, New York 1981, p. 22.
  16. ↑ Gretel Bergmann: I was the great Jewish hope. Braun, Karlsruhe 2003, p. 109. Klaus Brinkbäumer: I wanted to show that a Jewish girl can defeat the Germans. (Interview with Gretel Bergmann). In: Spiegel Online . August 25, 2009. Retrieved September 18, 2009.
  17. ↑ Winfried Joch : ORF interview: 70 years later: The Olympic Games in Berlin in the eyes of a contemporary witness - a conversation with Elfriede Kaun. In: Olympic fire . Journal of the German Olympic Sports Confederation and the German Olympic Society. 5/2006, pp. 48–51 ( dosb.de [PDF; 5.3 MB] ( Memento from February 15, 2010 in the Internet Archive )).
  18. ^ Athlete Dora Ratjen. (Report by the chief of Sipo) 1938. Federal Archives R 43 II 728.
  19. ↑ The Tschudina came . In: Der Spiegel . No. 30 , 1952, pp. 22 ( online ). With a mustache . In: Der Spiegel . No.  37 , 1966, pp. 85 ( online ).
personal data
SURNAME Ratjen, Heinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ratjen, Dora (birth name and athlete's name); Ratjen, Heinz; Ratjen, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German athlete
DATE OF BIRTH November 20, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Bremen
DATE OF DEATH April 22, 2008