Hubert Schwerger

Johann Hubert Schwerger (born November 23, 1859 in Cologne ; † 1933 there ) was a German wrestler .

Life

Hubert Schwerger was born at Kämmergasse 29 as the son of the cab driver Franz Schwerger and Apollonia Schweger born. Born brighter. He grew up in Cologne and learned the trade of a butcher there. During his military service in the Prussian army around 1880, he first came into contact with physical exercise, as it was called at the time. There was also wrestling. After his discharge from military service, he continued to wrestle in Cologne. He took part in many competitions in the Rhineland and also won several prizes. This is evidenced by a photo in the specialist magazine Athletik from 1933, which shows him at the age of about 30 and in which about 20 medals are pinned on his jersey.

In 1891 the "German Amateur Heavy Athletics Association of 1891" was founded. This association held its first association festival in Cologne in 1893 . At this association festival, the first German wrestling champion was determined. The wrestling was in the Greco-Roman style and in only one weight class. Hubert Schwerger started this championship. It is known that he defeated Karl Esser from Krefeld and Georg Stolz from Mainz in the final fights and thus became the first German champion in the wrestling of amateurs.

Hubert Schwerger can still be seen on the cover of an issue of the specialist magazine Athletik from 1933, which shows him standing upright shortly before his death next to the German heavyweight wrestling champion Willi Müller from Cologne from 1932 . He is almost half a head taller than Müller. From this it can be concluded that he was a full-grown heavyweight during his playing days.

Hubert Schwerger is no longer listed in any other winners' lists of German championships. However, after 1893 the next German championships did not take place until 1895, when his compatriot from Cologne, Peter Stiehl, won the title. At the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, there were no DASV wrestlers in the German team, but gymnast Carl Schuhmann , who also became Olympic champion.

source

Athletics magazine from 1933,
Documentation Hundred Years of Wrestling in Germany, Ed. Deutscher Ringer-Bund eV, Verlag "Der Ringer", Niedernberg, 1991, pages 199 a. 220

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen, civil status archive Rhineland, civil status register, regional court district Cologne, registry office Cologne, births, 1859, document no. 3653.

personal data
SURNAME	Harder, Hubert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Schwerger, Johann Hubert (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German wrestler
DATE OF BIRTH	November 23, 1859
PLACE OF BIRTH	Cologne
DATE OF DEATH	1933
Place of death	Cologne

[Geburtsurkunde-1] Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen, civil status archive Rhineland, civil status register, regional court district Cologne, registry office Cologne, births, 1859, document no. 3653.