Jakob Koch (wrestler)

Jakob Koch 1903

Jakob "Kochse Kobes" Koch (born April 12, 1870 in Neuss ; † February 19, 1918 there ) was a German wrestler . He was two-time European champion , two-time world champion and two-time runner-up in the Greco-Roman wrestling match.

Career

Jakob Koch was born in Neuss as the son of the basket maker Michael Koch and his wife Anna Catharina Koch, née. Hover in Neuss Glockhammer D 137 was born in an old house between Spulgasse and “Finke Höffke”. In his hometown he began as a teenager with the Neuss gymnastics club from 1848 with the sports wrestling , weightlifting and gymnastics . Later he specialized entirely in wrestling and achieved all of his great successes in the Greco-Roman style customary at the time.

His successes

In 1896 in Rotterdam he won his first major international title as an amateur, that of European champion. In 1898 the 1.80 m tall and about 100 kg heavy athlete joined the professional wrestlers. With hard-working and hard training, he fought his way into the absolute world elite of Greco-Roman wrestling athletes in this profession within a few years.

In 1902 Jakob Koch started for the first time at a world championship in the London Sportring Club and immediately became world heavyweight champion in Greco-Roman wrestling. Together with his friend, the 1901 world champion, Georg Hackenschmidt from Russia, he had prepared intensively for several months in England for this world championship . He was in excellent shape and became world heavyweight champion with a victory in the final battle over the Belgian Omer de Bouillon (Omer Garitte). Jakob Koch was the first German heavyweight world champion in Gri.-Röm. Was wrestling.

Also at the 1903 World Cup in Liège he played a very important role in the award of the title. But this time he had to be content with third place behind Jess Pedersen from Denmark and Belgian Omer de Bouillon.

In 1904 Jakob Koch won back the heavyweight world championship title at the world championships in Berlin in a rousing fight against Heinrich Eberle from Freiburg and before Dirk van der Berg from Holland. In 1905 he was European champion for the second time, this time in France at the Cassino de Paris. In 1907 he was only defeated in the final of the world championship in Paris by the French old master Paul Pons and thus became vice world champion.

Jakob Koch achieved the same excellent placement at the 1908 World Cup in Vienna . Here he failed only in the final against the 2.13 meter tall and approx. 125 kilogram heavy Bulgarian Simon Antonitsch.

In the years from 1894 to 1914, Jakob Koch competed in countless tournaments and challenge fights. He mostly left the wrestling mat as the winner. Jakob Koch stood with the entire world elite of the wrestlers in Greco-Roman. Style on the mat and was able to defeat almost everyone. Only the following athletes are mentioned here: Georg Hackenschmidt, Iwan Poddubny , Iwan Schemjakin , Alexander Aberg and Petrotwitsch all from Russia, Hans Schwarz, John Pohl , Michael Hitzler , Karl Kornatz , Karl Saft and Georg Strenge from Germany , Josef Steinbach , the former Olympic and world champions in weightlifting from Austria as well as Paul Pons , Laurent le Beaucairois , Emile Vervet and Aimable le Calmette from France and the Belgians Constant le Boucher and Omer de Bouillon and Jess Pedersen from Denmark.

The Munich magazine “Athletik - Sportzeitung” describes the life as a sportsperson and the great successes of Neuss wrestling world champion Jakob Koch on its full cover in its November 10th 1906 issue.

The end of the wrestling career

Jakob Koch is much honored and admired today. The well-known humorist Otto Reutter says in his aphorisms: "Long live fame, among the broad masses the wrestler" Koch "is much better known than the scholar of the same name." But despite his colossal successes, despite his prosperity, which his art - a bon mot calls it "culinary art" - Jakob Koch has already remained a modest man. In addition to excellent manners, Jakob Koch had an unusual intelligence and knew how to talk in an interesting and stimulating way on many topics.

In 1909 Jakob Koch published his wrestling book - textbook of wrestling - with 64 illustrations. It was published by Hermann Walther Verlag in Berlin. In 1911 Jakob Koch published the - textbook of wrestling - also in Moscow - Russia.

On December 15, 1910, Jakob Koch married Hella Bernitt from Berlin.

Jakob Koch became a very wealthy man through his great sporting successes all over the world and after his career as a high-performance athlete wanted to settle down as a businessman in his hometown Neuss. However, the First World War also called him to the military as a Landsturmmann . The privations of the soldier's time broke out in his bad health and already on February 19, 1918, not even 48 years old, the multiple world and European champion died of a heart condition.

A plaque in the foyer of the stadium hall on Neusser Jahnstraße commemorates his great successes. On May 5, 2009 the city of Neuss honored its successful son with a street name in the south of Neuss. There is an ice rink and the Neusser Südbad on Jakob-Koch-Straße .

International success

All successes were in Greco-Roman. Earned fighting style in heavyweight division.

(Abbreviations: WM = World Championship; EM = European Championship)

• 1896 - 1st place - European Championship in Rotterdam
• 1901 - 1st place - Grand Prix of Munich in front of Heinrich Eberle GER and in front of Michael Hitzler GER and Marchand FRA
• 1902 - 2nd place - tournament in Brussels behind Georg Hackenschmidt RUS
• 1902 - 2nd place - tournament in Namur behind Georg Hackenschmidt RUS
• 1902 - 1st place - World Championship in London in front of Omer de Bouillon BEL and Dirk von den Berg NDL
• 1903 - 3rd place - World Championship in Liège behind Jess Pedersen DEN and in front of Omer de Bouillon BEL
• 1904 - 1st place - World Championship in Berlin in front of Heinrich Eberle GER and Dirk von den Berg NDL
• 1905 - 1st place - European championship in Paris
• 1906 - 1st place - tournament in Nuremberg in front of John Pohl GER and Omer de Bouillon BEL
• 1907 - 1st place - Grand Prix of Silesia in Breslau in front of Dirk von den Berg NDL
• 1907 - 1st place - tournament in Berlin in front of Paul Pons FRA
• 1907 - 1st place - Grand Prix of Düsseldorf in front of Iwan Schemjakin RUS
• 1907 - 2nd place - World Championship in Paris behind Paul Pons FRA and in front of Omer de Bouillon BEL
• 1908 - 1st place - Grand Prix of East Prussia ahead of Antonitsch BUL
• 1908 - April 12th in a challenge fight Jakob Koch defeats Ivan Poddubny from RUS
• 1908 - April 19, in revenge, Jakob Koch and Iwan Poddubny fight "without a decision" in the first fight, Poddubny RUS wins the second fight
• 1908 - 2nd place - World Championship in Vienna behind Simon Antonitsch BUL and in front of Adolph Steurs BEL and Josef Steinbach AUT
• 1909 - 1st place - at the Krefeld Grand Prix
• 1909 - 1st place - at the St. Petersburg Grand Prix 1st Jakob Koch 2nd Hans Schwarz 3rd Ivan Shemjakin 4th Nikolai Wachturow 5th Halil Adi

literature

• Georg Zadig: The wrestling match . Published by Grethlein & Co., Leipzig 1905.
• Various issues of the professional journal Athletik , especially the issues from August 18 and November 10, 1906.
• Jakob Koch: Textbook of wrestling . Hermann Walther GmbH, Berlin 1909.
• Walter Becker: The most important wrestlers in the world. Biographies and pictures of famous wrestlers . Verlag Walter Becker, Berlin 1922, DNB .
• Adolf von Guretzki: The modern wrestling match. A practical school for the skillful learning of the wrestling technique with many, not yet published new holds and parades, and an exact description of the training of the most famous wrestlers as a guide to the achievement of muscle strength and body agility . (Ninth enlarged and improved edition). FW Gloeckner & Co., Leipzig 1923, DNB .
• Ludger Baten: Encounters. From one who went to become world champion . (Sports events in the Neuss district in 1983).
• Horst Faller , international wrestling judge from the hometown of Jakob Koch "Neuss"
• Neuss-Grevenbroicher-Zeitung of May 7, 2009, ZDB -ID 1116942-4 , named Jakob-Koch-Strasse in Neuss.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} The German wrestler Jakob Koch died. In:  Neuigkeits -Welt-Blatt , No. 51/1918 (XLV. Year), March 3, 1918, p. 7 middle. (Online at ANNO ). .