Karl Schäfer (figure skater)

Karl Schäfer
Karl Schäfer with Sonja Henie , 1932
nation	Austria
birthday	May 17, 1909
place of birth	Vienna
date of death	April 23, 1976
Place of death	Purkersdorf
Career
discipline	Single run
Medal table
Olympic medals 2 × 0 × 0 × World Cup medals 7 × 2 × 1 × EM medals 8 × 1 × 1 ×
winter Olympics gold Lake Placid 1932 Men's gold Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936 Men's  World figure skating championships bronze Davos 1927 Men's silver Berlin 1928 Men's silver London 1929 Men's gold New York 1930 Men's gold Berlin 1931 Men's gold Montréal 1932 Men's gold Zurich 1933 Men's gold Stockholm 1934 Men's gold Budapest 1935 Men's gold Paris 1936 Men's  European figure skating championships bronze Vienna 1927 Men's silver Troppau 1928 Men's gold Davos 1929 Men's gold Berlin 1930 Men's gold Vienna 1931 Men's gold Paris 1932 Men's gold London 1933 Men's gold Seefeld 1934 Men's gold St. Moritz 1935 Men's gold Berlin 1936 Men's

Karl Martin Alois Schäfer (born May 17, 1909 in Vienna , † April 23, 1976 in Purkersdorf ) was an Austrian figure skater who started in a single run . He was the Olympic champion from 1932 and 1936 , the world champion from 1930 to 1936 and the European champion from 1929 to 1936 .

Life

Karl Schäfer was born in Mayssengasse 21, not far from Eduard Engelmann's ice rink in Vienna-Hernals . As a figure skater, he was discovered by the ice skating instructor Rudolf Kutzer at the age of 11 . In 1923 he already took part in a show in Hernals as the Rosenkavalier. Schäfer was also very musical and played the violin excellently. Between 1926 and 1937 he was a seven-time Austrian breaststroke champion . As a breaststroke swimmer, he took part in the European Swimming Championships in 1926 (5th place) and 1927 (4th place) and in the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam .

In figure skating , Schäfer won seven consecutive world championship titles from 1930 to 1936 and eight consecutive European championship titles from 1929 to 1936 . At the Olympic Games in Lake Placid in 1932 he defeated the three-time Olympic champion Gillis Grafström and he was able to defend his title at the Olympic Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1936 .

After his figure skating career ended in 1936, he went to the United States as a coach for a year . In 1938 he opened a sports shop in Vienna. In 1940, together with Herta Wächter , who was also a figure skater and trainer, he founded the "Karl-Schäfer-Eisrevue", which later became the Wiener Eisrevue. During this time, Schäfer also covered employees like Willy Petter who were not “ purely Aryan ”. Petter, who was supposed to continue the ice revue after the Second World War , therefore worked in the background and was not mentioned in the programs. In 1943 he played a leading role in the film " The White Dream ", which was filmed on the Engelmann ice rink in Vienna-Hernals.

Schäfer took part in the reconstruction of Engelmann's ice rink after the Second World War. After the official denazification in 1947 he worked again as a trainer in Austria, Bavaria and Spain.

In 1949, Schäfer was tried in court. He was accused of having been a member of the NSDAP from 1933 and of the SA from 1938 . Previously, Schäfer had stated in the denazification process in 1945 that he had only become a member of the NSDAP in 1938 and had only been a member of the SA for a period of three weeks. In the course of the legal proceedings, Schäfer cited several witnesses who confirmed his activities in the resistance movement since 1940 and the subsequent expulsion from the SA. He was also accused of having acquired a piece of land from Jewish owners in 1939 as part of the “Aryanization”, but Schäfer was also able to find exonerating witnesses for this allegation. However, Schäfer's reputation was so damaged that he had to resign as managing director of the Wiener Eisrevue. As a result, the name of the revue was also changed.

In 1954, Schäfer emphasized in the Vienna weekly edition that he had never become politically active and only after the “ Anschluss ” in 1938 had been integrated into the SA like numerous other prominent athletes. Because of his success, he was rewarded with the rank of SA storm leader .

From 1956 to 1962 he worked again as a trainer in the USA. From 1962 until his death he was again a trainer in Vienna-Hernals. He had been married to Christine Schäfer, born Engelmann, since January 28, 1937. She was the youngest daughter of Eduard Engelmann .

In 1987, Karl-Schäfer-Strasse in Vienna- Floridsdorf (21st district) was named after him.

Results

Competition / year	1927	1928	1929	1930	1931	1932	1933	1934	1935	1936
winter Olympics		4th				1.				1.
World championships	3.	2.	2.	1.	1.	1.	1.	1.	1.	1.
European championships	3.	2.	1.	1.	1.	1.	1.	1.	1.	1.
Austrian championships	2.	2.	1.	1.	1.	1.	1.	1.		1.

Karl Schäfer with Eduard Engelmann, owner of the first Viennese art ice rink

Awards

• In 1931 he received the golden needle of the Austrian Marathon Committee.

literature

• Stefan Jordan:  Shepherd, Karl. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-428-11203-2 , p. 508 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

• Karl Schäfer in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Charles Shepherd in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.olympia.at/museum/main.asp?VID=1&kat1=13&kat2=142&kat3=&MBIOPID=1229&MBIOTID=540
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Vienna's street names since 1860 as “Political Places of Remembrance” (PDF; 4.4 MB), p. 205f, final research project report, Vienna, July 2013
3. ↑ The golden needles of the Ö.MK. In:  Sportblatt am Mittag / Sport-Tagblatt. Sports edition of the Neue Wiener Tagblatt , January 15, 1931, p. 8 (online at ANNO ).