Kurt-Christoph von Knobelsdorff
Kurt-Christoph von Knobelsdorff (born November 7, 1904 in Rathenow ; † April 30, 1945 on the road between Schmachthagen and Mallentin in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania ) was a successful German tournament rider from 1922 to 1934.
Life
origin
Kurt-Christoph von Knobelsdorff came from the nobility of the Knobelsdorff family . He was the fourth child of Hans von Knobelsdorff (1866-1947), major general and commander of the Cuirassier Regiment Queen (Pommersches) No. 2 , and Margarete von Hirschfeld (1870-1939). Born in Rathenow , where his father began his military officer career with the Zietenhusars , von Knobelsdorff learned to ride from an early age. In 1916 he fell ill with encephalitis (most likely early summer meningoencephalitis ) after a school-ordered harvest . As a child, he lost his sight first, then his hearing. The eyesight returned, but he remained deaf for life, with deteriorating eyesight over the years. Since he had to give up the high school in Pasewalk due to his illness, von Knobelsdorff, with the help of his father, who later acquired the later very successful Trakehner horse "Erlaucht", made riding his profession for 12 years despite his disability.
Equestrian career
In his active time from 1922 to 1934 he successfully took part in all important show jumping and hunting competitions ( Aachen , Berlin, Hamburg etc.) in Germany, often with excellent results . As a teenager he was able to assert himself against the elite of the German show jumpers at the time , tournaments to which he initially rode his competition horse over longer distances. In 1924 he reached the German jumping championship (German master of show jumping). In the qualifications for participation in show jumping in Amsterdam ( Olympic Summer Games 1928 ) he was defeated by a time error , allegedly caused by Gustav Rau , to the then equestrian star Carl-Friedrich Freiherr von Langen (1887-1934), against whom he had already won several times would have. Although von Langen became Olympic champion in the dressage test , he only reached 28th place in show jumping.
Overall, von Knobelsdorff was in his equestrian career, the first three places, 58 times first, 49 times second and 49 times third place. At the German Jumping Derby in Hamburg in 1927 he was 3rd with "Partner" and 6th in 1929 with "Minnerie". Among his five competition horses, all of them Trakehner, “Erlaucht”, “Partner” and “Minnerie” were the most successful. He achieved his sporting successes despite complete deafness and temporary visual impairment , so as a disabled person who started and was rated under competitive conditions for "non-disabled people". The category of disabled sport as a competitive sport did not exist at the time.
In 1924 Kurt-Christoph von Knobelsdorff, Prince Friedrich Sigismund of Prussia and Hans-Christian von Wietersheim-Muhrau (1899–1984) from the tournament men’s rider and driver’s association were awarded the large plaque from the association “For excellent Services “excellent.
The end of his sporting career in the early 1930s was essentially due to financial circumstances. Without his own fortune, von Knobelsdorff increasingly had to finance his participation in tournament sports with loans. The level of the prize money at that time was barely enough to cover the running costs of his riding stable, economically a zero-sum game . In particular, the negative consequences for small private riding stables were that during this time the Reichswehr became increasingly involved in equestrian sports , which in the post-war period had large financial means and considerable resources of horse material compared to private competitors.
The tournament rider Kurt-Christoph von Knobelsdorff is often with his relative Kurt von Knobelsdorff-Brenkenhoff, Herzogl. Anhalt Chamberlain and Hofstallmeister a. D. (1883–1965), confused, who was active in equestrian and horse breeding associations after the First World War , and also published in the equestrian trade press.
family
For a sustainable material livelihood independent of equestrian sport, von Knobelsdorff set up a wine and spirits distribution company in Pasewalk in the 1920s , whose own brandy "Alter Pasewalker" was not only successful in equestrian circles throughout Germany. In 1939 he married Maria Margherita von Schack , with whom he had four children. Kurt-Christoph von Knobelsdorff, who was never a soldier due to his disability, was killed on April 30, 1945 at 3:30 p.m. by an English low- flying aircraft while fleeing west .
swell
- Archive of the German Equestrian Association, Warendorf.
- Genealogical manual of the nobility . Vol. XXXII, 2010, p. 262 ff.
- Maria-Eva Baroness von Dörnberg, b. von Knobelsdorff: "Business is a fine sport". Memories of her brother Kurt-Christoph von Knobelsdorff . Private print, Oberaula 1960.
Individual evidence
- ^ The German Equestrian Book, German Tournament and Racing Publishing House, Berlin, Vienna, Leipzig, 1929, p. 113
- ↑ Info: North German and Flottbeker Reiterverein eV
- ^ The German Equestrian Book, German Tournament and Racing Sports Publishers, Berlin, Vienna, Leipzig 1929, p. 105
- ^ Tournament-Men-Rider-and-Driver-Association eV (Ed.), Monthly announcements of the tournament-men-rider-and-driver-Association eV, 1st year 1925
- ↑ Annual report for 1924 on the affairs of the von Knobelsdorff family, Hanover 1924, p. 7
- ↑ also incorrectly stated in Jasper Nissen: Großes Reiter- und Pferdelexikon , Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag, 1977, ISBN 3-570-04580-3
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Knobelsdorff, Kurt-Christoph von |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German tournament rider |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 7, 1904 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Rathenow |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 30, 1945 |
| Place of death | Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania |