Kurt Gies

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Kurt Helmut Gies (born May 18, 1921 in Mülheim an der Ruhr , † November 23, 1943 in the Soviet Union ) was a German tennis player .

Athletic career

He was born as the youngest son of the manager of the municipal sports facilities on Kahlenberg Heinrich Gies. Although never active as a tennis player himself, the father felt connected to the sport of tennis and, like his three older brothers, familiarized Kurt with the game at an early age. At the age of four, under the guidance of his father and brothers, Kurt made his first strokes with a racket specially modified for him.

In 1934 Kurt Gies joined the Mülheim tennis club on the Kahlenberg and was already a top player in his age group three weeks later. In 1936 he won the city championship straight away, was German youth champion in 1938 and repeated this success a year later. In 1939 he moved to the KTHC Stadion Rot-Weiss in Cologne. Here he was able to fully develop his performance potential under his new coach Hans Nüsslein and compete with top German players in training.

In 1940 he won in Braunschweig, together with Ursula Rosenow , the mixed competition of the national German tennis championships and, together with the German champion Henner Henkel , took part in a trip to Japan as a young German player and played four international matches and several exhibition matches. In 1941 he won the Danish indoor championship, fought with great success in international matches against Hungary and Croatia and reached his sporting climax as a winner at the German championships in Braunschweig. There he beat the Davis Cup player Adam Baworowski in the final of the singles competition and won the doubles competition together with his partner Henner Henkel. However, he could not defend his mixed doubles title from the previous year. In 1942, he was denied participation in the championships because he had served as a soldier in the Wehrmacht since 1941 and was not given any leave for the tournament. In 1943 he was able to repeat his triumph at the German Championships in both singles and doubles.

That was his last big appearance as a tennis player. Only a few weeks after earning the championship title, he was killed as a soldier on the Eastern Front in Russia at the age of 22.

On January 31, 1957, a street was named after him in the Heißen district of Mülheim.

swell

  • Willi Rüter: Mülheimer in the national jersey - Kurt Gies . In: Neue Ruhr Zeitung from 13./14. May 1955.
  • City archive Mülheim an der Ruhr, inventory 1550 No. 177

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ muelheim-ruhr.de: ZEITZEICHEN November 23, 1943: Death of tennis player Kurt Gies , accessed on June 28, 2016
  2. ↑ books.google.de: The archive; Reference work for politics, economics, culture, issues 76-78 (1940) page 519 , accessed on June 28, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Gies, Kurt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gies, Kurt Helmut
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German tennis player
DATE OF BIRTH May 18, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Mülheim an der Ruhr
DATE OF DEATH November 23, 1943
Place of death Soviet Union