Paul Kraus (ski jumper)

Paul Kraus
nation	German Empire
birthday	October 28, 1917
place of birth	Johanngeorgenstadt ,  German Empire
date of death	February 15, 1942
Place of death	Taranki ,  Soviet Union
Career
National squad	since 1936
End of career	1941

Paul Kraus (born October 28, 1917 in Johanngeorgenstadt ; † February 15, 1942 near Taranki near Minsk , Soviet Union ) was a German ski jumper. He was the most successful ski jumper in Saxony in the 1930s.

Career

The Olympic champion Birger Ruud from Norway is said to have discovered the talent of Paul Kraus, whom he got to know in Johanngeorgenstadt , where Ruud worked in 1932/33 and Kraus lived with his parents on Exulantenstrasse. In 1935, however, he beat his master.

In 1936 Kraus won the German championship of the young men in Oberstdorf and thus got a place in the German Olympic team. At the Olympic Games in 1936 , the then just 18-year-old finished 18th. In August 1936 Paul Kraus received a free ticket for the Summer Olympics in Berlin , where he was to be presented to Adolf Hitler on August 15 . He was accepted into the Ski Association of Saxony and took part in the 1937 World Championships in Chamonix , where he took 6th place in jumping. On the Holmenkollen near Oslo , he then took 7th place and thus became the best German jumper. In 1938 he set a new hill record with 77 m on the Hans-Heinz-Schanze in Johanngeorgenstadt.

At the World Championships in Zakopane in 1939 he represented Germany, where he finished eighth. At the end of the season he received the representatives of the German national team in Johanngeorgenstadt. At the time, this included Hans Marr from Oberhof , Franz Haslberger from Reit im Winkl , Franz Aschenwald from Austria, Josef Bradl from Salzburg , Paul Häckel from Oberwiesenthal and Paul Schneidbach from Klingenthal . Outside the ski season, Paul Kraus was a soldier, later a non-commissioned officer in the 31st Infantry Regiment in Plauen . In Vogtland he won several competitions on the Vogtlandschanze in Mühlleithen and on the C.-A.-Seydel-Schanze on Aschberg . When New Year's event at the Hans-Heinz-Schanze in Johanngeorgenstadt he took 2nd place in 1941, after the winner Gerhard Hänel and before third-placed Herbert mercury .

After the failure of the Olympic Games in 1940 , Kraus took part in the 1946 World Championship in Cortina d'Ampezzo , which was canceled by the International Ski Federation FIS , in which he finished 10th. During the ski flying week in Planica from February 26 to March 1, 1941, he achieved a new world record on the final day of 112 meters and was second in the overall standings behind Rudi Gehring. On December 28, 1941 he took part in Oberhof in the qualifying competition for the 1942 World Championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where he finished third. On the following New Year's Day, he took part in the New Year's Jumping in Steinbach-Hallenberg , which was won by Hans Marr from Oberhof. It was the last jump with his participation. Two days later, the national team was dissolved. Paul Kraus was sent to the Eastern Front and fell as a member of a ski patrol near Minsk the following month .

successes

Hill records

place	country	Expanse	set up on	Record up
Planica	Slovenia	112.0 m ( HS : 140 m)	1941	1941

Private

Kraus was the son of the piano technician Karl Kraus from Johanngeorgenstadt, where he started an apprenticeship as a glove maker at the Oskar Langer company after attending school.

His daughter Monika Zahor consecrated the Erzgebirgsschanze in Johanngeorgenstadt in 1962 .

literature

• Dedicated to the memory of Paul Kraus , in: Erzgebirgische Heimatblätter , No. 17 of April 26, 1942, pp. 1–2.

Web links

• Paul Kraus in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )