Waldemar von Zedtwitz

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Waldemar Konrad Anton Wilhelm Ferdinand von Zedtwitz (born May 8, 1896 in Berlin , † October 5, 1984 in Hawaii ) was a German-American bridge player .

Life

Waldemar von Zedtwitz was the only child of the diplomat Curt von Zedtwitz and his wife Mary Eliza nee. Caldwell and thus a great-grandson of the actor and businessman James H. Caldwell . He lost his father in infancy in a sailing accident; the mother died when Waldemar von Zedwitz was 15 years old. He was raised by relatives in Germany and fought in the First World War . After the Battle of Verdun , he was mistakenly believed to be dead. In 1923 he began his career as a bridge player; In 1924 he evidently immigrated to the USA and settled in New York . Waldemar von Zedtwitz inherited La Chartreuse , among othersthat his mother had built after his father's death. Since his maternal aunt had died childless, he also inherited the property of the Caldwell sisters. He sold both properties. A play partner who met him at the Cavendish Club described him as follows: “Baron Waldemar von Zedtwitz - we called him Waldy - was an unusual person. In the first place, he was a multimillionaire. In the second place, he looked different from anyone I've ever seen. He was about six feet tall, very thin, almost nothing but bones. Waldy was nice, but extremely serious. “Von Zedtwitz sometimes took a lot of time to concentrate on bridge problems. According to an anecdote, he once sat in a restaurant in plain clothes and spent two hours so intensely engaging in a bridge game that he had played years earlier that he forgot to pay the bill in the meantime. The employees of the restaurant then arranged a discreet collection and put the money on the table for him because they believed he could not settle the bill, whereupon von Zedtwitz, awakened from his reflections, placed an equally large sum and a handsome tip next to it and that Left local.

In 1930 he won the first international games in England and France with the Bridge World Team. In the same year he donated the Gold Cup for Master Pairs, now Life Master Pairs, which he won himself in the first year. Also in 1930 he contributed to the enforcement of the Ely Culbertson bridge system . Culbertson tried out his approach forcing system on the crossing to England with Waldemar von Zedtwitz and Theodore Lightner , before playing a challenge match against Colonel Buller's English team. On this trip he also wrote part of his Contract Bridge Blue Book .

Numerous other great successes followed for Zedtwitz. One of his preferred team partners was Harold S. Vanderbilt .

In 1932 he became President of the American Bridge League and in 1948 President of the ACBL . He was also one of the founders of the World Bridge Federation and played an important role in the ACBL Charity Foundation. At the age of 74, he ended his bridge career in 1970 by winning the World Mixed Pairs. At this point he was almost blind. At the age of 82 he won a backgammon championship in Hawaii . He died in Hawaii after developing breathing problems from a stroke .

literature

  • Municipal administration Hünibach: four short biographies on the history of Hünibach: Albert Rupp, Waldemar von Zedtwitz, Erich Bohm, Charles Feigel. Hünibach 2007.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rootsweb
  2. ↑ search.ancestry.com
  3. ↑ Chartreuse Castle
  4. ↑ James L. Yarnall: John La Farge's Windows for the Caldwell Sisters of Newport. In: Rhode Island History. 64, 2, 2006, p. 31 ff. (PDF file; 4.34 MB)
  5. ↑ Card Playing. Page One on remarkablemedicine.com
  6. ↑ The Baron Ponders of Two Hours ( Memento of the original from July 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bicyclecards.ca
  7. ↑ History of the Bridge
  8. ↑ Biography on www.acbl.org  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.acbl.org  
  9. ↑ Death notice and short biography in the New York Times
personal data
SURNAME Zedtwitz, Waldemar von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zedtwitz, Waldemar Konrad Anton Wilhelm Ferdinand von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American bridge player
DATE OF BIRTH May 8, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH 5th October 1984
Place of death in Hawaii