Walter Flinsch

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Walter Flinsch (born February 7, 1903 in New York City , † February 3, 1943 ) was a German rower who won an Olympic silver medal in the four without a helmsman in 1932 .

Athletic performance

Walter Flinsch rowed for the Frankfurt rowing club from 1865 (frv1865), the oldest German rowing club for inland waters. At the age of 20 he won in 1923 his first German championship in one . In 1924 he defended his title and then won three times in a row from 1926 to 1928. At the Olympic Games in 1928 he lost both of his races. In 1929 Flinsch lost to the German championship against Gerhard Boetzelen from Berlin .

Then Flinsch moved to the Mannheim rowing club Amicitia from 1876 and to oars . In 1930 he won his first championship title in the Mannheim foursome with helmsman and eighth . In 1931 Flinsch rowed two more championship titles: in the four without a helmsman and again in the eight. At the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1932 , the eighth was eliminated in the hope run . The four without a helmsman with Karl Aletter , Ernst Gaber , Walter Flinsch and Hans Maier, however, won the repechage and finished second behind the British boat around Jack Beresford .

Profession and military service

Walter was a member of the Frankfurt branch of the Flinsch family of paper manufacturers . Born in New York, he was a Lufthansa pilot before the war and later joined the Air Force. Here he was an accomplished pilot and flew u. a. the FW-200 Condor on missions across the Atlantic. Due to the heavy losses of his squadron, Walter Flinsch was given the position of production test pilot for the Heinkel aircraft company to carry out flight tests on the Mammut HE-177. On February 3, 1943, during a test flight with the Heinkel He 177 , he was killed. He lost control of his He 177 at an altitude of about 13,000 feet. Flinsch was able to get off the plane, but never had a chance to open his parachute before it hit the ground.

Wife and family

Walter was married to Margaret Matthews (1907-2011) from West Harrison, New York. She died on April 16, 2011. Mrs. Flinsch was born in Glendale, Ohio , in 1907 , the fifth child of Paul Matthews, later Bishop of New Jersey and Elsie Procter. Her father was born to Thomas Stanley Matthews (1824-1889), a US Senator from Ohio and a US Supreme Court Justice. Her mother Elsie Procter was the granddaughter of the founder of Procter & Gamble . The families of both parents were heavily involved in the missionary work of the Episcopal Church. Margaret's brother was the editor-in-chief of Time Magazine from 1942 to 1949 . She herself was a founding member of the Nursery School in Princeton, New Jersey, with pre-school programs and later a founding member of the Blue Rock School, now in West Nyack, New York until her death at the age of 103. Her life was devoted to promoting education . Both schools continue to exist to this day.

Walter and Margaret Mattews-Flinsch, who had an early accident, had two daughters, Angela Laignel-Lavastine and Josephine Thatcher, seven grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren.

literature

  • Bodo Harenberg (ed.): The stars of the sport from A-Z . Darmstadt 1970
  • Schneider, Seppl: comrades in the boat. A book of joys big and small. Mannheim J Schneider, 1950. 108 p., Color ill. Contains u. a. Contributions to the Mainz and Mannheim rowing clubs and to the 1936 Olympic regatta.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reflections: Remembering Our Founder MARGARET FLINSCH. (No longer available online.) Princeton Nursery School, archived from the original on January 7, 2016 ; accessed on January 7, 2016 (English). 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.princetonnurseryschool.org
  2. ↑ The family of Walter Flinsch's in-laws. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on August 6, 2013 ; accessed on January 7, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Flinsch, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German rower
DATE OF BIRTH February 7, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH February 3, 1943