Wilhelm Kurtz (athlete)

Wilhelm "Willy" Kurtz (born August 20, 1897 in Linz , † December 9, 1942 in Auschwitz ) was an Austrian art dealer, amateur boxer , amateur swimmer and sports official.

Life

Wilhelm Kurtz grew up in Vienna . With a height of over 1.90 meters and almost 100 kilograms, he was of impressive shape. He belonged to several short-lived boxing associations, and in 1920 he was the founding president of the Austrian Boxing Association . In the summer of 1921 he won the first Austrian amateur boxing championship in the heavyweight weight category with the battle name Kritzendorfer Riese . In 1922 he converted from Judaism to Protestantism . He won the Austrian national boxing title several times. He also worked as a referee and boxing functionary. He also took part in swimming competitions and was a functionary of the Austria Wien football club , the Vienna Football Association and in motorcycle racing .

Professionally, he ran an antique shop in the 1st district of Vienna . In 1935 he was appointed to the Commercial Council. Politically he was on the right and was a member of the Home Guard as a functionary. During the time of Austrofascism he was appointed administrator of the professional boxing association by "sports leader" Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg .

After the " Anschluss of Austria " to Hitler's Germany , Kurtz was arrested in March 1938 and taken to the Dachau concentration camp in early April 1938 on the so-called transport of prominent people . His gigantic figure made him the preferred victim of abuse by the SS guards in the concentration camp. On September 22, 1938, he was transferred to the Buchenwald concentration camp . On October 16, 1942, he was transferred to the Auschwitz concentration camp , where he died on December 9, 1942.

His business in downtown Vienna and his weekend house in Klosterneuburg were "aryanized" .

Web link

• Wilhelm Kurtz in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna .

literature

• Bernhard Hachleitner: Case Study: Willy Kurtz and the "Judged Arbitration Court" . In: Bernhard Hachleitner, Matthias Marschik , Georg Spitaler (eds.): Sports officials and Jewish difference. Between recognition and anti-Semitism - Vienna 1918 to 1938 . De Gruyter, Oldenbourg 2018, ISBN 978-3-11-055331-4 , p. 200–205 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
• Claudia Kuretsidis-Haider, Rudolf Leo: “dachaureif” - The Austrian transport from Vienna to the Dachau concentration camp on April 1, 1938. Ed .: Documentation Center of Austrian Resistance and Central Austrian Research Center for Post-War Justice. Vienna 2019, ISBN 978-3-901142-75-8 , p. 167 f.

supporting documents

1. ^ The dispute over the amateur championship of heavyweights in boxing In:  Sport-Tagblatt. Sports edition of the Neue Wiener Tagblatt , January 18, 1921, p. 5 (online at ANNO ). .