Wilhelm Major

Wilhelm "Willi" Major (born on August 13, 1890 in Ladenburg ; died on February 3, 1931 in Kaiserslautern ) was a German athlete .

Life

Wilhelm Major earned his living as a grocer and as an insurance agent for the life insurance company Phönix. Initially active as a track and field athlete at VfR Mannheim , he took part in several national competitions and was, among other things, the southern German champion in the shot put . In 1920 he moved to Kaiserslautern with his wife Anna Major, née Altschuh. There he received citizenship in 1922 . As soon as he arrived, he joined the athletics department of FV Kaiserslautern, which later became 1. FC Kaiserslautern , as an athlete . In 1920 he won the Rhein-Main-Saar Association Championship in the shot put. At the opening of the Betzenberg Stadium (today: Fritz Walter Stadium), he took part as a runner in the Olympic relay race . After these first sporting successes, he was listed as a sports warden for Olympic sports in the club. He was also a trainer and sports director of the athletics department of the FVK.

In August 1920 he joined the IX. National Olympic competitions in several disciplines and took first place in the shot put , discus throw and triathlon . He also competed in the long jump and javelin throw . In 1925 he took part in the competitions to mark the founding anniversary of the FVK, as well as in the XI. National Olympic competitions.

Wilhelm Major died on February 3, 1931 at the age of 40 after a long illness.

memory

In his obituary in the Palatinate People's Newspaper he was described as one of the “most successful athletes in the Palatinate”. Despite his "Jewish descent" according to the Nazi racial ideology , he was named in a chronicle in July 1940 for the 40th anniversary of the association and mentioned in the statistics. The National Socialist Reich Association for Physical Exercise had actually decreed that the achievements of Jewish athletes should be erased from club annals.

literature

Markwart Herzog: 4. Jewish biographies and fates: athlete and grocer Willi Major . In: The "Betze" under the swastika. 1. FC Kaiserslautern in the time of National Socialism . Verlag die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 978-3-89533-541-9 , p. 40-41 .

Individual evidence

↑ Markwart Herzog: 4. Jewish biographies and fates: athlete and grocer Willi Major . In: The "Betze" under the swastika. 1. FC Kaiserslautern in the time of National Socialism . Verlag die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 978-3-89533-541-9 , p. 41 .
↑ Markwart Herzog: Memorial culture in soccer: media, rituals and practices of remembering, commemorating and forgetting . Ed .: Markwart Herzog. Kohlhammer Verlag, 2012, ISBN 978-3-17-023584-7 , pp. 48 .

personal data
SURNAME	Major, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Major, Willi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German athlete
DATE OF BIRTH	August 13, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH	Ladenburg
DATE OF DEATH	February 3, 1931
Place of death	Kaiserslautern

[1] Markwart Herzog: 4. Jewish biographies and fates: athlete and grocer Willi Major . In: The "Betze" under the swastika. 1. FC Kaiserslautern in the time of National Socialism . Verlag die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 978-3-89533-541-9 , p. 41 .

[2] Markwart Herzog: Memorial culture in soccer: media, rituals and practices of remembering, commemorating and forgetting . Ed .: Markwart Herzog. Kohlhammer Verlag, 2012, ISBN 978-3-17-023584-7 , pp. 48 .