| Max Schmeling In boxing, the name of Max Schmeling will forever be linked with Joe Louis. Two fighters bound as one because of two fights that transcended boxing because of their national associations. 1 win each. But what came out of these fights was a friendship far more important than the politics of the day - one of the most touching friendships in sport. Both were bound by the spiritual umbilical cord of these massive fights - only they knew what they had gone though as only they experienced it. I do wonder when two great fighters share the ring whether there is something that holds them together from the end of the fight to the end of their lives. For example, Leonard needs Hearns and vice versa. Each defines the other. They are greater thanks to the other. Today, I wonder if they look back with any kind of unspoken friendship as they have shared something none of the rest of us has? I'm sure there is something higher, something spiritual though words are perhaps not the best medium to express that heightened sense of something. At least, not my words. Am I making sense? Because of his exploits in the ring Schmeling became a hero; because of his kindly way outside of it, he became a legend, especially in Germany where Marlene Dietrich was an admirer. So were many. Throughout his long life he was loved and respected by the German public. And by Joe Louis. His son recounts that his father was such a golf fanatic he wouldn't evenn leave the golf course for the birth of his children. But when he was told that Max Schmeling was visiting he left the golf course immediately! I, in a manly way, love Max Schmeling as well. Everything he did for Joe Louis in later life says it all really. The help he gave him when he really needed it. Indeed that friendship between the two is one of the most beautiful stories in sport. Max Schmeling. World citizen. The famous Jimmy Cannon quote on Louis applies to Schmeling: 'He was a credit to his race - the human race'. Boxing record A BRIEF HISTORY OF A LEGEND: Max Schmeling had lengthy conversations with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Pope Pius XII, Adolf Hitler, and Marlene Dietrich. How many men could say that. He was World Heavyweight Champion from 1930 to 1932. Schmeling's story is one of a shy man of extremely humble origins who comes of age amidst the glitter and turbulence of Berlin's 'Golden Twenties'. His career inevitably brings him to America, where his incredible odyssey sweeps him into a constellation whose stars include Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney, FDR, Al Capone, Clark Gable, and many more. But the most compelling chapters in Max Schmeling's American saga are those involving Joe Louis and the unlikely bond between the two men, a bond forged in two epic battles. Schmeling's story is also that of a decent man in conflict with himself and with the authorities and racial policies of Hitler's Third Reich. His personal interaction with Hitler offers a fascinating character study of the megalomaniac Fuhrer. Years after it came out how during the Nazi purge of Jews from Berlin, he personally saved the lives of two Jewish children by hiding them in his apartment. He made his wealth in the 1950s by first woring for the Coke Cola Campany in Germany and then owning a bottling plant. Max Schmeling's story is also a love story -- a lifetime voyage with Czech actress Anny Ondra. They were married for over 50 years until her death. Paul Page, Dec. 2012 FURTHER READING: Max Schmeling: An Autobiography Max Schmeling prints @ amazon.co.uk (direct link to prints) Max Schmeling - Fist of the Reich [DVD] Max Schmeling's two fights with Joe Louis in the late 1930s transcended boxing and became worldwide social events because of their national associations. He was ranked 55 on Ring Magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time. While Schmeling was never a supporter of the Nazi regime in Germany, he cooperated with the government's efforts to play down the increasingly negative international world view of its domestic policies during the 1930s. However, it became known long after the Second World War that Schmeling had risked his own life to save the lives of two Jewish children in 1938. This is the compelling story of Max Schmeling. |
