Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Third Reich 2: “A German Victory”?

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Max Schmeling and the Making of a National Hero in Twentieth-Century Germany

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Sport and Politics ((PASSP))

  • 224 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter analyses in detail the representation and consequences, both in Germany and internationally, of the two fights between Schmeling and the American boxer Joe Louis in 1936 and 1938. It examines the politicized reporting of the fights, observing that they were multi-media “modern” events. Additionally, it analyses the idealization of Schmeling in propaganda and ideology following his unexpected victory in 1936 and considers representations of Schmeling and of boxing in visual art in the Third Reich. Finally, Schmeling’s status as a landowner and farmer is considered in the context of Nazi agrarian policy and the myth of “blood and soil” and his elevation to a heroic figure capable of combining sporting and military attributes through his service as a paratrooper in the Crete campaign of 1941.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

  • Anonymous. The International Olympic Committee and the Modern Olympic Games. Lausanne: International Olympic Committee, 1933.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anonymous. “Brundage Scores ‘Alien Agitators’”. New York Times, 4 December 1935, 26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anonymous. “Olympic Games in the New Germany”. Manchester Guardian, 6 December 1935, 11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anonymous. Preserve the Olympic Ideal: A Statement of the Case Against American Participation in the Olympic Games in Berlin. New York: Committee on Fair Play in Sports, 1935.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anonymous. Schmeling’s Departure for U.S. Practically Ignored in Germany. New York Times, 16 April 1936, 31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anonymous (probably “-egg” (=Alfred Eggert)). “Schwarz gegen Weiß”. BZ am Mittag, 18 June 1936, 10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anonymous. “Max Schmeling sagt selbst”, Völkischer Beobachter, 18 June 1936, 8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anonymous. “USA im Kampffieber”. Völkischer Beobachter, 18 June 1936, 8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anonymous. “Nazis Demand Titular Bout. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 20 June 1936, 1–2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anonymous. “Goebbels Hails Victor”. New York Times, 20 June 1936, 10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anonymous. “Der Glückwunsch des Führers”, Völkischer Beobachter, 21 June 1936, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anonymous. “Ring Frei! Schmeling – Heuser – Eder/Woher sie kamen, wie sie wurden”. Der Angriff, 22 June 1938, 3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anonymous. “Was die Prominenten sagen”. Boxsport, 925 (1938): 10, 12–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anonymous. “Americans and Prize Fight: Anti-German Feeling Last Night at the Yankee Stadium”. Manchester Guardian, 23 June 1938, 6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anonymous. “Welcher Treffer entschied?”. BZ am Mittag, 23 June 1938, 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anonymous. “Dr. Smith erklärt der ‘B.Z.’”. BZ am Mittag, 24 June 1938, 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anonymous. “Louis’ Glück und Instinkt”. Der Angriff, 25 June 1938, 10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anonymous. “Schmeling Killed in Crete”, Manchester Guardian, 30 May 1941, 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anonymous. “Entartete” Kunst: digitial reproduction of a typescript inventory prepared by the Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda ca. 1941/42 (V&A NAL MSL/1996/7). London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 2014. Accessed 19 November 2016. http://www.vam.ac.uk/entartetekunst.

  • Ashe Jr., Arthur R. Foreword to the American Edition. In Barrow Jr. and Munder, Joe Louis: The Brown Bomber, xv–xvii. London: Arthur Baker, 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benz, Wolfgang, Hermann Graml and Hermann Weiß. Enzyklopädie des Nationalsozialismus. Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biewer, Joe. “Allen Gewalten zum Trutz… Ein Schlußkapitel”. In Carlo Otto Hamann, Ein Leben auf eigene Faust, 186–203. Cologne: Ewald Berger, undat. [1948].

    Google Scholar 

  • Boddy, Kasia. Boxing: A Cultural History. London: Reaktion, 2008.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burleigh, Michael and Wolfgang Wippermann. The Racial State: Germany 1933–1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burnley. “Those Joe Louis Jitters”. The Advance News, 23 May 1936, 8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burnley. “Preview of the Big Bout?”. The Advance News, 18 June 1936, 8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Capeci Jr., Dominic J. and Martha Wilkerson. “Multifarious Hero: Joe Louis, American Society, and Race Relations during World Crisis, 1935–1945”. In From Jack Johnson to LeBron James: Sports, Media, and the Color Line, edited by Chris Lamb, 86–116. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2016.

    Google Scholar 

  • Christiansen, Karlheinz. “‘Der Kampf des Jahrhunderts’: Am 18. Juni boxt Max Schmeling in New York gegen Joe Louis”. Teltower Kreisblatt, 16 June 1936, 6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dawson, James. “Schmeling stops Louis in the Twelfth as 45,000 look on”. New York Times, 20 June 1936, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dawson, James. “Louis defeats Schmeling by a knock-out in the first”. New York Times, 23 June 1938, 1, 14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Flannery, Harry W. Assignment to Berlin. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1942.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallico, Paul. “Eightball”. In Gallico, Farewell to Sport, 299–309. London: Simon & Shuster, 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gärtner, Gustav. “Wie habt ihr das gemacht”. Signal [bilingual German–Italian edition], 12 (September 1940): 19–22, 36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gould, Alan. “Schmeling 10 to 1 Shot in Betting; Thousands of Tickets Are Unsold”. Ogdensburg Journal, 18 June 1936.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grayson, Harry. “Quarter-Million Ring Prize to Swell Uhlan’s Earnings on This Side to $1,200,000”. Ogdensburg Journal, 24 April 1936, 12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haymann, Ludwig. Deutscher Faustkampf nicht pricefight: Boxen als Rasseproblem. Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP, [undated, probably 1936]).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hellmis, Arno. “Schmeling Anwärter auf die Weltmeisterschaft”. Völkischer Beobachter, 21 June 1936, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hellmis, Arno, ed. Max Schmeling: die Geschichte eines Kämpfers. Berlin: Ullstein, 1937.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hellmis, Arno. “Braddock tritt nicht an”. Völkischer Beobachter, 3 June 1937, 8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hellmis, Arno. “Joe Louis muß Farbe bekennen”. Völkischer Beobachter, 22 June 1938, 9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hellmis, Arno. “Louis schlug pausenlos”. Der Angriff, 23 June 1938, 3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hellmis, Arno. “Schmelings Niederlage”. Völkischer Beobachter, 24 June 1938, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hellmis, Arno. “Wie Schmeling überrumpelt wurde”. Völkischer Beobachter, 24 June 1938, 9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jeffrey, Ian. “From Joe Louis to the Sluggers – Boxing Mediated”. In Boxer: An Anthology of Writing on Boxing and Visual Culture, edited by David Chandler, John Gill, Tania Guha and Gilane Tawadros, 43–53. London: Institute of International Visual Arts, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kappe, Siegfried. “Max Schmeling mit auf Kreta. Der Boxweltmeister über die Kampfesweise der Engländer”, Der Angriff, 31 May 1938, 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kieran, John. “Sports of the Times: Fighting Words”. New York Times, 13 May 1938, 25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klee, Ralf. “Schmeling vs Louis. Jahrhundertkampf auf Schallfolie”. Der Spiegel Online. Accessed 19 November 2016. http://www.spiegel.de/einestages/schmeling-vs-louis-a-948566.html.

  • Kluge, Volker. Max Schmeling: eine Biographie in 15 Runden. Berlin: Aufbau, 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  • König, Hans. “Wetten, daß Schmeling…”. Der Angriff, 23 June 1938, 1–2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Louis Barrow Jr, Joe and Barbara Munder. Joe Louis: The Brown Bomber. London: Arthur Baker, 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacDonnell, Francis. Insidious Foes: The Axis Fifth Column and the American Home Front. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maibohm, Ludwig. “Max Schmeling einmal ganz privat!”, Boxsport, 990 (1939): 5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mangan, J. A. “Icon of Monumental Brutality: Art and the Aryan Man”. The International Journal of the History of Sport, 16:2 (1999): 128–152.

    Google Scholar 

  • Margolick, David. Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and a World on the Brink. London: Bloomsbury, 2006.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marßolek, Inge. “Radio in Deutschland 1923–1960: zur Sozialgeschichte eines Mediums”. Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 27:2 (2001): 207–239.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, Simon. “In Praise of Fascist Beauty”. Sport in History, 28:1 (2008): 64–82.

    Google Scholar 

  • McRae, Donald. In Black and White: The Untold Story of Joe Louis and Jesse Owens. London: Scribner, 2003.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nichols, Joseph. C. “Beaten Challenger Says He Was Paralyzed When Louis Sent Right to Kidneys”. New York Times, 24 June 1938, 14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothenburg, Walter. “‘drahte ob einverstanden’”. In Hellmis ed., Max Schmeling: die Geschichte eines Kämpfers, 51–7.

    Google Scholar 

  • -rz. [no title], Völkischer Beobachter, 21 June 1936, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sammons, Jeffrey T. Beyond the Ring: The Role of Boxing in American Society. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmeling, Max. “Geleitwort Max Schmelings”. In Ludwig Haymann, Deutscher Faustkampf nicht Pricefight, 3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmeling, Max. -8–9-aus. Munich: Copress, 1956.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmeling, Max. Erinnerungen. Frankfurt am Main: Ullstein, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schneider, Edmund. “Jubel um Max Schmeling im Olympischen Dorf”. Boxsport, 827 (1936): 4–5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thoma, Erwin. “Max Schmeling ist abgefahren”. Boxsport, 812 (1936): 3–4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thoma, Erwin. “Schwarz oder Weiß?”. Boxsport, 820 (1936): 3–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thoma, Erwin. “Max besser als Joe?”. Boxsport, 925 (1938): 2–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thoma, Erwin. “Vom Amateur zum Weltmeister: kleine Studie über Kampfstil und Charakter”. In Hellmis, Max Schmeling: die Geschichte eines Kämpfers, 31–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • v.d.D. “Die Sekunden am Mikrophon”. BZ am Mittag, 23 June 1938, 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Website: “Freie Universität Berlin: Datenbank ‘Entartete Kunst’”. Accessed 19 November 2016. http://www.geschkult.fu-berlin.de/e/db_entart_kunst/datenbank.

  • Website: “GDK Research – Bildbasierte Forschungsplattform zu den Großen Deutschen Kunstausstellungen 1937–1944 in München”. Accessed 19 November 2016. http://www.gdk-research.de.

  • Website: “The Fight. Ringside Radio”. Accessed 19 November 2016. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/fight/sfeature/sf_radio.html.

  • Weldon, Harold. “Sport Spindles”. Plattsburgh Daily Press, 15 June 1936, 2.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, UK

    Jon Hughes

Authors
  1. Jon Hughes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jon Hughes .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Hughes, J. (2018). The Third Reich 2: “A German Victory”?. In: Max Schmeling and the Making of a National Hero in Twentieth-Century Germany. Palgrave Studies in Sport and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51136-8_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51136-8_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51135-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51136-8

  • eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation