His Own Man

Donald Macgregor

Description

His Own Man is the story - the first in English - of an unjustly forgotten athlete, who ascended the heights, fell from grace under the Nazis, then achieved redemption coaching street children in India. Born with the twentieth century, Otto Peltzer overcame a lonely childhood, beset by illness, to gain a doctorate in sociology and multiple world records on the running track. In 1920s Germany he became an international celebrity, rival to Paavo Nurmi, the 'Flying Finn'. He competed in two Olympics, but his outspokenness made him persona non grata to the Nazis. His homosexuality was the pretext for a trial which resulted in his being sent for 're-education' in Mauthausen concentration camp. After the war, having survived four years of brutal treatment and lost his home and family to the Red Army, Peltzer was blocked from competing or coaching by his 'denazified' pre-war enemies. He found salvation in India, where, as national coach, he followed up a surprise victory over an all-conquering German team by training street urchins to Olympic level. Chronically ill as a result of his camp experiences, he died of heart failure in 1970.

Sujets

• Track and field
• Germany

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 22 août 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781785312526
• Langue: English

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2016
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Donald Macgregor and Timothy Johnston, 2016
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A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 978-1-78531-190-1
eBook ISBN 978-1-78531-252-6
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword by Peter Lovesey
Mauthausen KZ, Austria, 11 April 1941
Father to the Man
The Patriot
The Runner
The Student
Otto the Strange
Sportkanone
Lunch With Nurmi
Triumph At Stamford Bridge
Apotheosis In Berlin
The Schoolmaster
World Master
New Worlds
Accident At Neustadt
Asian Adventures
Down Under
Preparing Los Angeles
Olympic Frustration
Persona Non Grata
Rutilus rutilus
Expert Spectator
The Exile
Abandon Hope
Liberation
Unwanted
The Man Who Conquered India
Who Was Otto Peltzer?
Otto Peltzer Career Statistics
Bibliography
Index
Photographs
PICTURE CREDITS
Source
Description
Asociaci n Amical de
Mauthausen,
Mauthausen/Museu d Hist ria de Catalunya
Himmler on steps
CreativBerlin
Champion and mother.

Peltzer family at home.

Relaxing; Peltzer at his best.

Stamford Bridge.

Berlin 1500m, finish.

Gymnastics; Wickersdorf boys.

Douglas Lowe s farewell.

With Emton , Sydney.

World tourist, Ceylon.

Berlin, revenge 1000m.

Disgraced Peltzer.

Running 5000m; Sikh Army ; President Nehru.

Coaching Happy Sikand; Malente, last bow; Portrait, 1969.
Getty Images
Nurmi in relaxed mood.

1500m Berlin, start.

Suzanne Lenglen.

Colombes 1000m.

Massage; Hurdling;

Docked in New York;

Amsterdam 800m.

Preparing AAAs, Paddington.

Los Angeles 1932. Hampson wins 800m.

Tschammer/Himmler.

Brundage/von Halt.
Manfred Holzhausen/DGLD
Cover, Athletik .
Volker Kluge
Aghra-Delhi; Olympic Youth; Peltzer boys.

Otto Peltzer s Stolperstein.
Prof. Dr Manfred L mmer,
Diem running.
Cologne
Diem as non-person.
Lineair Fotoarchief/Ullstein
D sseldorf, Germany v. France.
Klaus Lorenz and Stadt Solingen
Peltzer with friend.
Mauthausen Museum, Vienna
The Death Stairs.
Polish National Archive
Captain v. France; Berlin, with Ladoum gue.

Congratulating Cunningham.

With Beccali.

Schilgen lights the Olympic flame.
Preussischer Kulturbesitz
Berlin, Tschammer/R hm.
(BPK), Berlin
Diem/champagne.

Himmler running, shot-putting.
The Scotsman
880 yds. v. Liddell.
Spaarnestad Photo, Netherlands
Amsterdam, women s 800m.
Topfoto/Ullstein
Massage.
United States Holocaust Museum
The Mauthausen Team.
U.S. Library of Congress
President Coolidge with Nurmi.
Wikipedia
Tex Rickard
Zehlendorf SC, Berlin
Breslau. Robbed .
Acknowledgements
O TTO Peltzer was a dedicated traveller, who strongly believed in the unifying force of international sport. This book has a corresponding international dimension, and the authors have benefited from assistance and encouragement not only in Peltzer s native Germany, but from all over Europe, as well as from Australasia, India and North America.
First, we are privileged and honoured to have a foreword written by Peter Lovesey, distinguished sports historian and novelist, creator of Sergeant Cribb, professional rival of Sherlock Holmes. As well as kindly providing a foreword, Peter has been generous with advice and encouragement, and also helped with additional information and contacts.
The project was inspired by Volker Kluge s German-language biography of Otto Peltzer, Otto der Seltsame . From the outset, Volker has given us his enthusiastic support and cheerfully dealt with our queries. His wife, Gabriele, proprietor of the CreativBerlin agency, provided a significant proportion of the illustrations from the extensive Kluge archive.
In Germany, apart from Volker Kluge, a major source of information has been Manfred Holzhausen, of the German Association of Athletics Statisticians (DGLD), who sent us a magnificent selection of press cuttings, as well as the invaluable compilation produced by his colleagues Jakob K sters and Otto Verhoeven, without which it would have been impossible to keep track of Peltzer s prolific racing career.
In New Zealand, Roger Robinson, old university friend and cross-country rival, regular contributor to Runner s World , introduced us to Sir James McNeish. Sir James, author of Lovelock , a fictionalised biography of his country s legendary Olympic champion, in whose success and tragedy he assigns Peltzer a key role, showed great enthusiasm for the project and has been generous with encouragement and assistance.
In Canada, John Cobley kindly allowed us to use material from his site Racing Past ( www.racingpast.ca ), which includes a long profile of Otto Peltzer, as well as providing further contacts and sources.
In attempting to put together a wide-ranging selection of illustrations, we have approached both individuals and institutional collections. Sources from which we have gratefully received material include: Bildagentur f r Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte Berlin; Bundesarchiv Berlin; Prof. Dr Manfred L mmer, Cologne; Klaus Lorenz, Solingen; Mauthausen Museum, Vienna; Museu de Catalunya, Barcelona; Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe, Warsaw; Spaarnestad Photo/National Archief Nederland; United States Holocaust Museum; US Library of Congress; Zehlendorf SC, Berlin. Several of our photographic images were brilliantly upgraded by Color Lab of The Hague, with additional input from Robin Lee, while Colin and Lucy of Data Tech in Diss, Norfolk, provided key IT assistance with the creation and captioning of photographic files.
Others to whom we are indebted for information, help, comment, or simple encouragement, include: Alexander Turnbull Library, New Zealand; George Brose; John Bryant; Pat Butcher; Peter Davison; Pastor Dale Howard; Rev. John W Keddie; Madeleine Macdonald; Bob Phillips; Norris Pritam; St Andrews public library and University of St Andrews Library; Bruce Tulloh; Erkki Vettenniemi.
And last but not least: our heartfelt thanks to Jane and Paul Camillin of Pitch, and their efficient, helpful team, who dared to boldly venture where others declined to tread.
Foreword by Peter Lovesey
T HIS book is more than the biography of a sports star. Otto Peltzer s story is a personal journey through some of the key events of 20th-century history. It is also a revelation to anyone like me who knew only of his reputation as a world-beating runner. Athletics enthusiasts will remember Peltzer as the German runner who set world records in the 1920s and created upsets by defeating Olympic heroes Douglas Lowe and Paavo Nurmi, but they are unlikely to be aware of his arrest and imprisonment by the Nazis in 1935 for alleged homosexuality and his survival for four years from 1941 to 1945 in one of Germany s harshest concentration camps, or of his subsequent victimisation by the West German authorities and the renewal he found coaching street-children in India.
In his heyday as an athlete Peltzer was portrayed as the intellectual he undoubtedly was, always referred to as Dr Peltzer in the international press (he had a university doctorate in sociology and economics). Popular with his fellow-athletes, he was elected by them as team captain at the Olympic Games of 1928 and 1932, where injury and officialdom conspired to undermine his performances. At the Amsterdam Games, his rival Douglas Lowe, the winner of the 800m, presented Peltzer with a letter signed by the entire British middle distance team, commiserating with him. This strikes me as emblematic of an era when the highest value was put on sportsmanship. Any gratification Peltzer got from his running career had to be cherished. When the Nazis came to power he was outed as homosexual and deprived of his liberty.
Peltzer came through hell on earth, yet he is not like other athletes such as Louis Zamperini and Emil Z topek, who under different regimes suffered cruel privations and are remembered as heroes for the way they survived. Peltzer, as this honest and intriguing study makes clear, isn t an out-and-out hero. He was a complex personality, known from an early age as Otto the Strange , a self-confessed eccentric, sometimes his own worst enemy, impulsive, obstinate, often wrong-headed, opinionated and defiant, but charming and charismatic. He made some disastrous decisions at key moments in his life, even trying - unsuccessfully - to join the Nazi Party as a means of advancing his coaching career. All of this is perfect material for a fascinating biography, the first on him in the English language.
Timothy Johnston and Donald Macgregor are ideally placed to explore the contradictions in Peltzer s life story. Both ran with distinction for Britain in Olympic marathons. They understand what it means to devote oneself to running at the highest level. They can appreciate what motivated the man with a lifelong passion for sport.
Macgregor was principal teacher of German at Madras College, St Andrews, and the author of an autobiography, Running My Life . He has been a tour guide, translator, politician, researcher and poet. He first learned of the Peltzer story through Otto der Seltsame , the biography written in 2000 by the German historian, Volker Kluge. Intrigued, he sent some questions to the author, who replied and they became friends. Kluge had