Max Schmeling

Max Schmeling (1905-2005) was a German heavyweight boxer. From 12 June 1930, when Jack Sharkey lost to him by disqualification, until 21 June 1932, when he was outpointed by Sharkey in 15 rounds, he held the world heavyweight boxing title. He was the first European to do so. He was married to film star Anny Ondra and co-starred with her in a film. Although Schmeling was the German heavyweight champ during the height of the Nazi regime, he never joined the Nazi Party. In fact, he risked his own life hiding Jews from the Nazis.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9048/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Ondra-Lamac-Film. Max Schmeling and Anny Ondra in Knockout - Ein junges Mädchen, ein junger Mann / Knock-out (Karel Lamac, Hans H. Zerlett, 1935).


Vintage postcard.

Promoted as an 'Aryan' representative of Nazi ideology

Maximilian Adolph Otto Siegfried Schmeling was born in 1905 in Klein Luckow, in the Prussian Province of Brandenburg. He was the son of Max Sr. and Amanda (née Fuchs) Schmeling. He had a younger brother, Rudolf, and a younger sister, Edith. In 1906, the family moved to Hamburg because his father was employed as a helmsman by the Hamburg-America Line. Max first became acquainted with boxing as a teenager, when his father took him to watch a film of the heavyweight championship match between Jack Dempsey and Georges Carpentier.

Impressed with Dempsey's performance in that fight, young Schmeling became determined to imitate his new hero. Max started boxing in 1921 and turned professional three years later. Though he idolised the raging, brawling Dempsey, Schmeling developed a careful, scientific style of fighting that lent itself more to counterpunching. He won the German light heavyweight title in 1926 and added the heavyweight title in 1928. He pursued more challenging fights in the United States, where victories over top heavyweights Johnny Risko and Paolino Uzcudun in 1929 led to the 1930 fight against Jack Sharkey.

The film industry attempted to capitalise on his popularity and gave him a leading role in the sports film Liebe im Ring / Love in the Ring (Reinhold Schünzel, 1930) with Renate Müller and Olga Tschechova. It was originally planned as a silent film, but sound was soon added as it became clear that silents were now unmarketable. Schmeling later appeared in another boxing-themed film, Knockout – Ein Junges Mädchen, ein Junger Mann / Knockout (Karel Lamac, Hans H. Zerlett, 1935). His co-star was Czech film actress Anny Ondra, whom he had married in 1933.

Meanwhile, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party took over control in Germany, but Schmeling never joined the Party. That same year, Schmeling lost to Max Baer by a tenth-round technical knockout. The loss left people believing that Schmeling was past his prime. Schmeling’s most notable victory, however, was a 12th-round knockout of Joe Louis on 19 June 1936. While studying slow-motion films of Louis’s fights, Schmeling noticed Louis’s tendency to drop his guard after a series of left jabs. Schmeling took advantage of this weakness to defeat his heavily favoured opponent.

The rematch between Schmeling and Joe Louis became a stage for international politics. After his stunning victory, the Nazi Party attempted to capitalise on Schmeling’s propaganda value. The apolitical Schmeling was promoted as an 'Aryan' representative of Nazi ideology. In fact, both Adolf Hitler and Franklin Roosevelt met with their respective fighters before the second bout on 22 June 1938, and the press corps of both nations invested the fight with nationalist and racial implications. Louis was dominant, knocking out Schmeling two minutes into the first round of their rematch. When it became clear that Schmeling would lose, the radio broadcast of the fight was terminated in Germany. Schmeling was hospitalised after the fight with two broken vertebrae and returned to Germany a week later.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4230/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Atelier Robertson, Berlin.


German cigarette card by Ross Verlag for Bulgaria Zigaretten-Fabrik, Dresden, no. 340. Photo: Schneider.

Mr. Coca-Cola in Germany

The loss did not ingratiate Max Schmeling with high-ranking Nazi Party members, who had previously expressed concerns about his retention of Jewish American trainer Joe Jacobs as well as his marriage to the Austrian film star Anny Ondra, who worked with several Jews.

In later years, it was revealed that Schmeling had sheltered two Jewish boys in his Berlin hotel room during the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 9–10, 1938. He claimed he was sick and permitted no one to enter. Schmeling served as a paratrooper in the German army during World War II and was injured during the invasion of Crete in 1941.

He returned to boxing in 1947–1948, winning three of five fights in Germany before retiring at age 43. In all, he had 70 bouts, winning 55, 38 of them by knockouts. Schmeling became a successful mink, chicken, and tobacco farmer in the early 1950s. Later, influential friends in the United States helped him acquire the Coca-Cola franchise for the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), making him a wealthy man.

In the 1950s, Schmeling visited Louis in the United States, and the two became good friends. Their friendship lasted till Lewis' death in 1981. The American-German film Joe and Max (Steve James, 2002) starring Til Schweiger as Schmeling, tells the true story of their enduring friendship. Schmeling financed Joe Louis's funeral.

Schmeling’s memoirs, 'Erinnerungen', appeared in 1977; the translation, 'Max Schmeling: An Autobiography', was released in 1998. He and Anny Ondra remained married until Ondra died in 1987. Schmeling died in 2005 in Wenzendorf, a sporting hero in his native Germany. At the age of 99, Schmeling was the longest living heavyweight boxing champion in history. For the film Max Schmeling – Eine deutsche Legende / Max Schmeling: Fist of the Reich (Uwe Boll, 2010), another former boxing champion, who moreover had known him, played Max Schmeling: Henry Maske.


German collectors card by Ross Verlag for Cigarettenfabrik Josetti, Berlin, in the series 'Unsere Bunten Filmbilder', no. 226 (of 275). Photo: Ondra-Lamac-Film. Max Schmeling and Anny Ondra in Knockout - Ein junges Mädchen, ein junger Mann / Knock-out (Karel Lamac, Hans H. Zerlett, 1935).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1013/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Ströminger. Anny Ondra and Max Schmeling in Knockout - Ein junges Mädchen, ein junger Mann / Knock-out (Karel Lamac, Hans H. Zerlett, 1935).

Sources: Britannica, Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.