The fight of the century
After the Joe Louis-Max Schmeling world heavyweight title fight on 22 June 1938, Heywood Broun wrote in the New York World-Telegram: "One hundred years from now some historian may theorize, in a footnote at least, that the decline of Nazi prestige began with a left hook delivered by a former unskilled automotive worker who had never studied the policies of Neville Chamberlain and had no opinion whatever in regard to the situation in Czechoslovakia..."
THE ANNOUNCEMENT that Max Schmeling had died on Wednesday and was buried in Hamburg yesterday put the historical spotlight firmly back on boxing, a sport both shocking and compelling in which the winner is decided by his ability to deliver more punishment than he accepts. Boxing is also a sport in which a fight can be laden with meaning beyond itself and never has any fight carried more symbolic weight than Louis-Schmeling in June 1938.
The story really began in 1935, before the first Louis-Schmeling fight. As Hitler consolidated his dictatorship, Schmeling was pressed into serving as a diplomat of sorts. In the run up to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Americans had criticized Germany's treatment of its Jewish athletes and the US Amateur Athletic Union had proposed a boycott of the Olympics. At Hitler's direction, Schmeling went to the US with a letter promising that Germany's Jews would be fairly treated.
THOUGH HITLER ADMIRED SCHMELING, he worried about the 19 June 1936 fight with Louis. Chris Mead, in a study of Louis, wrote: "When he got back to Germany (after meeting American Olympic officials), Schmeling lunched with Adolf Hitler in Munich... The dictator was upset that Schmeling was risking Germany's reputation in a fight against a black man when there was so little chance of victory. With his usual self-confidence, Schmeling assured his Fuehrer that he had a good chance to win, and Hitler presented the boxer with an autographed picture of himself." After his victory over Louis, Hitler sent a telegram to Schmeling in New York: "Most cordial congratulations on your victory." Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels also weighed in: "I know you fought for Germany; that it was a German victory. We are proud of you. Heil Hitler!" On his return to Germany, Schmeling brought his wife to lunch with Hitler in the Reich Chancellery.
In the summer of 1938, with the world edging towards conflict, the Louis-Schmeling rematch became a metaphor of the coming war. When the 24-year-old Louis stopped by the White House to meet Franklin D. Roosevelt, the president gripped his arm and said, "Joe, we're depending on those muscles for America." Some 70,000 crowded into Yankee Stadium on June 22, 1938; millions listened on the radio and heard "A right to the body, a left hook to the jaw, and Schmeling is down."
DURING WORLD WAR II both men served in the military for their respective countries. Schmeling enlisted in the German army as a paratrooper and was wounded in action in Crete in 1941. While some criticized him for not distancing himself from Hitler, British military authorities cleared him of any complicity in war crimes and in 1993, University of Rhode Island researchers produced evidence that during the Kristallnacht pogrom, Schmeling sheltered two Jewish children, the sons of an old friend, in his suite in Berlin's Excelsior Hotel.
Max Schmeling became a millionaire after James A. Farley, former postmaster-general and Democratic Party chairman awarded him several Coca-Cola distributorships in Germany. When Louis died in 1981, Schmeling reportedly sent money to his widow. "I didn't only like him, I loved him," he said of his great opponent.
Comments
Schmeling not only sent money to Joe Louis over the years, but paid for Louis' funeral.
Posted by: Larry | February 8, 2005 4:26 AM