This is a cool Max Schmeling Coca-Cola postcard featuring a photo of Schmeling at his Coca-Cola bottling plant in his later years. After struggling financially following World War II, Schmeling worked in the 1950s to secure a Coca-Cola bottling and distribution franchise in the Hamburg area in Germany. He eventually owned his own plant and worked as an executive for the company. Schmeling played a significant role in introducing vending machines to Germany. He lived to be 99 years old and he was known to visit the Coca-Cola plant well into his 80s.
I think the Max Schmeling Coca-Cola postcards must have been some kind of special giveaway or something because every copy I've ever seen has been signed by Schmeling. I'm not sure, don't quote me on it!
Back to the Max Schmeling photos. Here are some photos of Max Schmeling from his rivalry with Paulino Uzcudun, great rivalry, they fought three times, Schmeling won the first and third fights, the second ended in a draw. This is a photo of Schmeling and his trainer Max Machon preparing for Uzcudun in 1929.
This is a photo of Max Schmeling showing his manager Joe Jacobs his arm injury from the fight against Paulino Uzcudun in 1929, check out that knot on his arm.
Max Schmeling training at a camp on the coast of Catalonia for his second fight with Paulino Uzcudun, the fight took place in May of 1934 in Barcelona Spain and ended in a draw.
Max Schmeling training at the Potsdam airship hangar in preparation for third fight against Paolino Uzcudun with trainer Max Machon (left). The fight took place in Berlin, Germany, in July of 1935. Schmeling won the fight by decision.
Max Schmeling making his way to the ring at the Poststadion in Berlin, Germany, for his third and final fight against "The Basque Woodchopper" Paulino Uzcudun on July 7th, 1935.
This is a story about Max Schmeling's fight with "The Blonde Tiger" Walter Neusel in 1934. Neusel was also German and they had a homegrown rivalry at that time, interesting story.
Playing Pasts
‘The largest boxing match ever seen in Europe’: Remembering Max Schmeling versus Walter Neusel in August 1934
Posted by Jon Hughes | Aug 8, 2019 | Boxing | 1
85 years ago a boxing match between two German heavyweight boxers, Max Schmeling (1905-2005) and Walter Neusel (1907-1964), took place in Hamburg on 26 August 1934. This now forgotten fight was an extraordinary occasion which saw what almost certainly remains the largest attendance at a boxing match in Europe.
Most of the crowd of close to 100,000 were eager to see Schmeling, who in 1930 had become the first European world heavyweight champion. After losing his title in a controversial rematch with Jack Sharkey in 1932 his form had dipped, and by 1934 the time seemed right for a sporting return to Germany, where Schmeling had not fought since 1928. Had he lost to Neusel, it seems unlikely that his career would have recovered.
Max Schmeling celebrating after his victory over Walter Neusel
Hamburg, 26 August 1934.
Photograph by Arthur Grimm. BPK Bildagentur
Reproduced with permission
The Nazis had been in power Germany since 1933, and sport was subject to the same ideological ‘co-ordination’ as other aspects of German society. In April 1933, in Boxsport magazine, the Federation of Professional Boxers had published an abhorrent declaration of its full ‘Nazification’, effectively ending the careers of German-Jewish boxers, trainers, managers and promoters.
Schmeling presented himself as unpolitical, and never joined the Nazi Party, but returning to a German ring at this point was taken by many as a sign of tacit support. Although some senior Nazis remained suspicious of international professional sport, by 1934 it was clear that the regime recognized the potential propaganda benefits of German participation on the international sporting stage. The forthcoming Olympic Games in Berlin were a case in point, and for supporters of professional boxing, regaining the symbolically important world heavyweight title for Germany became a key aspiration, as was moving the geographical focus of the sport away from the USA.
Walter Neusel was a credible German rival to Schmeling. He was ranked fifth in the world, just behind Schmeling, and a fight between the two could be marketed not only as a match between the two best German heavyweight boxers but as an unofficial eliminator bout for the right to challenge the champion, the American Max Baer.
Publicity shot of Walter Neusel, ca. 1933.
Source:University of Potsdam
The promoter Walter Rothenburg’s intention was for the fight both to be commercially successful and to demonstrate that Germany could stage boxing in a way that matched the great world title fights held in New York and Chicago, with their open-air arenas and extraordinary crowds. The German media coverage was steeped in nationalistic sentiment. Erwin Thoma, writing in Boxsport magazine, was just one who made clear that he viewed boxing as both a commercial and political commodity, demanding that the boxers create a global advertisement for German sport.
The fight was promoted with the co-operation of the Kraft durch Freude (Strength Through Joy) organization, sometimes referred to as the Nazi Party’s ‘velvet glove’. It offered subsidised access to approved cultural and leisure activities, all as part of a massive propaganda effort. The organisation offered subsidised tickets to the fight and transport to Hamburg in specially commissioned trains, and thus the crowd was selected in a way that was unprecedented in Schmeling’s career. Jews, for example, were excluded from Kraft durch Freude.
Cover of Boxsport magazine, 20 August 1934
Source: University of Potsdam
The majority of contemporary reports gave the attendance at 100,000, and they describe the ‘overpowering’ visual impact of such a crowd with something like awe. Many also praise the organisation of the event, noting the massive presence not only of the police but also of the SA, the brutal ‘Brownshirts’ who had been given auxiliary police powers in 1933. Their presence provided a signal that this was to be a strictly controlled, political occasion.
The fight took place at the open-air speedway arena, close to the Hagenbeck zoo in Lokstedt, which had been rapidly converted to seat more than 100,000 spectators. Even if the actual attendance may have fallen somewhat short of 100,000, Rothenburg could later truthfully claim that it had been the ‘largest boxing match ever seen in Europe’. The German press was happy to make exaggerated claims that it had been the best attended boxing match in history.
The fight took place at the peak of a summer that had been characterised by nationalistic ritual and relentless propaganda, culminating in the death of President Hindenburg and a referendum on Sunday 19 August that saw Hitler ‘elected’ as head of state with a 90% ‘yes’ vote. The final preparations for the fight saw the personality cult around Hitler at its most intense, and the boxing in Hamburg was preceded by rituals including the performing of the Hitler salute, now obligatory at sporting events, a triple Sieg Heil (Hail Victory) from the crowd, and political speeches.
Cover of Boxsport magazine, 3 September 1934
Source: University of Potsdam
Yet neither boxer had shown much commitment to the Nazi cause. Schmeling had won permission to retain his American-Jewish manager Joe Jacobs. More surprisingly, Neusel was also still working with a Jewish manager, Paul Damski, once a friend of Schmeling’s. Damski had left Germany for Paris in 1933, but Neusel had refused to break with him, moving to France to be able to work more closely with him. In the retrospective account of the fight provided by the Nazi sports journalist Arno Hellmis in 1937 neither Schmeling’s nor Neusel’s managers are named. The fact that the ‘Blond Tiger’ Neusel, who often fought in Britain through the 1930s, seemed the perfect visual representative of the ideal ‘Aryan’ no doubt counted in his favour, but he demonstrated genuine courage in his loyalty to Damski.
The fight itself lived up to expectations, and Schmeling won by technical knockout when his opponent retired before the ninth round. The consensus was that Schmeling was once again a credible contender. Many of the headlines, both domestically and internationally, acknowledged the impressive scale of the event and the size of the crowd. A few days afterwards, the Hamburger Anzeiger published an editorial reflection on its front page on the subject of ‘Sport and Politics’. The author cites the match as ‘a considerable boost to our political standing, above all because of the impressive staging given to the fight.’ Yet there never was a transfer of power in boxing from the USA to Germany, and no world heavyweight title fight took place on German soil until many years after the War.
It was precisely the association between German sport and German politics that began to be counterproductive. Schmeling repeatedly tried to distance himself, with limited success, from attempts to use him as an instrument of the regime, clinging to a myth of the athlete as a neutral figure, but this was difficult to achieve as long he continued publicly to co-operate with the Nazis. And when the first of Schmeling’s two fights against Joe Louis was finally arranged, as a formal eliminator for the right to challenge for the world title, the political symbolism, famously, became wholly inescapable.
Ok, I'm going to post some random photos of Max Schmeling from his life career for a while. These are photos of Schmeling and Babe Ruth together at a Yankees-Indians game in June of 1931.
Max Schmeling meets Franklin D. Roosevelt in May of 1932. At the time these photos were taken, Roosevelt was the governor of New York and of course would later become a legendary President of the United States, I miss the days when we had an actual President.
Max Schmeling speaking to the New York Boxing Commission about a shot at James Braddock and the heavyweight title. Schmeling is shown above (standing), talking to Commissioner John J. Phelan (left), and Commissioner Bill Brown.
These photos were taken in 1947 when Max Schmeling was attempting a comeback, he had been on an 8-year hiatus from boxing and was way past his prime but still carried brutal power. He knocked Werner Vollmer out in the 7th round at Frankfurt’s Waldstadion.
Max Schmeling and Joe Louis, they fought twice, exchanging brutal knockouts, and had a tremendous amount of respect for each other and were good friends in their later years. Here are some photos of them together in their later years, this is a photo of them arm wrestling in Miami, Florida, in 1961.
This is a photo of Max Schmeling dressed up as Santa Claus. He organized a Christmas celebration for 300 poor children in Berlin in 1931 and dressed up as Santa and handed out gifts to them.
Photos of Max Schmeling's training camp at the Baltic Seaside resort of Travemunde and him training there for the Walter Neusel fight in 1934. I really like the look and feel of this place.
Max Schmeling served as a German Luftwaffe paratrooper (Fallschirmjäger) during World War II, most notably participating in the Battle of Crete in May 1941. Drafted into the military, he was severely wounded during the airborne assault on Crete and spent the rest of the war in a hospital. Here are some photos of Schmeling from his time in the German military. I have to say, Hitler really was a piece of garbage, totally worthless crap in a human body.
Max Schmeling in an Athens military hospital on June 3rd, 1941, after being wounded in the battle of Crete. You can tell he's been through hell, he's lost weight. He was wounded in his right knee by mortar fire shrapnel on the first day of the battle in May 1941. He sustained the injury shortly after landing during the invasion. The wound was serious, leading to his eventual removal from active combat duty.
Max Schmeling in his neutral corner after brutally knocking out Italian Michele Bonaglia in the first round at the Berlin Sportpalast on January 28th, 1928. Schmeling was young right here, in his prime.
Comments
This is a cool Max Schmeling Coca-Cola postcard featuring a photo of Schmeling at his Coca-Cola bottling plant in his later years. After struggling financially following World War II, Schmeling worked in the 1950s to secure a Coca-Cola bottling and distribution franchise in the Hamburg area in Germany. He eventually owned his own plant and worked as an executive for the company. Schmeling played a significant role in introducing vending machines to Germany. He lived to be 99 years old and he was known to visit the Coca-Cola plant well into his 80s.
I think the Max Schmeling Coca-Cola postcards must have been some kind of special giveaway or something because every copy I've ever seen has been signed by Schmeling. I'm not sure, don't quote me on it!
1991 All World Max Schmeling, love the image of Schmeling sitting in his corner staring his opponent down on this card.
1999 JF Sporting Collectibles Max Schmeling.
1954 Knorr Max Schmeling/Young Stribling, sick image of Schmeling on this card showcasing his brutal power.
Back to the Max Schmeling photos. Here are some photos of Max Schmeling from his rivalry with Paulino Uzcudun, great rivalry, they fought three times, Schmeling won the first and third fights, the second ended in a draw. This is a photo of Schmeling and his trainer Max Machon preparing for Uzcudun in 1929.
Photos from the first Schmeling-Uzcudun fight at MSG in 1929.
This is a photo of Max Schmeling showing his manager Joe Jacobs his arm injury from the fight against Paulino Uzcudun in 1929, check out that knot on his arm.
Max Schmeling training at a camp on the coast of Catalonia for his second fight with Paulino Uzcudun, the fight took place in May of 1934 in Barcelona Spain and ended in a draw.
Max Schmeling training at the Potsdam airship hangar in preparation for third fight against Paolino Uzcudun with trainer Max Machon (left). The fight took place in Berlin, Germany, in July of 1935. Schmeling won the fight by decision.
Max Schmeling weighing in for his third fight with Paulino Uzcudun.
Max Schmeling making his way to the ring at the Poststadion in Berlin, Germany, for his third and final fight against "The Basque Woodchopper" Paulino Uzcudun on July 7th, 1935.
Max Schmeling and Paulino Uzcudun meet in center ring before their final fight.
Max Schmeling gets his hands taped in his corner by his trainer Max Machon before the final fight with Uzcudun.
Photos from the third Schmeling-Uzcudun fight in Berlin, Germany, in July of 1935. Schmeling won the fight by decision.
Max Schmeling and Paulino Uzcudun embrace after their final bout, bringing an end to a grueling rivalry.
This is a story about Max Schmeling's fight with "The Blonde Tiger" Walter Neusel in 1934. Neusel was also German and they had a homegrown rivalry at that time, interesting story.
Playing Pasts
‘The largest boxing match ever seen in Europe’: Remembering Max Schmeling versus Walter Neusel in August 1934
Posted by Jon Hughes | Aug 8, 2019 | Boxing | 1
85 years ago a boxing match between two German heavyweight boxers, Max Schmeling (1905-2005) and Walter Neusel (1907-1964), took place in Hamburg on 26 August 1934. This now forgotten fight was an extraordinary occasion which saw what almost certainly remains the largest attendance at a boxing match in Europe.
Most of the crowd of close to 100,000 were eager to see Schmeling, who in 1930 had become the first European world heavyweight champion. After losing his title in a controversial rematch with Jack Sharkey in 1932 his form had dipped, and by 1934 the time seemed right for a sporting return to Germany, where Schmeling had not fought since 1928. Had he lost to Neusel, it seems unlikely that his career would have recovered.
Max Schmeling celebrating after his victory over Walter Neusel
Hamburg, 26 August 1934.
Photograph by Arthur Grimm. BPK Bildagentur
Reproduced with permission
The Nazis had been in power Germany since 1933, and sport was subject to the same ideological ‘co-ordination’ as other aspects of German society. In April 1933, in Boxsport magazine, the Federation of Professional Boxers had published an abhorrent declaration of its full ‘Nazification’, effectively ending the careers of German-Jewish boxers, trainers, managers and promoters.
Schmeling presented himself as unpolitical, and never joined the Nazi Party, but returning to a German ring at this point was taken by many as a sign of tacit support. Although some senior Nazis remained suspicious of international professional sport, by 1934 it was clear that the regime recognized the potential propaganda benefits of German participation on the international sporting stage. The forthcoming Olympic Games in Berlin were a case in point, and for supporters of professional boxing, regaining the symbolically important world heavyweight title for Germany became a key aspiration, as was moving the geographical focus of the sport away from the USA.
Walter Neusel was a credible German rival to Schmeling. He was ranked fifth in the world, just behind Schmeling, and a fight between the two could be marketed not only as a match between the two best German heavyweight boxers but as an unofficial eliminator bout for the right to challenge the champion, the American Max Baer.
Publicity shot of Walter Neusel, ca. 1933.
Source:University of Potsdam
The promoter Walter Rothenburg’s intention was for the fight both to be commercially successful and to demonstrate that Germany could stage boxing in a way that matched the great world title fights held in New York and Chicago, with their open-air arenas and extraordinary crowds. The German media coverage was steeped in nationalistic sentiment. Erwin Thoma, writing in Boxsport magazine, was just one who made clear that he viewed boxing as both a commercial and political commodity, demanding that the boxers create a global advertisement for German sport.
The fight was promoted with the co-operation of the Kraft durch Freude (Strength Through Joy) organization, sometimes referred to as the Nazi Party’s ‘velvet glove’. It offered subsidised access to approved cultural and leisure activities, all as part of a massive propaganda effort. The organisation offered subsidised tickets to the fight and transport to Hamburg in specially commissioned trains, and thus the crowd was selected in a way that was unprecedented in Schmeling’s career. Jews, for example, were excluded from Kraft durch Freude.
Cover of Boxsport magazine, 20 August 1934
Source: University of Potsdam
The majority of contemporary reports gave the attendance at 100,000, and they describe the ‘overpowering’ visual impact of such a crowd with something like awe. Many also praise the organisation of the event, noting the massive presence not only of the police but also of the SA, the brutal ‘Brownshirts’ who had been given auxiliary police powers in 1933. Their presence provided a signal that this was to be a strictly controlled, political occasion.
The fight took place at the open-air speedway arena, close to the Hagenbeck zoo in Lokstedt, which had been rapidly converted to seat more than 100,000 spectators. Even if the actual attendance may have fallen somewhat short of 100,000, Rothenburg could later truthfully claim that it had been the ‘largest boxing match ever seen in Europe’. The German press was happy to make exaggerated claims that it had been the best attended boxing match in history.
The fight took place at the peak of a summer that had been characterised by nationalistic ritual and relentless propaganda, culminating in the death of President Hindenburg and a referendum on Sunday 19 August that saw Hitler ‘elected’ as head of state with a 90% ‘yes’ vote. The final preparations for the fight saw the personality cult around Hitler at its most intense, and the boxing in Hamburg was preceded by rituals including the performing of the Hitler salute, now obligatory at sporting events, a triple Sieg Heil (Hail Victory) from the crowd, and political speeches.
Cover of Boxsport magazine, 3 September 1934
Source: University of Potsdam
Yet neither boxer had shown much commitment to the Nazi cause. Schmeling had won permission to retain his American-Jewish manager Joe Jacobs. More surprisingly, Neusel was also still working with a Jewish manager, Paul Damski, once a friend of Schmeling’s. Damski had left Germany for Paris in 1933, but Neusel had refused to break with him, moving to France to be able to work more closely with him. In the retrospective account of the fight provided by the Nazi sports journalist Arno Hellmis in 1937 neither Schmeling’s nor Neusel’s managers are named. The fact that the ‘Blond Tiger’ Neusel, who often fought in Britain through the 1930s, seemed the perfect visual representative of the ideal ‘Aryan’ no doubt counted in his favour, but he demonstrated genuine courage in his loyalty to Damski.
The fight itself lived up to expectations, and Schmeling won by technical knockout when his opponent retired before the ninth round. The consensus was that Schmeling was once again a credible contender. Many of the headlines, both domestically and internationally, acknowledged the impressive scale of the event and the size of the crowd. A few days afterwards, the Hamburger Anzeiger published an editorial reflection on its front page on the subject of ‘Sport and Politics’. The author cites the match as ‘a considerable boost to our political standing, above all because of the impressive staging given to the fight.’ Yet there never was a transfer of power in boxing from the USA to Germany, and no world heavyweight title fight took place on German soil until many years after the War.
It was precisely the association between German sport and German politics that began to be counterproductive. Schmeling repeatedly tried to distance himself, with limited success, from attempts to use him as an instrument of the regime, clinging to a myth of the athlete as a neutral figure, but this was difficult to achieve as long he continued publicly to co-operate with the Nazis. And when the first of Schmeling’s two fights against Joe Louis was finally arranged, as a formal eliminator for the right to challenge for the world title, the political symbolism, famously, became wholly inescapable.
Max Schmeling and Walter Neusel shake hands in 1934 before their bout.
Max Schmeling and Walter Neusel give a radio interview before the fight in 1934.
Max Schmeling weighing in before the 1934 fight with Walter Neusel.
Max Schmeling and Walter Neusel pose for a shot in the ring before the fight in 1934.
Photos from the Max Schmeling- Walter Neusel fight in 1934.
Music break.
Ok, I'm going to post some random photos of Max Schmeling from his life career for a while. These are photos of Schmeling and Babe Ruth together at a Yankees-Indians game in June of 1931.
Max Schmeling showing off his brutal right hand power on a heavy bag.
Epic photo of Max Schmeling getting ready to tee off on a golf ball from the mouth of his manager Joe Jacobs.
Max Schmeling showing off his gloves before his first fight with Joe Louis.
Max Schmeling meets Franklin D. Roosevelt in May of 1932. At the time these photos were taken, Roosevelt was the governor of New York and of course would later become a legendary President of the United States, I miss the days when we had an actual President.
Max Schmeling speaking to the New York Boxing Commission about a shot at James Braddock and the heavyweight title. Schmeling is shown above (standing), talking to Commissioner John J. Phelan (left), and Commissioner Bill Brown.
These photos were taken in 1947 when Max Schmeling was attempting a comeback, he had been on an 8-year hiatus from boxing and was way past his prime but still carried brutal power. He knocked Werner Vollmer out in the 7th round at Frankfurt’s Waldstadion.
Max Schmeling training for his second fight with Joe Louis.
This is a photo of Max Schmeling and Joe Louis playing pool together on June 22nd, 1938, at Pompton Lakes training camp the day of their second fight.
Max Schmeling and Joe Louis chatting at Pompton Lakes.
Max Schmeling and Joe Louis, they fought twice, exchanging brutal knockouts, and had a tremendous amount of respect for each other and were good friends in their later years. Here are some photos of them together in their later years, this is a photo of them arm wrestling in Miami, Florida, in 1961.
Max Schmeling and Joe Louis having a meal in Los Angeles in 1971.
Max and Joe reminisce about their fighting days over a scrapbook at the Nassau Coliseum on August 9th, 1973.
Nice sequence of Max Schmeling training photos.
Max Schmeling with "The Manassa Mauler" Jack Dempsey. This is an iconic photo because Dempsey was the reason Max Schmeling became a boxer.
This is a photo of Max Schmeling dressed up as Santa Claus. He organized a Christmas celebration for 300 poor children in Berlin in 1931 and dressed up as Santa and handed out gifts to them.
Max Schmeling and his mother Amanda Schmeling. The bottom photo depicts Schmeling showing his mother the world heavyweight title belt he won in 1930.
Max Schmeling's brother Rudolf Schmeling and their mother.
Max Schmeling's mother actually appeared on a trading card with him, the 1932 Bulgaria Sport Photos.
Photos of Max Schmeling's training camp at the Baltic Seaside resort of Travemunde and him training there for the Walter Neusel fight in 1934. I really like the look and feel of this place.
Max Schmeling served as a German Luftwaffe paratrooper (Fallschirmjäger) during World War II, most notably participating in the Battle of Crete in May 1941. Drafted into the military, he was severely wounded during the airborne assault on Crete and spent the rest of the war in a hospital. Here are some photos of Schmeling from his time in the German military. I have to say, Hitler really was a piece of garbage, totally worthless crap in a human body.
It's crazy, at first Max Schmeling was reported as having been killed at the assault on Crete, it even made news headlines.
Max Schmeling in an Athens military hospital on June 3rd, 1941, after being wounded in the battle of Crete. You can tell he's been through hell, he's lost weight. He was wounded in his right knee by mortar fire shrapnel on the first day of the battle in May 1941. He sustained the injury shortly after landing during the invasion. The wound was serious, leading to his eventual removal from active combat duty.
Max Schmeling back on his feet with the aid of a cane after recovering from his wounds.
Max Schmeling in his neutral corner after brutally knocking out Italian Michele Bonaglia in the first round at the Berlin Sportpalast on January 28th, 1928. Schmeling was young right here, in his prime.
Max Schmeling and his manager Joe Jacobs.
Max Schmeling playing a game of croquet with his trainer Max Machon.