Robert Duis

The German basketball team did not play any significant role in the 1936 Berlin Olympics when the sport was included on the Olympic Programme for the first time. They lost their first round match to Switzerland (25-18) but still qualified for round two after receiving a bye in the repêchage, but were then beaten badly, 58-16 by Italy. Given another chance in the round two repêchage, their campaign ended with a 20-9 defeat by Czechoslovakia.

German-Canadian Robert Duis, alias Robert Dennis Hamer, played for the club side DSC Berlin, and was the technical manager of the Olympic tournament. Robert Duis was born in London to Robert Johann Duis, an authorized representive from the town of Leer in Lower Saxony, and an English mother. His parents divorced in 1919 and both soon remarried. Robert’s mother married William Hamer, brother of the Welsh industrialist Sir George Hamer, and they briefly lived in Wales until emigrating to Québec, Canada in the early 1920s. Robert used the surname Hamer whilst in Canada and the UK but reverted to his birth name when returning to Germany. He was a chemical engineer by profession.