Gretel Bergmann

Gretel Bergmann was one of the best German high jumpers in the early 1930s. When she was excluded from her sports club because of the Nazi’s race laws, she emigrated to England. There, she competed for Polytechnic Ladies A.C., winning the 1934 AAA Championships with 1.55 m. When the USOC threatened to boycott the 1936 Berlin Games if German Jews were prevented from taking part, after all, Berlin was granted the Games on the proviso they allowed Jews to compete, the German rulers put pressure on Bergmann’s parents, who had remained in Germany. Fearing reprisals against her family, Gretel returned to Germany in order to prepare for the Games. Although her training facilities were rather limited, due to lack of funding for Jewish athletes, she cleared 1.55 m several times. In 1936, she tied the German record of 1,60 m at a regional championship. When the regime was convinced that the US team would participate, they eventually did not allow Bergmann to compete on allegations of insufficient performances. In reality, Hitler didn’t want a Jewish girl winning a gold medal for Germany. One year later, her name was scrapped from the German records. She emigrated to the United States and became the US high jump champion in 1937 and 1938, as well as shot put champion in 1937. Bergmann was granted American citizenship in 1942 and did not return to Germany until 1999.

She was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and in 2012 into the Hall of Fame of German Sport. To mark her 100th birthday in 2014, the lane along the villa of the former “Reichssportführer” (Reich Sports Leader) Hans von Tschammer und Osten was named “Gretel-Bergmann-Way“. A biopic was released in Germany under the title Berlin ‘36 in 2009.