Alfred Schwarzmann

Alfred Schwarzmann started in 1936 for Nazi Germany and in 1952 for the West German team. He was regarded as the epitome of a German Aryan athlete for the Nazis, winning three gold medals and six medals at the Berlin Olympics. He came back in 1952 to win a silver medal on the high bar, improving on the bronze he won in that event in 1936. Schwarzmann took part as a paratrooper in the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, which started World War II. In 1940 he was severely wounded during the rush to Dordrecht in the Netherlands. He was taken to safety after he had revealed his identity to Dutch speed skater Siem Heiden. He was then awarded both Iron Crosses the same year, one of them for propaganda reasons. In 1945 he was imprisoned in Italy.

After the war Schwarzmann became the German national gymnastics coach and also regional trainer of Lower Saxony. His daughter Helma Schwarzmann was the first German national coach in equestrian vaulting, and was also an international equestrian judge and a renowned instructor. In 2008 Alfred Schwarzmann was inducted into the German Sports Hall of Fame.