Hermann Lemperle

Hermann Lemperle was in the top class of German decathletes in the 1920s and 30s. At the 1928 Olympics, he failed to make a height in the pole vault, and 1932 he had to withdraw due to a knee injury. In 1936 his second appearance came at the Olympics when Lemperle was the penultimate torch relay runner bringing the Olympic Flame to the Berlin Olympic Stadium.

One of the most successful German sculptors, Georg Kolbe, also discovered Lemperle’s strength and body, and used him as his model for several years. The bronze sculpture The Decathlete, a result of this collaboration, stands since almost 70 years at the Berlin Olympic Stadium.

Lemperle was also successful professionally. He studied at the German Sport University in Köln, and then went to the Wilhelm Humboldt University of Berlin in 1932 to study art history. After receiving his PhD, with a thesis on Upper Swabian Baroque Monasteries in its Relation to the Landscape, Lemperle served on the university’s scientific staff until the outbreak of World War II. After the war, during which he had served as a lieutenant in the Mountaineers, he found employment at the Württemberg State Museum in Stuttgart as an art historian.

Personal Best: Dec – 5546 (1928).