Gustav Jaenecke

In 1928 Gustav Jaenecke was still a schoolboy and consequently was not originally chosen for the Olympics, until the German Eislauf-Verbandes intervened at the culture ministry to get him on the team. He then played in three consecutive Olympic Winter Games 1928-36 and won the bronze medal with Germany in 1932 at Lake Placid. He grew up to be the most popular German ice hockey player in the 1920s and 1930s.

He was also an excellent tennis player, playing five times for the German Davis Cup team and winning the 1932 German Championship in men’s singles. He also teamed up in doubles with three-time Wimbledon finalist Baron Gottfried von Cramm. Jaenecke is often considered the best German ice hockey player of all-time. He was a huge star in Europe, mainly in the 1930’s, and immensly popular back home in Germany where he almost attained the same popularity as heavyweight boxing champion Max Schmeling.

Between 1926 and 1937 Jaenecke won multiple German ice hockey titles with Berlin and was twice a Spengler Cup winner. In 1944 he won his 10th German title with Berliner SC/SC Brandenburg. He played both left wing and defense, often playing the entire 60 minutes in games, causing even the Canadians to praise his strength. After World War II he moved to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, joined SC Riessersee and won three further national titles, playing competitively until 1951. Jaenecke was inducted into the International Ice Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto in 1998 and the German Sport Hall of Fame in 2008. His autobiography, Jagd hinter dem Puck, was published in 1939.

Jaenecke had a shoemaker shop, a line of work that his father had. After the war he lost property in Berlin, and in 1951 he was employed as the general manager of a casino in Bad Neuenahr where he later lost all his money as he invested (as an owner) in the business himself. Jaenecke married the former Lisa von Dobeneck, after her divorce from Baron von Cramm, although Jaenecke and Lisa also later divorced. Jaenecke battled bad health for the last couple of years and passed away one week after his 77th birthday in Bonn, Germany.