Max Schmeling - after the war

Didn't he get rich purchasing a bottling company?

 

Good stuff. Just read that article. I recall hearing long ago that Coca Cola was introduced into the European market during the war when Eisenhower told people back home that it was good for the soldiers. Schmeling was fortunate to get involved in that industry and from the sound of it, lived a good life thereafter. I also didn't realize he was so close to the Klitschko's and that Vitali named his son after him.. Schmeling apparently touched a lot of lives.

 

I am not impressed.

 

Schmeling did well to shake off the Nazi image after the war.
Well, it took many years, but nowadays most don't hold it against him.

 

Schmeling was never a Nazi.
As a matter of fact he risked his life to save Jews.

 

Yeah, that story came out years later. It helps his image.

It depends on perspective. A whole generation of Germans denied being Nazis or supporters of the Nazis, after the war. History tells us otherwise, if we bother to actually look at the 1930s and in the beginning years of the war. I'm not going to judge them for it from a position of hindsight. But I'm not going to buy the line that the Nazis were some tiny unpopular bunch of renegades who hijacked Germany against the will of the people either. They had mass support.

 

I don't disagree but we're talking about Max Schmeling.
What anybody else did has nothing to do with him.
He wasn't a Nazi. He refused to join the Nazi Party even at Hitler's urging. That fact can be documented. The German's kept meticulous records of Party membership and they still exist.
Schmeling had a Jewish manager, Joe Jacobs, and refused to get rid of him when "told to" by the Nazis.

 

James Farley the former New York State boxing commissioner in the 1930's became a top coca-cola executive after ww2 and wanted a person to pitch the product in post war Germany. He offered Schmeling a distributorship which Schmeling accepted and it boomed beyond expectations making Schmeling a multi millionaire.

 

By the sounds of it Max had to buy the franchise himself, nobody gave him anything but the oppertunity itself and he had the money to take it up. He must have worked hard for it to work. Many an ex fighter would have screwed it up. A lot of fighters put good money into things and delegate the work to others but Jack Dempsey was actually at his restaurant so that was a sucsess. Nobody will work for you like you would for yourself.

 

Yeah, I don't think Schmeling was deeply political, or at all.
He might have been a supporter of the Nazis though, at that time, or more accurately a supporter of Hitler, as many Germans were. As I said, AFTER the war no one admits to it, or they find things to show how they were "anti-Nazi". On the other hand, the Nazis weren't exactly the type of government you'd go out to criticize.

Max Schmeling needed Joe Jacobs, a connected American manager. It doesn't make him one thing or another. They all did business. Jacobs even gave the Nazi salute. These aren't necessarily men of deep principles.

Muhammad Ali had white men in his camp, trusted partners and employees, but we both know he was a black separatist, so it proves nothing.

 

Yes, Schmeling purchased the distributorship himself, he was a very shrewd businessman that took advantage when given opportunities. He used his purse winnings from his victory over Joe Louis in the first fight to purchase the German film rights to the fight. He supposedly made a mint off that transaction as the fight was huge in Germany and ordered to play in every theatre. While the figure is unknown some ppl believe it went for 800,000.

 

I think if you hide Jewish children at great personal risk to yourself that would be an indication that you had deep principles .

"Compassionate and Modest
Later that year, on Kristallnacht, Schmeling took an enormous risk and hid the two teenage sons of a Jewish friend in his Berlin hotel room. The boxer claimed to be sick and did not allow any visitors. When the opportunity presented itself, Schmeling smuggled the two boys out of the country. Henri Lewin, who became a Las Vegas hotelier, credits Schmeling with his life; characteristically, the modest Schmeling made no mention of this episode in his own autobiography. "

 

Max certaintly was a man of principles forced into an untenable position by events much larger than himself. He was thoroughly vetted after the war and was found of no wrong doing. He never joined the party although he did associate with many high ranking nazis, including Hitler, as someone in his position as the preeminent athlete of his country would do. He did courageously hide two Jewish boys in his hotel putting himself at greater risk than most any athlete of modern times, verified by one of the boys as an adult.
His relationship with Joe Jacobs was a mutually beneficial business relationship he did keep him on board despite nazi objections knowing well that Jacobs could navigate the Jewish dominated fight scene of 1930's New York. Jacobs also pragmatic had no qualms working with a German being that the German was the biggest meal ticket in his stable and a former HW champ.

 

he was 99 when he passed away, that's good going for a former heavyweight champion.not only did he take great personal risk to help the jews he also refused to fire his jewish manager.
after the war he showed what a friend he was to joe Louis when the bomber fell on hard times.
fighters like mr schmeling make me proud to be involved with boxing