Gretel Bergmann
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Gretel Bergmann, also known as Margaret Bergmann-Lambert (born 12 April 1914) is a German former athlete who competed as a high jumper during the 1930s.
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[edit] Life
Born in Laupheim to Jewish parents, she began her career in athletics in Laupheim. In 1930 she joined Ulm Football Club 1894, achieving a German record in high jumping in 1931 when, during the South German Championships, she crossed 1.51 metres.
After the Nazis' accession to power on 30 January 1933, she was expelled from the club for being Jewish. Soon afterwards, in April 1933, her parents sent her to the United Kingdom, where in 1934 she took part in the British Championships and won the high jump by crossing 1.55 metres.
The German government wanted her to return to Germany in order to help to portray Germany as a liberal-minded, tolerant country. Members of her family, who had stayed behind, were threatened with reprisals if she did not return. She complied and returned to Germany, where she was allowed to prepare for the 1936 Olympic Games. She won the Württembergian Championships in the high jump in 1935. On 30 June 1936, one month prior to the opening of the Olympic Games, she tied the German record by crossing 1.60 metres. However, two weeks before the opening of the Olympics, she received a letter from the German sport authorities that she would be withdrawn from the German team, supposedly because her performance was not sufficient to compete on an international level.
In 1937 she emigrated to the United States, eventually settling in New York, where she was forced to make a living by doing casual work. In the same year she married Bruno Lambert, a doctor, whom she aided in his leaving of Germany through financial support, calling herself from then on Margaret Bergmann-Lambert.
In the same year she managed to win the U.S. women's high jump and shotput championships and in 1938 she repeated the feat by again winning the high jump.
With the beginning of World War II in Europe in September 1939, her career in sports ended.
She received American citizenship in 1942.
In August 1995, a sport complex in Berlin-Wilmersdorf was named after her on the instigation of the German National Sports Federation. Gretel Bergmann, who had vowed never to set foot on German soil again, did not attend the festivities.
In 1996 she was admitted to the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in the United States. In 1999 she received the Georg von Opel-Preis for achievements in the sphere of sports and society without the prospect of material gains. In Laupheim, her birthplace, a stadium was named after her in 1999. Gretel Bergmann attended the dedication ceremony in person even though, initally, she did not want to participate "but when I was told that they were naming the facilities for me so that when young people ask, 'Who was Gretel Bergmann?' they will be told my story, and the story of those times. I felt it was important to remember, and so I agreed to return to the place I swore I'd never go again. But I had stopped speaking German and didn't even try when I was there. They provided a translator." [1].
[edit] Film
- Die Angst sprang mit – Die jüdische Hochspringerin Gretel Bergmann (SWR 2004)
- Hitler's Pawn – The Margaret-Lambert Story (HBO, 2004)
[edit] References
- Bergmann, Gretel (2003). "Ich war die große jüdische Hoffnung". Erinnerungen einer außergewöhnlichen Sportlerin. Braun, Karlsruhe. ISBN 978-3-7650-9056-1.
- Guttman, Allen, (1991). Women's sports. A history. Columbia University Press, New York. ISBN 978-0-231-06957-1.
