Charlotte Oelschlagel

Charlotte Oelschlägel, aka Charlotte Hayward (b. August 14, 1898 in Berlin, Germany - d. November 14, 1984 in Berlin, Germany) was a German professional skater. For most of her life, she used only her first name as her stage name.

She invented the death spiral and the charlotte spiral, named after her. She was inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1985.^[1]

Career

Charlotte Oelschlägel was born in Berlin. As well as being a figure skater, she was also a musician. At age seven, she was on stage with the Berlin Philharmonic. She played the mandolin, lute, harp and piano.

When she was 10 years old, she suffered from nervous and growing problems. Medications did not help. She was advised to do figure skating to cure her medical problems. First she skated with brother Fritz. Later she was coached by Paul Münder.

In 1915, she became the first performer to star in a Broadway ice show, appearing in Hip-Hip-Hooray! at the New York Hippodrome. She was also the first skater to star in a motion picture, the The Frozen Warning, which was made in 1916.

She was married to Curt Neumann, also figure skater. With him she performed the first one arm death spiral in Budapest in 1928.

In 1929, she appeared for last time in a show in the USA in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1939, her professional figure skating career ended due to the beginning of World War II. Her passport was confiscated by the Nazis. After the war, she worked as a coach at the club Grunewalder TC. She retired in 1976.

She died in a retirement home in Berlin on November 14, 1984.

References

• Pirouette, 1995, numbers 5 and 6