In 1936, Hitler began a military build up along Germany's western boarder in defiance of the prohibitions of the Versailles Treaty. The goal was to produce a diplomatic crisis and while America looked on Europeans wondered if they were headed for another war. That was the backdrop when on June 19, 1936, at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, the stadium's seats were sold out and 57 million people tuned in on the radio for the scheduled for fifteen round boxing match between Germany's Max Schmeling and the most significant African American athlete of his age, Joe Louis.
The fight was viewed as a battle between representatives of the United States and Nazi Germany, a struggle between democracy and Nazism.
By the twelfth round Schmeling, who was far ahead on points, landed a blow to Louis' body, followed by another one to the jaw, knocking Louis out...something that had never been done before and would not be done again until 15 years later when it was accomplished by an up and coming Rocky Marciano.
Writer Langston Hughes was there and described the reaction, "I walked down Seventh Avenue and saw grown men weeping like children, and women sitting on the curbs with their heads in their hands."
All across the country people cried when they heard Joe Louis got knocked out.
The Germans took a different view. German
sportswriter Volker Kluge described Schmeling's role as a Third Reich spokesman: "His assignment was to calm down the American people."
The Germans were jubilant. Hitler contacted Schmeling's wife, sending her flowers and a message: "For the wonderful victory of your husband, our
Schmeling dutifully told the German press, "...I have to tell Germany, (and) the Fuehrer in particular, that the thoughts of all my countrymen were with me in this fight; that the Fuehrer and his faithful people were thinking of me. This thought gave me the strength to succeed in this fight. It gave me the courage and the endurance to win this victory for Germany's colors."
For the record, there was rematch on June 22, 1938, again at a sold-out Yankee Stadium with more than 70,000 fans in attendance and the fight drew gate receipts of just over $1 million ($19.5 million in today's dollars) while 70 million listened on radio in the US and over 100 million around the world.
Two minutes and four seconds into the first round Lewis, who had thrown 41 punches to Schmelling's measly 2, won on a technical knockout when Schmelling was was unable to continue. Schmelling was beaten so badly he landed in the hospital for ten days where it was discovered that Louis had cracked several vertebrae in Schmeling's back.
This time, while most American rejoiced along with the black community, some Americans revealed their true feelings. Lewis F. Atchison of The Washington Post began his story: "Joe Louis, the lethargic, chicken-eating young colored boy, reverted to his dreaded role of the Brown Bomber tonight."
Henry McLemore of United Press called Louis "a jungle man, completely primitive as any savage, out to destroy the thing he hates."
Nevertheless, Louis went on to become a major celebrity and when other prominent blacks questioned whether African Americans should serve against the Axis nations in the segregated US Armed Forces, Louis said, "There are a lot of things wrong with America, but Hitler ain't gonna fix them."
Louis himself went on to serve in the Army during World War II, mostly visiting soldiers in Europe to provide them with motivational speeches and with boxing exhibitions.
After the loss, the Nazi regime ceased promoting Schmeling as a national hero. During the Kristallnacht of November 1938, Schmeling provided sanctuary for two young Jewish boys to safeguard them from the Gestapo.
As a way of punishing Schmeling for his public resistance to the Nazi cause, Schmeling was drafted into the paratroopers and served with the German Luftwaffe.
He survived and after the war made an unsuccessful comeback attempt in 1947–48 before retiring from professional boxing. He invested his earnings in various post-War businesses and his resistance to the Nazis elevated his status once again to that of a hero in post-war Germany.
After the war Schmeling and Louis became friends. Broke and struggling with drug addiction, Louis got a job as a greeter at the Caesars Palace hotel in Las Vegas and Schmeling flew to visit him every year.
Louis was supposedly so badly off financially that he took up professional wrestling to make ends meet and Schmeling reportedly sent him money and even covered part of the cost of Louis' funeral at which he was a pallbearer.
Chess played a big part in Nazi Germany and Edward Winter has a very informative article in it HERE. In 1936, the German DSB Kongress organized a training tournament to be held in Dresden, Germany from June 7-14. Four German players were pitted against six European masters, including the former world champion Alekhine.
The two biggest surprises were the second place finish of Engles and the poor showing of Keres.
Ludwig Engels (December 11, 1905 - January 10, 1967) is not well known, but he was one of Germany's top players during the 1930s. On the 1904 rating list Chessmetrics assigns him a rating of over 2600 and places him umber 19 on the world's best list.
After the war Engels lived in Sao Paulo, Brazil where he has some success until after 1948 when he confined most of his chess activity to coaching and training at the Clube de Xadrez Sao Paulo.
As for Keres (January 7, 1916 - June 5, 1975), his first major international success against top-level competition came at Bad Nauheim 1936, where he tied for first with Alekhine. About his struggle at Dresden he wrote that the setback was a learning experience...he learned that reckless play could backfire!
Henri Grob's crushing defeat in the following game shows that the 47-year-old Ewfim Bogoljubow could still pack a punch. At the time of this tournament Chessmetrics assigns him a rating in the mid-2600s and ranks him 14th in the world.
During the war he lost a match to Euwe (+2−5=3) and drew a short match with a rapidly declining Alekhine (+2−2=0) at Warsaw in 1943. He also had some decent success in numerous tournaments held in Germany throughout the war.
Bogoljubow's political sympathies are open to debate. Writing in Bogoljubow-The Fate of a Chess Player, author Sergei Soloviov claims that Bogoljubow was never a Nazi and that he himself was a victim.
In Lessons From My Games, Reuben Fine, who Arnold Denker claimed was a habitual liar, made an unsubstantiated claim that Bogoljubow had some of his rivals put in concentration camps.
Chess historian Edward Winter wrote that he had written to Fine to try to find his source for his claim and also had written to Sidney Bernstein (an acquaintance of Fine's) but neither ever responded.
According to Hans Kmoch, Bogoljubow was sympathetic to the Nazis (e.g. insisting on the use of swastika to identify his nationality even before it was a universally accepted emblem of Germany) and was insensitive towards the plight of his Jewish colleagues whom he openly taunted.
And, finally, in his memoirs Fedir Bohatyrchuk claimed that Bogoljubow stopped wearing his Nazi Party badge after a wounded soldier tore it from him during a simul display and that he owned a radio that he secretly used to listen to Allied broadcasts.
Bohatyrchuk wrote, “It was not a secret that Bogo did not like the Bolsheviks, but I think only a few people knew that he was treating Hitler's wild ideas with at least equal revulsion and contempt.” The claim has been made that Bohatyrchuk's testimony could not be taken at face value because he was trying to rehabilitate his fellow Russian's image.
A game that I liked (Komodo 14)
[Event "Dresden"]
[Site "Dresden GER"]
[Date "1936.06.13"]
[Round "8"]
[White "Efim Bogoljubov"]
[Black "Henri Grob"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E94"]
[Annotator "Stockfish 15"]
[PlyCount "50"]
[EventDate "1936.06.07"]
{King's Indian} 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. c4 Bg7 {Until the time this game was
played, the mid-1930s, the King's Indian was generally regarded as highly
suspect, but the analysis and play of three Soviet players, Konstantinopolsky,
Boleslavsky and Bronstein, helped to make the defense much more respected and
popular.} 4. Nc3 O-O 5. e4 d6 6. Be2 e5 {The Classical Variation.} 7. O-O exd4
{In this line white's extra space is usually of greater value than black's
counterplay against the center. This variation was made popular in the
mid-1990s by the Soviet GM Igor Glek. New ideas were found for white some of
which were later refuted, but white still gets an advantage in most lines.
Most common nowadays is 7...Nc6. The seldom played 7...Qe8 has given some
promising results, but against correct play it seems white can gain an
advantage.} (7... Qe8 8. dxe5 dxe5 9. b4 (9. Be3 b6 10. Nd5 Na6 11. Nd2 Nd7 12.
a4 c6 13. Nc3 Qe7 14. a5 Rd8 {with equal chances. Ftacnik,L (2552)-Naiditsch,A
(2684) Germany 2017}) 9... Bg4 10. b5 Bxf3 11. Bxf3 Qe6 12. Nd5 Rc8 13. Nxf6+
Qxf6 {Wojtaszek,R (2722)-Rapport,R (2738) Prague 2019. Black has awkward
development.}) 8. Nxd4 Qe8 {This seems a bit artificial and 8...Re8 was
preferable.} 9. f3 (9. Ndb5 {Doesn't accomplish a lot because after} Qd8 10.
Bg5 a6 {white has also lost time with the N.}) 9... a6 10. Be3 Nc6 11. Qd2 (11.
Nxc6 bxc6 12. Qd2 a5 {gives black sufficient counterplay on the Q-side.}) 11...
h5 {Black's opening has not given him much play either in the center or on the
Q-side so Grob resorts to a rather rash attempt at counterplay on the K-side.
His safest course was to exchange on d4 then play 12...Be6 and wait to see
what happens.} 12. Rac1 Qe5 13. Nb3 {Slightly better was 13.Nb2 because after
the text black could have gotten some play on the Q-side with 13...a5} h4 14.
Bg5 (14. Nd5 {was better.} h3 (14... Nxd5 15. cxd5 Ne7 16. Bd4 Qh5 17. Bxg7
Kxg7 18. f4 Bg4 19. Bxg4 Qxg4 20. Rxc7 {is winning for white.}) 15. g4 Nxd5 16.
cxd5 {and again, Rxc7 gives white an overwhelming position.}) 14... h3 15. g4 {
Equally good was 15.f4} Bd7 16. Bf4 Qe6 17. Nd5 Rac8 18. Bh6 Bxh6 19. Qxh6 {
This comes too late to do black much good.} a5 20. Rc3 {Aiming for f4 and Rxh3.
Black's position is too far gone to savage.} a4 (20... Nh7 {was his best hope.}
21. f4 g5 {Unfortunately for black even trading Qs does not ease his woes.} 22.
fxg5 Qxh6 23. gxh6 Rfe8 24. Nd2 Nd4 25. Bd1 b5 26. Rd3 Nc6 27. Rxh3 Ne5 28. Rg3
bxc4 29. g5 Be6 30. h4 {White still has a decisive attack.}) 21. f4 {[%mdl 32]
White's position is so good he can ignore the puny threat to his N.} Nh5 (21...
axb3 22. Rxh3 Nh5 23. f5 {mates in 5-6 moves. The longest black can hold out
is with the pathetic line} Qxd5 24. exd5 Bxf5 25. Rxf5 bxa2 26. Rhxh5 a1=Q+ 27.
Kg2 Qg1+ 28. Kxg1 g5 29. Rfxg5#) (21... Nxg4 {is met by} 22. Bxg4 Qxg4+ 23. Rg3
{Now the only way to avoid an immediate mate is to play 23...Qxg3+} Qe6 {
mates in 5.} 24. f5 Qe5 25. f6 Qxg3+ 26. hxg3 h2+ 27. Kh1 axb3 28. Qg7#) 22.
gxh5 {[%cal Oc3g3]} axb3 23. f5 Nd4 24. f6 {[%csl Gf6][%cal Rh6g7]} Nxe2+ 25.
Kf2 Qf5+ {Grob resigned... he gets mated in two. A crushing defeat.} 1-0
