Gretel Lambert (born Margarethe Bergmann; April 12, 1914 – July 25, 2017)
nytimes.com, July 25, 2017; accessed September 10, 2017. was a

German Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

athlete who competed as a

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

er during the 1930s. Due to her Jewish origins, the Nazis prevented her from taking part in the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-sp ...

, after which she left Germany and vowed never to return. She however visited Germany in 2004 to meet with her 1930s rival Elfriede Kaun, whom she considered a friend. Bergmann turned 100 in 2014. She died in 2017 at her home in Jamaica Estates, Queens, New York.

Life and career

Margarethe Bergmann was born in 1914 in

Laupheim Laupheim (; Swabian: ''Laoba'') is a major district town in southern Germany in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Laupheim was first mentioned in 778 and gained city rights in 1869. One of the main trading routes, from Ulm to Ravensburg and then ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, the daughter of Edwin and Paula (née Stern) Bergmann, a businessman. She later began her career in athletics in Laupheim. In 1930 she joined Ulmer FV 1894, winning her first title in high jumping in 1931 when, during the South German Championships, she jumped 1.51 metres. She won that same title again in 1932. After the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

' accession to power on 30 January 1933 she was expelled from the club for being Jewish. That April her parents sent her to the United Kingdom where in 1934 she took part in the British Championships and won the high jump with a height of 1.55 metres. The German government wanted her to return to Germany to help portray the nation as unbiased in its Olympic-team selections. 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

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Würt ...

ian Championships in the high jump in 1935 and again on 30 June 1936 when, one month prior to the opening of the Olympic Games, she tied the German record by crossing 1.60 metres. Bergmann-Lambert was banned from the Berlin Olympics despite matching the high-jump record of 1.60 metres (5 feet 3 inches) to qualify and having spent two years on the team, starting in 1934. However, two weeks before the opening of the Olympics, she received a letter from the German sports authorities that she was being removed from the national team for under-performance. She was not replaced; instead, Germany fielded only two high jumpers: Dora Ratjen, who was later revealed to be a man who had been raised as a girl, and Elfriede Kaun. Bergmann's accomplishment was stricken from the record books some weeks later. In 1937, Bergmann emigrated to the United States, settling in New York City, where she married Bruno Lambert, a

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

. That year, she won the U.S. women's high jump and

shot put The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. The shot put competition for men has been a part of the modern Olympics since their revival in 1896, and women's ...

championships, and in 1938 she again won the high jump. Her sports career ended after the entry of the United States into

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 1942, she received

United States citizenship Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Cons ...

Gedenktafel Rudolstädter Str 77 (Wilmd) Gretel Bergmann

Awards and recognition

Bergmann's entry into the Jewish Hall of Fame at

Wingate Institute Wingate Institute ( he, מכון וינגייט), officially Orde Wingate Institute for Physical Education and Sports ( he, המכון לחינוך גופני ולספורט ע"ש אורד וינגייט), is a sports training institute located so ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

in 1980 revived interest in her story. In August 1995 a sports complex in

Berlin-Wilmersdorf Wilmersdorf (), an inner-city locality of Berlin, lies south-west of the central city. Formerly a borough by itself, Wilmersdorf became part of the new borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf in Berlin's 2001 administrative reform. History The vi ...

was named after her on the recommendation of the German National Sports Federation. 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 The National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and Museum, in Commack, New York, is dedicated to honoring American Jewish figures who have distinguished themselves in sports. Its objective is to foster Jewish identity through athletics, and to commemo ...

in the United States. In 1999, she received the for achievements in the sphere of sports and society without the prospect of material gains. The stadium in Laupheim, from which she had been barred in the 1930s, was named after her in 1999. This time Bergmann attended the dedication, saying: Bergmann added, "I ... finally came to the conclusion that people now had nothing to do with it". In 2004, a documentary based on her life in Germany, ''Hitler's Pawn – The Margaret Lambert Story'', mostly focusing on her athletic life, debuted on HBO prior to the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

. On 23 November 2009 her German national record (1.60m) from 1936 was officially restored by the German track and field association, which also requested she be admitted to the German sports hall of fame. In September 2009 ''

Berlin 36 ''Berlin 36'' is a 2009 German film telling the fate of Jewish track and field athlete Gretel Bergmann in the 1936 Summer Olympics. In the movie she was replaced by the Nazi regime with a fellow athlete which she befriended. The film, based on ...

'', a film about her preparation for, and exclusion from, the 1936 Olympics, debuted in German theaters.

Honors

In August 2014, one of the streets in the Olympic Park Berlin (former Reichssportfeld) was renamed "Gretel-Bergmann-Weg" in her honor.

References

In film

* ''Die Angst sprang mit — Die jüdische Hochspringerin Gretel Bergmann'' ( SWR, 2004 (TV documentary)
Inhaltsangabe

''Hitler's Pawn — The Margaret Lambert Story''
imdb.com; accessed September 10, 2017. * ''

— Die wahre Geschichte einer Siegerin.'' (Germany 2009), directed by Kaspar Heidelbach, Bergmann was portrayed by

Karoline Herfurth Karoline Herfurth (; born 22 May 1984) is a German actress. Life and career Herfurth was born in East Berlin, East Germany, the daughter of a psychologist mother and a geriatric nurse practitioner father. Her parents divorced when she was tw ...

* ''Der Traum von Olympia — Die Nazispiele von 1936'' ( ARD, 2016, television

docudrama Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television and film, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of documentary and drama and "a fact-based representation of real event". Docudramas typic ...

Inhaltsangabe
, Bergmann was portrayed by Sandra von Ruffin.

Life and career

Awards and recognition

Honors

See also

References

Further reading

In film

External links