Mārtiņš Grundmanis (18 November 1913 – 30 November 1944) was a Latvian

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player. Grundmanis won a gold medal at the

1935 EuroBasket The 1935 FIBA European Championship, commonly called EuroBasket 1935, was the first FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship, held by FIBA, as well as a test event preceding the first Olympic basketball tournament at the 1936 Summer Olym ...

competition, becoming the first European champion. He also participated at 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 ...

and at the 1937 EuroBasket.

Career

In the first half of the 1930s Grundmanis played for the JKS (Latvian Christian Youth) team. He was also a member of the Latvian Christian Youth Society, and graduated from a four-year

physical education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorati ...

program at the

University of Tartu The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...

. In late 1930s Grundmanis played for the military team

Rīgas ASK Rīgas Armijas Sporta Klubs was a professional basketball club that was based in Riga, Latvia. History Rīgas ASK was founded in 1931, and started playing in the Latvian Basketball Championship. In the years that Latvia was controlled by the Sovi ...

, and became a two time Latvian champion (1939-1940). Overall Grundmanis played 20 games for the

Latvian national basketball team The Latvia men's national basketball team ( lv, Latvijas basketbola izlase) represents Latvia in international basketball. They are organized and run by the Latvian Basketball Association. Latvia has reached the European Basketball Championship ...

. During Nazi occupation of Latvia during

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 ...

, Grundmanis was conscripted into

Latvian Legion The Latvian Legion ( lv, Latviešu leģions) was a formation of the German Waffen-SS during World War II. Created in 1943, it consisted primarily of ethnic Latvian personnel.Gerhard P. Bassler, ''Alfred Valdmanis and the politics of survival'', 20 ...

. He was taken

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

by Soviet

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

in 1944. He committed suicide on 30 November 1944 at the German POW camp in

Sarkandaugava Sarkandaugava is a neighbourhood of Riga, Latvia. Origins of the name The name of the neighbourhood derives from that of the Sarkandaugava ('Red Daugava'; german: Rote Düna), a minor arm of the Daugava that formerly separated Pētersala fro ...

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grundmanis, Mārtiņš 1913 births 1944 deaths Olympic basketball players of Latvia Basketball players at the 1936 Summer Olympics Latvian men's basketball players Latvian Waffen-SS personnel Latvian military personnel killed in World War II German military personnel who committed suicide 1944 suicides Latvian prisoners of war German prisoners of war in World War II held by the Soviet Union