Walter Johan Heinrich Steffens (26 December 1908 – 23 August 2006) was a German gymnast who won an Olympic gold medal. He was born in Barnstorf, the son of a family of craftsmen. In the 1930s, he was one of the best in the world on the

pommel horse The pommel horse, also known as vaulting horse, is an artistic gymnastics apparatus. Traditionally, it is used by only male gymnasts. Originally made of a metal frame with a wooden body and a leather cover, the modern pommel horse has a metal bo ...

. In the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XI Olympiad () and officially branded as Berlin 1936, were an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 16 August 1936 in Berlin, then capital of Nazi Germany. Berlin won the bid to ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

he won a gold medal as part of the German team, along with

Alfred Schwarzmann Alfred Schwarzmann (22 March 1912 – 11 March 2000) was a German Olympic gymnast. He won three gold and two bronze medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics and another silver medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics. During World War II, Schwarzmann serve ...

and others. He was a sports instructor at the Hamm Gymnasium and at the Freiherr-vom-Stein-Realschule in

Bergkamen Bergkamen (; Westphalian: ''Biärgkoamen'') is a town in the district of Unna, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated south of the river Lippe, approx. north-east of Dortmund and south-west of Hamm. Bergkamen, a fairly new town i ...

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* 1908 births 2006 deaths German male artistic gymnasts Olympic gymnasts for Germany Gymnasts at the 1936 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in gymnastics Medalists at the 1936 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Germany 20th-century German sportsmen 21st-century German people Gymnasts from Lower Saxony People from Diepholz (district) People from the Province of Hanover {{Germany-artistic-gymnastics-bio-stub