Gottfried von Cramm

Gottfried von Cramm

Gottfried von Cramm (left) and George Lyttleton-Rogers of Ireland in 1932
Full name	Gottfried Alexander Maximilian Walter Kurt Freiherr von Cramm
Country	Germany West Germany
Born	(1909-07-07)July 7, 1909 Hanover, Germany
Died	November 8, 1976(1976-11-08) (aged 67) Cairo, Egypt
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Turned pro	1931 (amateur tour)
Retired	1952
Plays	Right-handed (1-handed backhand)
Int. Tennis HOF	1977 (member page)
Singles
Highest ranking	No. 1 (1937, World's First 10)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	SF (1938)
French Open	W (1934, 1936)
Wimbledon	F (1935, 1936, 1937)
US Open	F (1937)
Doubles
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	F (1938)
French Open	W (1937)
US Open	W (1937)
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results
Wimbledon	W (1933)
Last updated on: 28 May 2012.

Gottfried Alexander Maximilian Walter Kurt Freiherr von Cramm (English: Baron Gottfried von Cramm; 7 July 1909, Nettlingen – 8 November 1976), was a German amateur era tennis champion and twice French Open champion. He was ranked World No. 2 in both 1934 and 1936 and World No. 1 in 1937.

The Nazis wanted to exploit his blonde good looks as a symbol of Aryan supremacy, but he refused to identify with Nazism. Probably in revenge, they jailed him for an earlier homosexual relationship with a Jewish actor, and this damaged his career abroad. However, a more probable reason for his imprisonment was because of his losing streak in international tennis; he had lost in the 1937 Davis Cup deciding match to the American Don Budge and Germany did not continue to the finals. In the war, he was discharged from the military because of frostbite.

He figured briefly in the gossip-columns as the sixth husband of Barbara Hutton, the Woolworth heiress.

Birth

The third of the seven sons of Burchard Baron (Freiherr) von Cramm, and his wife Jutta née von Steinberg, Cramm was born at the family estate near Nettlingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. The family title, which was bestowed upon his paternal grandfather in 1891, was inherited in 1936 by Cramm's eldest brother, Aschwin. His brother, Wilhelm-Ernst Freiherr von Cramm (1917 – 1996), was a highly decorated German officer during World War II and later head of the German Party, a conservative German political party.

Athletic career

In 1932, von Cramm earned a berth as a Davis Cup competitor for his country and immediately won the first of four straight German national championships. During this time he also teamed up with Hilde Krahwinkel to win the 1933 Mixed Doubles title at Wimbledon. Noted for his gentlemanly conduct and fair play, he gained the admiration and respect of his fellow tennis players. He earned his first individual Grand Slam title in 1934, winning the French Open. His victory made him a national hero in his native Germany; however, it was by chance that he did so just after Adolf Hitler had come to power. The handsome, blond Gottfried von Cramm fit perfectly the Aryan race image of a Nazi ideology that put pressure on all German athletes to be superior. However, von Cramm steadfastly refused to be a tool for Nazi propaganda. Germany effectively lost its 1935 Davis Cup Interzone Final against the US, when von Cramm refused to take match point in the deciding game, by notifying the umpire that the ball had tipped his racket, and thus calling a point against himself, though no one had witnessed the error.

For three straight years he was the men's singles runner-up at the Wimbledon Championships, losing memorable matches in the finals to England's Fred Perry in 1935 and again in 1936. The following year he lost in the finals to American Don Budge both at Wimbledon and at the U.S. Open. In 1935, he was beaten in the French Open finals by Perry but turned the tables the following year and defeated Perry for his second French championship. In an attempt to get von Cramm on side, the Nazi regime punished his insubordination by not allowing him to compete in the 1937 French championship even though he was the defending champion.

Despite his Grand Slam play, Gottfried von Cramm is most remembered for his deciding match against Don Budge during the 1937 Davis Cup. He was ahead 4–1 in the final set, when Budge launched a comeback, eventually winning 8–6 in a match considered by many as the greatest battle in the annals of Davis Cup play and one of the pre-eminent matches in all of tennis history. In a later interview, Budge said that von Cramm had received a phone call from Hitler minutes before the match started and came out pale and serious and had played each point as though his life depended on winning. This myth later grew on to contain some truth as Hitler and Goring were constantly watching Cramm in case he slipped and revealed his true nature.

Imprisonment on morals charges

Despite his enormous popularity with the public, on 5 March 1938, von Cramm was arrested by the German government and tried for homosexuality. After being hospitalized for a nervous collapse after his arrest, he was sentenced to 1 year imprisonment on 14 March for his relationship with Manasse Herbst, a young Galician Jewish actor and singer, who had appeared in the 1926 silent film Der Sohn des Hannibal. Von Cramm admitted that the relationship, which lasted from 1931 until 1934, began shortly before he married his first wife. He was additionally charged with sending money to Herbst, who moved to Palestine in 1936. According to a 15 May 1938 report about the trial in the New York Times, the judge stated that "Baron von Cramm had alleged that his wife, during their honeymoon, had become intimate with a French athlete. The court held that this experience had unsettled the young tennis star and had resulted in his seeking a perverse compensation for an unhappy married life."^{[citation needed]}. Although Cramm had confessed to an affair with Herbst once he was arrested, Cramm later changed his confession to one of "mutual masturbation" and his lawyer was able to convince the judge that Cramm had been forced into passing money to Herbst because after all Herbst was a "sneaky Jew."

Cramm was released after 6 month of imprisonment because of his "good behaviour" on 16 October 1938.

His international tennis friends were outraged, and Don Budge collected the signatures of high-profile athletes and sent a protest letter to Hitler. After being released in October 1938 on parole, in May 1939 Cramm returned to competitive tennis but the extremely tense political climate caused problems when he went to play in England. Nevertheless, Cramm was allowed to compete at the Queen's Club tournament in London where he won the event by beating American Bobby Riggs 6–0, 6–1. The officials at Wimbledon reportedly refused to let him play in the championships, using the excuse that he was a convicted criminal and therefore unfit; The New York Times, however, quoted Wimbledon sources as saying that Cramm would have been welcome to participate, had he submitted an entry. The U.S. rejected his temporary-visa application that same year, citing his morals-charge conviction; he had intended to play at the U.S. Open in September.^{[citation needed]}

A further humiliation was Germany's 1940 decision to recall Cramm from an international tennis tournament in Rome before he had a chance to play. The New York Times reported that his abrupt departure "was attributed to the German authorities' desire to prevent the former champion from meeting Henner Henkel, Rolf Goepffert, and other German players ... Berlin decided it would be embarrassing if Cramm beat his compatriots..."^{[citation needed]}

Relationship with Hitler and Nazi Party

Despite his "defects," von Cramm was able to stay alive and out of prison during Nazi Germany for a long span of time. Gays were the second most persecuted group, after the Jews, and often times non-gays were arrested and killed on immoral charges.^{[citation needed]} However, Cramm was able to survive because of his Aryan appearance and tennis abilities.^{[citation needed]} His appearance and athletic superiority made him a role-model for the Nazi Party, yet he constantly refused to join because of his own morals and beliefs. Hitler and the Nazi Party wished to recruit Cramm, because he was a perfect example of the newly-formed German spirit. Cramm was successful in life and sports, with his good manners gaining him fame throughout the world. The Nazis wished to use him to evolve from an isolated country to one with many talents and composure.

Cramm has come to represent the hypocrisy and flexibility within the Nazi Party. His survival during these times is vital to understand the true workings of Nazism and Hitler. By letting Cramm survive, Hitler showed that international fame was more important than sending one more homosexual to his doom. Hitler's emphasis on sports is also revealed with the Hitler Youth and Max Schmeling. By letting Cramm survive, Hitler and the Nazis demonstrated that they were willing to put their "Aryan ideologies" at risk in order to achieve fame and victory.

Wartime service and postwar career

After the outbreak of World War II, Cramm was drafted into military service in May 1940 as a member of the Hermann Goering Division.^{[citation needed]} He saw action on the Eastern Front and was awarded the Iron Cross. Because of his previous conviction he was dismissed from military service in 1942. Despite his noble background, Cramm was enlisted as a private until he was given a small company under his command. His company faced the harsh conditions of the Eastern front and Cramm was flown out because of frostbite with much of his company dead.

While war robbed Cramm of some of his best years for tennis, he still won another German national championship in 1948 and was already forty years old when he won it for the last time in 1949. He played Davis Cup tennis until retiring after the 1953 season and still holds the record for most wins by any German team member.

Following his retirement from active competition, Cramm served as an administrator for the German tennis federation and became successful in business as a cotton importer. In addition, he managed the farm property he had inherited from his father at Wispenstein in Lower Saxony.

Marriages

Gottfried von Cramm married:

• Baroness Elisabeth "Lisa" von Dobeneck (1912–1975), a daughter of Robert, Baron von Dobeneck and his wife, the former Maria Hagen, and a granddaughter of the Jewish banker Louis Hagen; they married on 1 September 1930 and divorced in 1937. Lisa von Cramm later married the German ice-hockey star Gustav Jaenecke.

• Barbara Hutton, an American socialite and an heiress to the Woolworth five-and-dime fortune; they married in 1955 and divorced in 1959. He had married her in order to "help her through substance abuse and depression but was unable to help her in the end."

Death

While on a business trip, Von Cramm and his driver were killed in an automobile accident near Cairo, Egypt in 1976 when the baron's car collided with a truck. In his honor, the Gottfried-von-Cramm-Weg in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, site of the Rot-Weiss Tennis Club, was given his name.

Von Cramm was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island in 1977.

In his 1979 autobiography, Jack Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter and great player himself, included Gottfried von Cramm in his list of the 21 greatest players of all time.

Grand Slam record

Australian Championships

• Doubles finalist: 1938

French Championships

• Singles champion: 1934, 1936
• Singles finalist 1935
• Doubles champion: 1937

Wimbledon

• Singles finalist 1935-37
• Mixed Doubles champion: 1933

U.S. Championships

• Singles finalist 1937
• Doubles champion: 1937

Grand Slam finals

Singles

Wins (2)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score
1934	French Championships	Jack Crawford	6–4, 7–9, 3–6, 7–5, 6–3
1936	French Championship (2)	Fred Perry	6–0, 2–6, 6–2, 2–6, 6–0

Runner-ups (5)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score
1935	French Championships	Fred Perry	6–3, 3-6, 6–1, 6–3
1935	Wimbledon	Fred Perry	6–2, 6–4, 6–4
1936	Wimbledon	Fred Perry	6–1, 6–1, 6–0
1937	Wimbledon	Don Budge	6–3, 6–4, 6–2
1937	U.S. Championships	Don Budge	6–1, 7–9, 6–1, 3–6, 6–1

Doubles

Titles (2)

Year	Championship	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score
1937	French Championships	Henner Henkel	Vernon Kirby Norman Farquharson	6–4, 7–5, 3–6, 6–1
1937	U.S. Championships	Henner Henkel	Don Budge Gene Mako	6–4, 7–5, 6–4

Runner-ups (1)

Year	Championship	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score
1938	Australian Open	Henner Henkel	John Bromwich Adrian Quist	5–7, 4–6, 0–6

Notes

^A Regarding personal names: Freiherr was a title, translated as Baron, not a first or middle name. Before 1919 preceding the first name, former titles are with people alive after 1919 dependent parts of the surname, thus preceding the main surname and not to be translated. The female forms are Freifrau and Freiin. Regarding personal names: Von was a title, translated as , not a first or middle name. Before 1919 preceding the first name, former titles are with people alive after 1919 dependent parts of the surname, thus preceding the main surname and not to be translated.

Further reading

• Fisher, Marshall Jon (2009). A Terrible Splendor: Three Extraordinary Men, a World Poised for War and the Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played. ISBN 978-0-307-39394-4

External links

• International Tennis Hall of Fame
• PRI's The World - A Match for the Ages

Awards
Preceded by Incumbent	German Sportsman of the Year 1947 – 1948	Succeeded by Georg Meier