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Otto Herschmann

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Ethnicity
  
Jewish

Country
  
Austria

Name
  
Otto Herschmann

Citizenship
  
Austrian

Sport
  
Swimming and fencing

Role
  
Swimmer

Otto Herschmann httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediaenthumbb
Born
  
4 January 1877 (
1877-01-04
)
Vienna, Austria

Occupation
  
swimmer, fencer, lawyer, and sport official

Club
  
1.W.A.S.C., Vienna (Austria) / Wiener AC, Vienna (Austria)

Died
  
June 14, 1942, Izbica, Poland

Olympic medals
  
Fencing at the 1912 Summer Olympics – Men's team sabre

Similar People
  
Jeno Fuchs, Rudolf Cvetko, Alfred Hajos, Ervin Meszaros

Dr. Otto Herschmann (4 January 1877 – 14 June 1942) was a Jewish Austrian swimmer, fencer, lawyer, and sports official.

Contents

Herschmann won a silver medal at the initial modern Olympic Games, the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, in the men's 100-metre freestyle event. He also won a silver medal at the 1912 Summer Olympics, in the men's team sabre event in fencing. Herschmann is one of only a few athletes who have won Olympic medals in more than one sport.

He served as President of the Austrian Olympic Committee from 1912 to 1914. Herschmann was then President of the Austrian Swimming Federation from 1914 to 1932.

During the Nazi era, Herschmann was persecuted because he was Jewish. The Nazis arrested him in Vienna and deported him in 1942 to the Sobibor extermination camp, and then to the Izbica concentration camp, where he was killed.

Biography

Herschmann was Jewish, and was born in Vienna, Austria. He was affiliated with the 1.W.A.S.C. in Vienna, and the Wiener AC in Vienna.

Olympic swimming career

Herschmann first competed at the initial modern Olympic Games, the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, at the age of 19 in the men's 100 metres freestyle swimming event. On 30 March, he and the other swimmers were taken by boat into the Bay of Piraeus to compete in the open sea. The competitors swam from a starting line between two buoys, through a course marked by a number of floating hollow pumpkins, to a red flag finish line at the shore.

Herschmann placed second and won a silver medal, with a time of 1:22.8, 0.6 seconds and half a metre behind the winner, Alfred Hajos, as the other swimmers trailed far behind. When he and fellow Austrian swimmer Dr. Paul Neumann returned to Vienna from Greece, a large crowd met them at the train station with cheers.

AinsworthSports.com ranked Herschmann as tied for the second-best swimmer of the 1890s, behind Alfred Hajos. In 1904, he wrote Wiener Sport, which was published by H. Seemann.

Olympic fencing career

In the 1906 Summer Olympics, Herschmann competed in Athens in individual sabre, but did not medal. He returned to Olympic competition at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden, competing as a member of Austria's sabre fencing team at the age of 35, 16 years after he first won a medal. On 15 July he won a silver medal in the team competition. In so doing, he became one of only a few athletes to win Olympic medals in more than one sport.

Other Jewish fencers who participated in the 1912 Olympics included Hungarian gold-medal winning sabre fencers Dr. Jeno Fuchs, Dr. Dezso Foldes, Lajos Werkner, and Dr. Oszkar Gerde, and Austrian silver-medal winning sabre fencer Albert Bogen.

Athletic administrative posts

At the time he won his fencing medal, Herschmann was serving as President of the Austrian Olympic Committee, a position that he held from 1912 to 1914. He is the only person to win an Olympic medal while serving as president of a National Olympic Committee.

Herschmann was one of Europe's top authorities in sports. In November 1913, he traveled to various cities in the United States, including Boston, New York, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Chicago, to examine the United States sports system, and to hire one or more U.S. trainers to train Austrian athletes for the upcoming Olympics. That month, when he was visiting the U.S. as the Austrian athletic envoy, the Boston Athletic Association gave him a banquet, and in December 1913 the Board of Governors of the New York Athletic Club held a banquet honoring him. He lauded the United States system for how it conditioned athletes' bodies, for how it availed itself to top-level trainers, and for not only developing athletes, but also developing its athletes as gentlemen and developing their character. In contrast that he said the European system had historically taken the view that trainers were not much needed for natural athletes, but rather were only needed for those who lacked skill.

Herschmann served as President of the Austrian Swimming Federation from 1914 to 1932.

Concentration camp and death

Herschmann was in private practice as a lawyer in the 1940s. He was persecuted during the era of the Nazis because he was Jewish. Herschmann was deported from Vienna on 14 January 1942 to Izbica concentration camp in German-occupied Poland.

Herschmann died on 14 June 1942 (or on 17 June) in Sobibor extermination camp in Sobibor, Lubelskie, Poland, most likely by being gassed to death.

Honors

Herschmann was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1989. On 7 November 2001 his hometown Vienna named a lane "Otto-Herschmann-Gasse" (Otto Herschmann Alley) in his honor in Simmering, the 11th District of Vienna.

References

Otto Herschmann Wikipedia


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