] i s o h ]

INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF OLYMPIC HISTORIANS

TDsm® » t m ë G m f Volker Kluge

n 19 August 2009, in the Berlin Olympiastadion, petitors: one, Gretel Bergmann, was cheated of her right­ Othe 18 year old South African Caster Semenya came ful place at the 1936 Olympic Games because she was home to win world championship gold in the 800 metres. Jewish. The other - “Marie Ketteler”, who in real life She did not attend the post race press conference and was called Dora Ratjen - was permitted to take part and rumours that she might be “ intersexual”, because of her came fourth. Although the “Bergmann Case” had been masculine appearance, came to a head when information glossed over for decades, it has recently become so well- was leaked to the media. The IAAF ordered checks on known that it only needs to be briefly documented here. her gender and it emerged that there had been concerns much earlier. The “Bergmann Case” As fate would have it, the premiere of the feature film The start of it all was Hitler’s so-called “Machtergreifung” “Berlin ’36” took place the very next day in the same city. [seizure of power] in 1933, following which he plunged It tells the story of two female German high jump com­ Germany into a dictatorship. The exclusion of the Jewish

2 0 J o u r n a l o f Olympic History 17(December 2009)Number 3 QS3P

minority from the rest of German society, including sport, began with the boycott of Jewish-owned shops as from 1st April 1933. After the “Marxists”, the Jews were now also thrown out of the sports clubs and forbidden to use sports and leisure facilities. By enforcing these measures, the Nazi regime risked the loss of the Olympic Games for 1936, which the IOC had awarded in 1931 to the Berlin of the Weimar Republic. The IOC would have been justified in taking the Olympic Games away from Berlin if they considered there had been a breach of the Olympic Charter. On June 5th 1933 Berlin Organising Committee President, Theodor Lewald, made a declaration at the IOC session in Vienna. He said “all Olympic rules will be observed; an exclusion on principle of German Jews from the German teams at the Olympic Games of 1936 will not ensue”.1 His words were spoken with the backing of his government and were intended to mollify the IOC mem­ bership. Despite this speech, threats of a boycott continued to grow. So much so that at the next IOC Session in Athens on May 18th 1934 , Karl Ritter Von Halt, the Athletics President and IOC member in Germany felt compelled to extend the agreed undertakings by promising “to include non-Aryan German sports competitors in the Olympic tk, team if their performances justified it and to give them Tricked out of Olympic participation because she was Jewish - the opportunity to prepare for competition”.2 Gretel Bergmann In effect in the ensuing period a number of talented Jewish athletes were selected and added to the Olympic squads. Among them was the high jumper Gretel Bergmann from Laupheim in Upper Swabia, who had been sent by her father to study at the London Polytechnic in 1933. As a member of Polytechnic Ladies Athletic Club she became WAAA champion (1.55m) on 30 June 1934 at Herne Hill, defeating the holder Mary Milne (1.524m).3 Soon after, in August 1934, she returned to Germany at the wish of the Reichsbund jüdischer Frontsoldaten(RjF) [Reich League of Jewish Soldiers who had served at the German high jump champion 1936: the 18 year old ‘Dora” Ratjen Front], a organisation of nationalist-conservative German from Bremen Jews, whose leaders initially imagined that they would be able exist within National Socialism. With the illusory feeling of newly won security, Jewish athletes were in October 1934 for the first time invited by the Reich sports authorities to take part in the Olympic training courses for athletics in Ettlingen (Black Forest) and in swimming in Leipzig. However, apart from the fencer Helene Mayer and the ice hockey player Rudi Ball, classified by the Nazis as “half-Jews” and who were living at that time in the USA and Italy respectively, none save Gretel Bergmann was of Olympic standard. After Bergmann had been registered on 8 February 1935 as an Olympic candidate, she was also invited to a further three Olympic courses. Although she was forbidden to compete in the German championships, as Jewish clubs were not allowed to belong to the Reichsbund für Leibesübungen [Reich League for Physical Exercise], she was permitted The 1936 Olympic medallists: Elfriede Kaun, Ibolya Csâk and Dorothy to compete in three Olympic tryout competitions, all of Odam (left to right)

J o u r n a l o f Olympic History 17(December 2009)Number 3 21 which she won: on 1 June 1935 in Ulm (1.55m), on 7 July respectively. Gretel Bergmann was no longer discussed. at the Württemberg Championships in Stuttgart (1.50m), The other German team members had been told she was and on 15 September in Munich (1.53m). In that year’s injured. At the same time Bergmann was in fact jumping German rankings she occupied fifth spot with 1.55m. at the Württemberg championships of the Reichsbund Meanwhile the National Convention of the Amateur jüdischer Frontsoldaten, at which despite being demoti­ Athletic Union was deciding on 8 December 1935 by vated she won with 1.55m.10 When at the end of the year a slender majority to send an American Olympic team. the magazine “Der Leichtathlet” published the list of the The delegates believed that under the influence of Avery “50 best Germans”, her name had been removed.11 Brundage that the participation of German Jews had been secured. Even so the US government knew from a report The “Ratjen Case” from its ambassador in Berlin William E. Dodd, relying Dora Ratjen, the daughter of a public house landlord, on informed sources whose names were not given, that was a member of VfB Komet Bremen who first came Gretel Bergmann would have no chance of selection. She to public attention when on 23 June 1934 at the Bremen was being tolerated only until such time as it was certain local championships she jumped 1.57m to defeat the that the USA would decide to go to the Games.4 A pre­ eight years older Selma Grieme, who that August was diction that was to turn out to be accurate. the winner at the 2nd Women’s World Games in London. To prolong the uncertainty she was invited to Karlsruhe In 1935 Ratjen improved to 1.57m, but at the German for yet another Olympic trial competition on the 7th June championships she could only manage a disappointing 1936, and this was won by the 17 year old Bremen athlete 6th place (1.45m). Dora Ratjen who equalled the German record (1.60m). On the basis of her performances Ratjen was also Second was Elfriede Kaun (1.59m). Third and fourth invited to join the Olympic training squads, where she were Gunda Friedrich and Gretel Bergmann, each clear­ was always allocated two-bedded rooms and told to ing 1.55m.5 share with Gretel Bergmann. Despite being competitors As only three athletes could be entered for the Games, they got on well. However Bergmann found her a little the Frauensportwart [official responsible for women’s “strange”, because she avoided the communal showers sport], Heinrich Voss, nominated the championships and instead - clad in bathing trunks - slipped away into in all 16 regions [Gaue] which were to be held on 28th a cubicle with a bath in it, giving as a reason youthful June 1936, and the German championships (11/12 July shyness.12 1936 in Berlin), as the last chances of qualifying for the However there was no hiding Ratjen’s deep voice, for Olympic team.6 On hearing this Bergmann competed in which she was “occasionally made fun of by [her] fel- Stuttgart, where she equalled the German record with low-athletes”, as was stated two years later in a police 1.60m and easily defended her title as Württemberg report13. champion.7 Three weeks before the Olympic Games At that time however no-one knew her secret. And Gretel Bergmann was ranked among the world top five why should they have? Ratjen’s performances were about women in the world, all of them heading the lists with the same as what other women were able to achieve. She 1.60m. started Olympic year with a win in the trial competition On the same day that the S.S.Manhattan left New in Karlsruhe (7 June 1936), equalling Elfriede Kaun’s York with the US team on board, the Reich sports leader­ German record (1.60m). She ensured her Olympic nomi­ ship in Berlin named the German Olympic team. When nation on ll July 1936 when she became German cham­ the names were published the following day, Gretel pion with 1,58m ahead of Kaun (1,54m). At the Olympic Bergmann’s was not among them - the women’s high Games, however, Ratjen, who had no international jump was the only event for which the maximum number experience at all up to then, did not justify the high hopes of three athletes had not been entered. One day later that had been placed in her. With a jump of 1.58m she Bergmann received a letter from the Reichssportbund missed out on a medal and ended up fourth. justifying her non-selection on the basis of “recent levels In photographs taken over the next two years it can be of performance”. recognised that masculine traits became more and more As a sort of consolation prize she was offered a free obvious in Ratj en ’s appearance. The face was more angular, ground-only ticket for the week of the Olympic athletics, the anus and legs more muscular. But there were as yet which she however declined.8 On 19 August - three days no doubts expressed about her gender. Kaun did notice after the conclusion of the Olympic Games - she went to that Ratjen occasionally shaved, though other members the American Consulate in Stuttgart to start the process of the national team also had a “lady’s beard”, and of of emigration to the USA.9 them it was presumed that they might be hermaphrodites The Olympic Games in Berlin proceeded with only two [“Zwitter”], a not uncommon phenomenon in women’s German female high jumpers: with 1.60m - Bergmann’s athletics at that period. That is why the Swiss military and best performance - Elfried Kaun won the bronze medal. swimming doctor Prof. Wilhelm Kroll, who had estab­ The same height secured the gold and silver medals for lished an Institute of Sports Medicine in Hamburg, cer­ the Hungarian Ibolya Csâk and the Briton Dorothy Odam tified that she possessed “seriously abnormal features”14

2 2 J o u r n a l o f Olympic History 17(December 2009)Number 3 The demand of the International Association of AG, of which one condition had been that she should Sports Doctors to check the gender of all female par­ switch to the firm’s own sports club. With the new sports- ticipants before the Olympic Games was turned down friendly employer as her patron, her training conditions by the International Amateur Athletics Association improved, as she showed at the very start of the season. (IAAF). Frauensportwart Heinrich Voss had exercised At the Bremen local championships on 12 June she beat his influence when that decision was being reached. Two the German record - overdue for revision - with an offi­ months before the Games he defended the participation of cially measured 1.627m.20 “boyish types” with the words: “I have very often taken Three weeks later, on 4 July 1937, at the Krefeld inter­ the opportunity to speak on this subject, to the effect that national meeting she equalled the world record of 1.65m, these boyish types did not emerge, but were simply there: held since the 1932 Olympic Games by the Americans just as they appear in life, so they get into sport in the Jean Shiley and Mildred Didrikson. In Odam (1.61m) and same way. And they got into sport especially because Kaun (1.60m) she had also beaten two of the three ath­ they have an advantage over the normal type of girl.”15 letes who had won Olympic medals the previous year in From the daily press coverage reports prepared during Berlin. The third, Olympic champion Ibolya Csâk, whom the Olympic Games by the Security Service of the SS she came up against on 29 August 1937 at the Munich (the SD) it is clear that abroad the problem of intersex- international meeting, was however still just too good for ual competitors was sharply condemned. Thus the Daily her. Both of them cleared 1.60m, but the Hungarian won Herald newspaper quoted British athletics officials who because she had taken fewer attempts. described it as unfair “to have the English girls compete Ratjen continued for a further year, so as to bathe against freaks. The implication is that men in women’s in the radiance of the world record, into sole pos­ clothing took part in the competitions.”16 The Sunday session of which she entered on 25 June 1938 when she Dispatch took the same line, referring to “bitter com­ cleared 1.66m at the Lower Saxony championships in plaints” about female runners “who - rightly or wrongly Göttingen. On ll September 1938 in Saarbrücken she - were said to look more like men than women. No names had reached 1.675m, whereupon the magazine “Der could be mentioned.”17 Leichtathlet”, looking ahead to the 1st Women’s European One can assume however that the criticism was not Championships in the Prater-Stadion in Vienna, wrote: “ directed at Dora Ratjen, as she did not compete until 9th She would have to have a really bad day if she were to August 1936, but rather at the medallists in the women’s allow herself to be beaten.”21 And in fact Dora Ratjen did 100 metres, among whom was the Dresden athlete Käthe not mess around. She took not only the title but cleared Krauss, who was placed third. How unrestrainedly this 1.70m as well, so that the media enthused about a “fan­ was treated in the media is shown by a news item issued tastic world record”.22 by the German press office [Deutsches Nachrichten- The reaction of her fellow-competitors on the other Büro] investigating the question of who had the deepest hand was more sceptical. Elfriede Kaun, who had not voice in the Friesenhaus (the residence of the female par­ qualified for the European Championships, recalled: “We ticipants). It was found to be that of the American 100m said at the time that the 1.70m would finish her.”23 Olympic champion Helen Stephens, who was said to Chance dictated that Ratjen’s journey home from have a “raw cowboy bass voice that sounded as if it came Vienna to Bremen on the 21 September 1938 took place from a deep ravine”. “On the first days, when this had during the “Czech Crisis”, when Hitler was about to not yet generally got around, there was always a bit of a bargain the next day in Bad Godesberg with the British panic in the Friesenhaus when Helen Stephens’s mascu­ premier Chamberlain about the handover of the Sudeten line voice echoed through the corridors, for every girl of territories, and the Nazis were on spy alert every­ course thought that some male visitor had crept into the where. Among the “Volksgenossen” [“companions of building, and that is strictly forbidden.”18 the people”] who were drilled to be vigilant were two The British athlete Dorothy Tyler (Odam) can’t Wehrmacht soldiers, who at Würzburg entered Ratjen’s however recall any such discussion. According to her, as railway compartment - they had noticed her because of a mere 16 year old she was mostly ignored by the older her unshaven appearance. They reported what they had participants and shielded by a chaperone. But when she seen to the guard, who for his part notified a detective competed on the 1st August 1937 in Brussels against when the train stopped in Magdeburg. As Ratjen was Ratjen - winning on countback with 1.60m - her team­ going for a stroll on the platform, she was spoken to by mates were overwhelmingly of the view that it was a a detective officer, who asked her if she was a man or man she had beaten. That this was the truth she only dis­ a woman. As proof of identity she proffered the iden­ covered after the Second World War, when she was offi­ tity card from the European Championships. When the cially informed that the 1.66m she had cleared on 29 May official expressed himself dissatisfied with this, and 1939 at the WAAA Championships in Brentwood had threatened an examination by a police doctor, Ratjen been retrospectively recognised as a world record.19 admitted to being male without offering any resistance. In 1937 Ratjen had been given a job as a packer in At 12.15 she was arrested and taken away for an examin­ Europe’s biggest tobacco factory, Martin Brinkmann ation by Magdeburg’s chief police doctor, who confirmed

J o u r n a l o f Olympic History 17(December 2009)Number 3 2 3 the findings in a medical attestation: “secondary sexual characteristics unquestionably male. This person is indis­ putably to be regarded as a man.”24 One day after the arrest of Dora Ratjen, who was bom on 20 November 1918 in the ‘Kolonie’ [settlement] of Erichshof bei Weyhe, [near Bremen], father Ratjen, who had been brought from Bremen, stated to the police: “At my wife’s lying-in I was not at her bedside but was at that moment in the kitchen. After the child had been bom, the midwife shouted to me: ‘Heini, it’s a boy! ’ But after five minutes she spoke to me again: ‘No, it’s a girl!”’25 The Ratjens were simple people who had run a public house at 62 Buntentorsteinweg in Bremer-Neustadt since the mid-1930s.26 Although the couple already had three daughters, sexuality was a taboo subject. According to the father’s statement they had never any reason to doubt the gender of their child, with the result that “Dora” was brought up as a girl. To the police she explained: “So I wore girl’s clothes from my childhood onwards. Starting in my eleventh or twelfth year I was already beginning to be aware that I was not a girl, but a man. But I never asked my parents why, if I was a man, I had to wear women’s clothes.”27 It was above all the feeling of embarrassment that pre­ vented Ratjen, who had to shave every other day from her 18th year on to preserve her secret, from revealing the tmth. She consoled herself by saying that she “was a her­ maphrodite and had to accept that fate”.28 Although she had been celebrated and made much of for five years, she nonetheless experienced her unma­ sking as liberation: “Ratjen admits defiantly to being A man in women’s clothes: police photo of Dora Ratjen after her arrest happy that now ‘everything is out in the open’. He has been expecting this moment for quite a long time, for he was quite clear in his own mind that one day taking part in sport as a woman would no longer be possible.”29 Although Ratjen was long since unmasked, the Vienna result was celebrated in “Der Leichtathlet” as proof of the world-wide domination of German women’s athletics.30 In the edition that appeared five days after the arrest and included articles reviewing the European Championships there was also a photo showing Ritter von Halt congratu­ lating Ratjen. 31 Meanwhile the Reich sports authorities, who needed to produce an explanation, had ordered liehe Untersuchungen-»Is Ann fc s ty e s te llt - .

Bo zu/*: ohne. Ratjen to go to the Hohenlychen sports sanatorium to undergo an examination, which however produced the Auf der :Mekrei30 von den I.Leicht•thletik- same result. 'oisterschafton Jar Frauen in ien 193b iat die

Inhaberin des Itrekor.is im Acfasprunq, die am Thus there was nothing left for the authorities other

20.November 1918 -borene Dora I. a t J e n aus than to reveal the facts of the matter, which appeared in i . ..an, z .ei itr .isen :3 . ‘.arc . unm.-siortes as- the next edition of “Der Leichtathlet” under the heading » sehen auf^efnilen. ihr .obac..tar. on nnben diese “Dora Ratjen without Titles or Records. No Longer beiden itr isenion dem -cßfUhrer rail,geteilt, dar

beim /.ufe.-.thnlt des 'u es in * a •/ 1 b a r g Eligible for Women’s Competitions.” The article went on einen Kriminal!paraten verständigte. Fe- Kriminal­ to state: “As a result of a medical examination it has been beamten, der im Übrigen denselben hin..ruck o,;ann established that Dora Ratjen can not be admitted to female und anneh.e.i mußte, eine männliche >rson in raue ; - competitions. Germany has requested the international kL idunsj vor sich zu naben, ich Ü e beobach­

tete .arson nit einem *uaveis der I.heicntathletik- athletics federation, via the Fachamt Leichtathletik in the DRL [bodies responsible for German sports], to erase Heydrich Report: “Dora Ratjen - established as a man by medical examination” the world record from the lists and remove the title of

2 4 J o u r n a l o f Olympic History 17(December 2009)Number 3 European champion. The Reichssportführer has put into European Championships published a letter entitled force regulations which will make repetition of such a “Brief der Führerin unserer Kernmannschaft” [approx: case in Germany impossible once and for all.”32 Letter from the Leader of our Valiant Team], signing off The readers did not however find out from this that Ratjen with “Heil Hitler!”, such an “educative measure” was was a man. They also looked in vain for the “specially quite normal. For: “Where wood is being planed, wood- commissioned general article” which “Der Leichtathlet” shavings fly around. We hope, where wood-shavings had had announced for the next edition., in which under the to fly around during the year, that only the pure heart of title “Competitive Sport for Women: For - or Against?” the wood has been left.” She also wrote: “We well know there was only a contribution by the Reich trainer for that only an upright attitude will give us the strength to women’s high jump, Woldemar Gerschler (today mainly ward off everything that threatens us here and there, or known as the coach to the 800m world record-holder might threaten us. In this regard we are not thinking of Rudolf Harbig). While not devoting a single syllable to Dora Ratjen. Our sympathy for a fate so hard to bear takes the “Ratjen Case”, he outdid himself in outpourings of priority in this case over criticism and condemnation; for devotion to Hitler and National Socialism.33 we all know her as a blameless human being.”36 On 12 October 1938 the Reich Propaganda Ministry Ratjen’s “fate so hard to bear” took a new direction issued the instruction that “nothing further [was to be] be on ll January 1939. By a decision of the local court in published about Dora Ratjen”.34 The next day the chief Verden the 20 year old was declared to be male.37 On 10 of the security service [Sicherheitsdienst], Reinhard March 1939 the case against him “for fraud” was dropped, Heydrich, reported to the chief of the Reich Chancellery as “the factual findings” - the “intention to acquire finan­ [Reichskanzlei], Hans-Heinrich Lammers: “It is attribu­ cial advantage” did not stand up, it never having been table to the decisive and purposeful collaboration of the indicated to Ratjen that he was a man: “his occupation criminal police and the Reich sports authority that the and the circles he moved in were always female”. On 29 Ratjen case has not led to undesirable discussions in the March 1939 his father, who until then had proudly dec­ public sphere or even to conflicts in international sport.” orated the Gaststätte [public house] with “Dora’s” certifi­ The extant documents do not however indicate con­ cates, prizes and medals, and now feared nothing more clusively that the Nazis were informed about Ratjen’s than huge exposure to public ridicule [in his words “eine real sexual identity or that they tried to use the athlete as große Blamage”], made the request to the Bremen chief a “secret weapon” to win a certain gold medal in 1936. of police “to change the child’s first name to Heinrich.”38 The possibility can however not be excluded that the The son was to have his father’s name. case after Ratjen’s exposure remained a sore point, so And so bureaucracy took its course: Heinrich Ratjen that there was probably a marked reluctance to bring it junior, who called himself Heinz, received a worker’s into the public domain. Nonetheless there are many indi­ passbook, a disability entitlement card - for whatever cations that those responsible were aware that Ratjen rep­ reason - and a membership card for the German Labour resented a “borderline case” at the very least. Front [DAF - sole labour organisation in the ‘Third There were other people, however, who did know more. Reich’]. With new papers, he was sent by the employ­ The 18 year old Gunda Friedrich, who previously had ment office to Hannover to keep him out of the firing learned hardly anything about the anatomical differences line. between men and women at the humanistic Gymnasium About his life thereafter little has come to light. It is [secondary school] she attended, was overtaken by a known that he was at least called up for the paramili­ queasy feeling when she had to share a room with Ratjen tary Reichsarbeitssdienst [Reich Labour Service].39 in the Munich “Blauer Bock” hotel. “It felt weird”, she After the Second World War he worked in his parents’ recalled: “ ‘Dora’ shaved, and you could see chest hair public house, which from 1950 was listed as being at sprouting from her pyjama jacket.”35 Apart from that, 32 Buntentorsteinweg.40 After his father’s death in 1963 Ratjen, who shortly before this - on 7 September 1938 - Ratjen took over the business and was the landlord until had equalled her own world record in Bad Nauheim with 1973. 1.66m, was also a cigar smoker, the cigars being a free allowance she got from Brinkmann AG. Suppressed and Forgotten The next day Friedrich confided in her fellow Bavarian, Although there were a lot of people who knew the back­ the 1936 Olympic discus champion Gisela Mauermayer, ground, neither case was widely known until very recently. who in her turn spoke to Käthe Krauss, who had been That is regrettable to the extent that most contemporary in charge of women’s sport since 1937. Krauss ordered witnesses have died without their ever having been asked Gunda Friedrich to keep quiet and sent her straight home about these matters. Since most of the material in the files for “rumour-mongering”. This meant that she was off of the Reich sports authority was lost due to the effects of the European Championship team, even though she had the war, many of the events that took place are also very been runner-up to Ratjen (1.60m) in late July 1938 in poorly documented. Breslau with a jump of 1.58m and was number two in A veil of forgetfulness and suppression lay especially the European ranking lists. For Krauss, who after the over the “Ratjen Case”, and it was only tom away

J o u r n a l o f Olympic History 17(December 2009)Number 3 2 5 because of the film “Berlin ’36” - and then in a drama­ live as a woman for only three years, as TIME maga­ tised version, to which Gretel Bergmann, who today is zine asserted. If there had been an interview, it would called Lambert and lives in New York, unwittingly con­ have been found at some point - but there is not a single tributed, when in autumn 1966 she picked up a copy of reliable piece of evidence that there ever was one. TIME magazine in a dentist’s waiting room. The other To be sure, Ratjen did not live in hiding after his patients who were waiting must have been very surprised “becoming a man” - for a pub landlord that would hardly when, during her reading of the article about the ath­ be conceivable anyway - but he avoided any public intru­ letics European Championships which had just finished sion into his private sphere, as I can testify from my own in Budapest, and at which for the first time all women experience. Twice - in 1992 and 2003 - 1 wrote letters to competitors had had to submit themselves to a feminin­ him, to ask him to help in a book project or to take part in ity test, she suddenly burst out laughing. To her astonish­ an interview for the documentary film “Hitler’s Pawn”. ment she read: “Then there was Dora Ratjen, the dark­ On both occasions he did not reply. Attempts to reach haired German lass who set a new ladies’ mark for the him by telephone were also unsuccessful. It was not high jump in 1938 ... Nineteen years later, Dora turned Ratjen who picked up the phone but his female partner, up as Hermann, a waiter in Bremen, who tearfully con­ who shielded him until his death. fessed that he had been forced by the Nazis to pose as a Hartmut Bosinski, the Kiel expert in sexual medicine, woman ‘for the sake of the honor and glory of Germany’. who turned to the subject in the late 1990s, had similar Sighed Hermann: ‘For three years I lived the life of a girl. experiences when he tried in vain to have a conversation It was most dull.”41 with Ratjen.46 For today’s head of the Sexual Medicine Soon afterwards LIFE published a similar article Section of the university clinic of Schleswig-Holstein, in which Ratjen was said to have apologised after the the case - which in his publications to date he has treated Second World War for “having been an out-and-out fake only as an anonymous one for reasons of personal data - forced to compete by the Hitler Youth Movement to protection - is of fundamental importance especially win medals for the Third Reich”.42 “because it is the first documented report about the From then on Gretel Lambert-Bergmann was finally upbringing of an obviously hormonally and genetically convinced that it had been a conscious decision by the healthy boy ..., who was brought up and treated as a girl Nazis always to put Ratjen in her room. “As a Jew”, she by the social world in which he lived, consistently up wrote in her memoirs, “I would not have been able to to his 18th year , and yet felt himself to be a boy/man make the truth known even if I had found it out.”43 (or at least that is what the documents say). The impli­ After 43 years it is it is rather difficult to say what cations must surely be obvious: the role of upbringing in sources the authors of the two articles used. However, since the establishment of sexual identity is today much over­ their publication roughly coincided with the Budapest estimated to say the least.” 47 European Championships, where the West began a jour­ nalistic campaign to put in question the successes of the High Jump as Fountain of Youth female athletes of the Eastern bloc, their source probably Among those who were completely surprised by the lay there.44 Curiously, however, the “Ratjen Case” was unmasking of Dora Ratjen was - according to her not taken up at all in the German media. In the “Cold son Attila Kâdâr - the Hungarian Ibolya Csâk , who War” in the stadia, which had flared up in women’s sport had come second in Vienna in 1938. ISOH member ever since the 1952 Olympic Games, there was no place Tamâs Karakai, who interviewed Kâdâr, learned that to remember Dora Ratjen, especially as the episode was his mother’s European Championship gold medal had anything but a glorious page in the history of German been handed over to her by the Hungarian National sport. In addition there was currently great excitement Olympic Committee. Probably at the same time as “Der about the German’s “miracle girls” [Fräuleinwunder]. Leichtathlet” had put the Hungarian on the front page of Whatever: TIME and LIFE were henceforward the its first December edition with the picture title “European main witnesses for the thesis that Ratjen was “forced Champion Csâk Hungary”, which was probably an into this travesty” by the Nazis “to improve Germany’s attempt at redress.48 chances for the Olympic Games.”45 The writer of the The gold medal is still in her son’s possession, but screenplay and the director of the film “Berlin ’36” also the winner’s certificate was burned along with other took these assertions as a reason to dramatically inten­ sports trophies when her Budapest home was hit by a sify the plot of the film, although they were advised bomb during World War II. Before the siege of the city by several people that the story was not supported by she herself had fled to the area round Sopron [in western documentation. Hungary] with her children - the daughter born in 1940 With a probability bordering on certainty it can also and the son who was two years younger. be ruled out that Ratjen ever gave an interview - includ­ But even her son cannot say why Csâk com­ ing in 1957, as Wikipedia (and numerous other pub­ peted in Berlin in 1936 and in Budapest in 1938 lications which relied on the first-named) stated; nor was under her maiden name. One year before the Olympic Ratjen called Hermann or Horst; and certainly he did not Games she (aged 20 at the time) had wed Lajos

2 6 J o u r n a l o f Olympic History 17(December 2009)Number 3 IISOH j

INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF

Kâdâr , to whom she remained married for 61 years. 14 Wilhelm KNOLL, “Sportkanonen und Cracks”, in: Deutsche Not just in that was she a model of reliability and Medizinische Wochenschrift, Sportmedizin und Olympische Spiele 1936, Special edition, Georg Thieme, Leipzig 1936, P. 56. consistency. She did not lose a single competition, and 15 Heinrich VOSS, “Frauen und Mädchen bei den Olympischen improved the Hungarian record half a dozen times from Spielen? Ja!”, in: Reichssportblatt, Nr. 24, 10.6.1936, P. 782f. 1.55m (1935) to 1.64m (1938). She qualified for the 16 Barch R 58/2321, SD Presseübersicht, 8.8.1936 Olympic Games in the half-time interval of a football 17 Ibid. 10.8.1936. match, when she twice set a national record with 1.57m 18 DNB-Dienst, Nr. 792, 14.8.1936, P. 5. and then 1.59m. For 34 years she worked as a telephonist at the Hungarian banknote printing company, and after 19 Communication from Dorothy J. Tyler (Odam) to the author, 3.10.2009. that another 22 years as assistant to the firm’s doctor. For 20 Der Leichtathlet, Nr. 24, 15.6.1937, P. ll. 70 years she was a member of her club NTE (Nemzeti 21 Ibid.,Nr. 37, 12.9.1938, P. ll. Torna Egylet). Incidentally she was not Jewish, as fre­ 22 Ibid., Nr. 38, 19.9.1938, Title page. quently asserted.49 Ibolya Kâdâmé-Csâk died in 2006 aged 91. Elfriede 23 In an interview with the author for the HBO documentary film “Hitler’s Pawn”, 23.9.2003. Rahn-Kaun, who died in 2008, was over 93 years old. In 24 Police file “Dora” Ratjen, Sektion für Sexualmedizin, the coming year both Dorothy Tyler (Odam) and Gunda Universitätsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel. Kämpf (Friedrich) are looking towards their 90st birth­ 25 Ibid. days, while Margaret Lambert, née Bergmann, will hope­ 26 In the 1938 Bremen address book Frau Elise Ratjen is listed as fully celebrate her 96th birthday on 12 April 2010. The lessee of a “Schankwirtschaft” (pub). high jump seems to be a good means of prolonging one’s 27 Police file. life. 28 Heydrich-Bericht. Not to forget Heinz Ratjen alias “Dora”. He died on 22 29 Police file. April 2008, also at the age of nearly 90, without having 30 Der Leichtathlet, Nr. 39., 26.9.1938, P. 3. broken his silence. He probably took a lot of secrets with 31 Ibid., P. 19. him to the grave. ■ 32 Ibid., Nr. 40, 3.10.1938, P. 10. 33 Ibid., Nr. 41, 10.10.1938, P. 2f. Notes and References 34 Barch ZSg 102/12/298/(1), Press notice of 12.10.1938.

1 Official organ of the International Olympic Committee, Nr 24, 35 Interview by the author with Gunda Kämpf (Friedrich), Lausanne 1933, P. 41. 28.10.2009. 2 Handwritten draft, “Explanation Jewish Question”, in: Gustav 36 Der Leichtathlet, Nr. 41, 10.10.1938, P. 2. MARKTANNER, Deutsche Sportführer, Dr. Karl Ritter von Halt, 37 Information from Staatsarchiv Bremen, 10.6.2008. Sport-Verlag, Stuttgart 1954, P. 7. 38 Police file. 3 Times, 2.7.1934 39 Interview with the former Bremen policeman Ewald Petersen 4 National Archives, Washington D.C., Olympic Games/49, report (husband of 1952 Olympic sprinter Marga Petersen), 20.10.1992. of 11.10.1935 40 Bremen address book 1950. 5 D er Leichtathlet, Nr. 23, 7.6.1936, P. 12. 41 “Track & Field: Preserving la Difference”, in: TIME, 16.9.1966 6 Ibid,, Nr. 24, 16.6.1936, P. 5. 42 “Are Girl Athletes Really Girls?”, in: LIFE, 7.10.1966, P. 63ff. 7 Ibid., Nr. 26, 30.6.1936, P. 23f. 43 BERGMANN, P. 109 8 Archiv Bergmann, letter to the Fachamt Leichtathletik, 44 According to information from Gustav Schwenk, the doyen of 16.7.1936. German sports journalism, among the accredited journalists 9 National Archives, Olympic Games/122, Ambassador’s report was the sports editor of the Rheinische Post, Max Weber, who 19.8.1936. According to information from Amd Krüger, who was was married to the English language translator of Heinrich Voss able to inspect the file, her best performance was given as 1.64m, (Frauensportwart from 1933-1936). but she noticed that in this competition she had been cheated of 45 Wikipedia until the updating of the article about Ratjen after the two centimetres. Also there was a report on her Jewish trainer, who publication in “Der Spiegel”, Nr. 38, 14.9.2009, P. 150ff. had been arrested. 46 Hartmut BOSINSKI, “Determinanten der Geschlechtsidentität. 10 Nr. 31, 31.7.1936, P. 5. D ie Kraß., Neue Befunde zu einem alten Streit”, in: Sexuologie 7 (2/3), P. 11 Der Leichtathlet, Nr. 58, 29.12.1936, P. 11. 96 ff. 12 Gretel BERGMANN, Ich war die große jüdische Hoffnung [I was 47 Prof. Dr. Hartmut Bosinski to the author, 18.9.2009. the Great Jewish Hope]. Erinnerungen einer außergewöhnlichen 48 Der Leichtathlet, Nr. 49, 5.12.1938. Sportlerin, G. Braun, Karlsruhe 2003, P. 108. 49 All the information about Csâk comes from ISOH member Tamâs 13 Barch R 43 II 728, Report by Sipo-Chef Heydrich to Lammers, Karakai. 13.10.1938 (referred to subsequently as Heydrich-Bericht).

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