Synopsis of Max

Max Schmeling wrote his autobiography in 1977. In it, he describes his upbringing in

then rustic Hamburg until around 1918. In itself, it is a tale of a precocious lad who stumbles through WW1 as best he can while observing his countrymen barely surviving.

He learns to box, views a near lynching of a neighborhood grocer caught selling rat meat

as beef, turns pro at a young age in Berlin and through his intelligence, athletic skills and

movie star looks, meets and becomes part of the literati in Berlin then emerging as a cultural center in Europe. But in his autobiography he skims over his wooing and bedding of some of the most beautiful actresses of his time including Marlene Dietrich. He doesn’t discuss his denouement in the back of her limo while traversing Alexanderplatz

in Berlin.

He became infatuated with auto racing as well as Harley Davidson motorcycles.

In Macon, Georgia at about this time, a fighter named Young Stribling was developing

in his own right. Strib, raised by an itinerant bible salesman and con artist on the carnival

circuit, was beating all Southern contenders in sight. As his skills developed it

became apparent the real money lay in his legitimate pursuit of the world’s heavyweight

title. Strib took on all comers except black fighters. He had become a reluctant Ku Klux

Klansman as he felt engaging with blacks might prove detrimental to his success not to

mention his health. He became a daredevil pilot and purchased a Harley Davidson

motorcycle.

In Berlin a young Adolph Hitler began to emerge as a contender on the world stage.

His success as a planner and charismatic orator began to pull Germany up from the

depths of the depression. The Nazis staged the 1936 Olympics as testament to Aryan

1 superiority. They sent Max to New York to allay the fears of Avery Brundage of the

American Olympic Committee as well as American Jewry that Jews would be mistreated

both as participants and spectators in 1936 Berlin. Max’s mission was successful,

America participated and Germany met unprecedented success both in garnering medals

and political capital. They insisted Max become a Nazi in order to present his handsome

visage as the poster boy of Aryan supremacy. But Max always managed to refuse their

honors including the official Dagger of Honor. He didn’t refuse dinners at the Reich

Chancellory and claimed later in life that he couldn’t remember verbatim the many

conversations he had with Hitler, Goebbels and Reichsportsfuhrer Tschammer. I

remember for him in my novelization of his biography.

While attending these receptions, Tschammer begins to feel neglected and even disdained by Max. He is a small, authoritative man; the antithesis of what Max represented. Max is confused by these feelings which eventually turn to raw hate on

Tschammer’s part.

While fighting and touring the states, Max meets Young Stribling. Because they have so much in common including striking good looks, they become fast friends. Max changes managers to Joe Jacobs, a quick witted little Jew. This begins his friendship with the many Jews he eventually meets in his life. Joe meets Strib and tries to convince him that it would be in his best interest to change managers from his father to Joe. Strib will have none of it. Later Strib loses a close decision to – managed by Joe

Jacobs - in Macon. The Klansmen in attendance rise in riot and almost destroy the stadium. The referee, in fear of his life, changes the decision. When safely out of town, he reverses himself again.

2 Finally Strib and Max are forced to fight each other. The day before the fight a leather-

helmeted and goggled Strib buzzes Max’s camp in his tri-motor, open cockpit airplane.

In a poignant moment he dips low enough so Max can see his salute.

The fight itself was fairly close until the later rounds. Max began to seriously hurt his

old friend and Joe Jacobs begged Strib’s father to throw in the towel. Max tried to hold

his punches but Strib kept coming on. Finally - tears streaming down his face - a

tormented Max refuses to punch Strib any longer. Strib stumbles forward finally falling

face down. The referee stop’s the fight as Max grabs his bloodied towel from his own

corner and throw’s it in the father’s face. “See Herr Stribling! This is what the towel is

for.”

Back in Berlin while riding his motorcycle, his sister on the back, Max ends up

crashing on the soft shoulder. He’s okay but his sister dies.

In Macon, Strib decides to visit his wife and newborn baby on his own Harley. He too crashes on the soft shoulder. After a foot amputation he dies and book one ends. The

reader might want to draw the conclusion that Strib was a perennial contender just short

of having the right stuff…and a little unlucky besides.

Max fights and becomes world heavyweight champ. Max becomes the

toast of Berlin and Hitler’s darling. He meets Anny Ondra, a beautiful film star and

Czech expatriate on board ship coming back from America to Berlin. They have an

interesting adventure on board but lose touch for a year or so after disembarking. He

marries her the following year. She owns a film production company and her partners are

all Jews. Soon after, their idyllic life in the artists’ enclave of Saarow-Pieskow is

3 shattered. Jewish neighbors are besieged and threatened as the Gestapo takes command of the neighborhood. Max intervenes and saves them but his own rustic chalet burns to the ground. Tschammer is suspected.

Max then loses his title on a close and disputed decision to Sharkey in a rematch.

Sharkey, through some nefarious machinations, refuses a second rematch after contractually promising one. Max must first go though the invincible Joe Louis. Louis is installed as a 10:1 favorite. Max spots a flaw in his boxing stance and in the upset of the twentieth century, knocks out the taciturn and immutable Louis. Goebbels touts this victory over the previously invincible African American as proof of Aryan superiority.

In Berlin, the winds of war are picking up. Goebbels portrays the reluctant Max as an

Aryan show horse. Max, via Marlene, is funneling money to Jewish émigrés. He actually houses Jewish kids in his hotel room and helps them escape to the West. He’s constantly balancing the Nazis’ determination to portray the most distinguished German athlete of his times and an Aryan prince, with his efforts to surreptitiously help the Jews. Max and

Anny refuse to emigrate and feel somehow Germany will find the right path.

Joe Louis solves the dilemma for Max. In a rematch he almost kills Max. He breaks two vertebrae and puts Max in the hospital for two weeks. In the first Louis-Schmeling fight, Joe had trained lackadaisically and caroused with prostitutes in Harlem.

Occasionally he would even booze himself into a stupor.

In the redux, Joe’s management team convinced Joe that he represented the African

American community in America and Max was portrayed as the evil Nazi prince. Joe worked himself up into raw fury. He trained assiduously as he had never wanted or needed to in the past. American Jewry took up his cause and Joe became proof positive

4 that Aryans could be defeated. The irony of American Jews demonizing Max - while

idolizing Joe Louis who never spent a dollar or lifted a finger to help them – vexes Max.

Back in Berlin Max becomes a pariah no longer welcome in the Reich Chancellory.

Joe Louis did continue to lead the straight and narrow for years after his defeat of Max but eventually his fascination for whores and booze broke him and cost him his life.

Germany unites with Austria, invades Poland and the war is on. Because of Max’s defeat, Tschammer goes after Max. He arranges for the conscription of Max, still suffering from his beating at the hands of Joe Louis, into the Wehrmacht. Max, after minimal training, is sent to the front lines in Crete. Meanwhile Joe Louis enlists in the army and tours USOs to entertain the troops.

Anny knows Max will die in combat if she doesn’t do something. She visits

Tschammer in his ministry and begs him to send Max back to Germany where he can

entertain the troops like Louis was doing in America. Tschammer smiles and let’s her

know Max has been wounded and is in the hospital. When told he would recover and be

sent back to the front, Anny now understands that Tschammer wants to humiliate Max.

She offers it up and he further humiliates her by ordering her into the three point position as he mounts her from the rear. Anny then visits Max as he recuperates in Crete.

Tschammer keeps his word as Max is returned to duty in Germany where he visits wounded troops in hospital.

Anny learns that Tschammer has contracted pneumonia and is hospitalized. Disguised, as a nurse, she visits him in hospital and gains her revenge.

Upon Tschammer’s death, Max is discharged from the Wehrmacht. They return to

Pomerania just as the rampaging Russians begin stampeding through Pomerania in their

5 drive to Berlin. With two young girls in tow they stay just ahead of the Soviets until a

chance encounter entraps them. After a harrowing confrontation with a Russian

commandant, Max and Anny drop the girls off in Berlin and seek refuge in an artists’

colony in Rostrow. They were lucky to escape with their lives as the Russians raped every female in their path from eight to 80.

Broke after the war, Max is brought up on trumped up charges by the British military and serves three months in prison. After his release he tries boxing again but age and injuries had taken their toll and his comeback was ineffectual. However, his business and promotional acumen as a fighter was made known to the executives at Coca Cola who were trying to establish Coke in Germany. Max got in on the ground floor and eventually rose to become CEO of Coke in Germany. He becomes a millionaire once again.

Because of business interests and his own love of America, Max made frequent jaunts

to the US. He establishes a friendship with his old foe, Joe Louis. Saddened to see Joe’s rapid decline into drugs and booze, Max made himself available with money whenever

Joe needed it. Joe Louis had proven to be a terrible businessman and every venture he had tried failed. When Joe died and his friends were either disinclined or too broke, Max paid for the funeral.

Max and Anny lived to happy and prosperous old ages. He died with the single regret of having been made a Nazi poster boy.

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