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HITLER'S GREATEST WEIGHTLIFTER You may be thinking, "Who Cares." Hang in there and you won't be sorry. It's a story for the ages. The Spring 2024 issue of IRON GAME HISTORY devotes 12 pages to the life of Josef Manger, Germany's greatest weightlifter.
IGH leads off with this photo of Manger in the official uniform of the German team at the 1936 Olympic Games. I'll hit the high points and then let you contact Dr. Jan Todd for a copy of the IRON GAME HISTORY which includes historian John Fair's comprehensive piece on the The Beleaguered Life of Hitler's Greatest Weightlifter. (You may decide to subscribe.) * * * It was a wonderful time for German weightlifting. They were the best in the world--and Josef Manger was the leader of the pack. "At the present time the German Empire team has been in a class by itself," Bob Hoffman, founder of Strength & Health magazine, wrote. (His magazine introduced me to Olympic Weight Lifting.) Our lifters dominated in the lighter classes, but Germany was unbeatable in the heavier classes. Manger stood out with world records in the press, at 315 and the three-lift total. "It was the passing of his rather crude press that put his total beyond the reach of other lifters present," Hoffman observed. Sour grapes aside, it was for Hoffman "the greatest lifting the world had ever seen and the roof nearly fell with cheers when the German Manger was crowned in front of the Führer after he had won the world's title with the greatest total ever made in weightlifting." At the 1937 world championship, Manger extended his total to 924 pounds, with lifts of 297, 275, and 352. He demonstrated his unmatched athleticism to reporter Gord Venables: "In spite of his bulk of 240 lbs. he could snatch and clean as fast as any featherweight." And in the press, he "didn't seem to extend himself." Hoffman, the American coach, regarded the Germans as "well nigh unbeatable."
This is another photo taken from IGH, showing the massive Manger jerking 363. * * * Manger's "beleaguered life" revolved around his refusal to become a fully official member of the Nazi party. John Fair relies heavily on an exchange of letters between Manger and 10 times A.A.U. National Champion John Terpak to confirm Manger's innocence of any deliberate collaboration with the former Nazi regime. * * * Terpak became general manager of York Barbell in 1939. He threw his lifting belt overboard on the way home from the Olympics, turning his focus from lifting to business. He eventually became CEO and chairman of the board at York Barbell. * * * My encounters with him as he worked his way up at York were all positive. He encouraged my training partner and I to come to York in time for Bob Hoffman's birthday celebration in the wooded area below his home. I remember drinking Hoffman's High Protein mixed with milk in a barrel. Bob Maher, my training partner, commented that we wouldn't have to buy dinner later that evening. Terpak also took us to the location of a historic Gettysburg battle. I have a photo of Bob and me which must've been taken by Terpak. He also introduced me to John Grimek at work on his typewriter, who shook hands with me over his shoulder without looking back. (He was very open and friendly later.) With this background, I was very interested in the exchange between Terpak and Manger. * * * The first letter from Manger to Terpak is dated February 1, 1946--after six years of "terrible war." Manger had been in "administrative services" and was never on the front. He had also married and had "a strapping son of five years" who affords him with much happiness. "God Willing" Manger hoped that he "will perhaps some day also be a weight-lifter." The American military occupying Starnberg, Germany, after the war ended in 1945, had dismissed him from an employment position on the ground that he belonged to the Nazi party. He had lodged a protest, explaining that he had never been a willing member of the Nazi party. In fact he had been stigmatized for refusal to give the Nazi salute. He had been forced to become a party member retroactively to January 5, 1937, but had "received no membership book, nor was he obligated to the party by oath." There's more background but you get the idea. He asks Terpak to write a "letter of confirmation to the effect that while living in foreign lands I have always borne myself as a true democratic sportsman and never a friend of Nazism...and send this confirmation to the military government..." Manger's letter goes on and on, but I include the key points that John Fair sets out in The Beleaguered Life of Hitler's Greatest Weightlifter. We'll move on to Terpak's response. He wrote the letter requested, adding "That nothing would please me more than to see you reinstated to civilian status." "Personally, I have always admired you and respect you for the person you were and as I knew you. To me, you were a true Sportsman...a fair and square competitor and a person who used his own better judgment to guide his destiny." Terpak goes on to tell about the status of weightlifting in the USA, adding that "he will be happy to retire immediately when the Games come to an end in London." * * * Clearly, Terpak held Manger in the highest regard as a man and lifter, and no friend of Hitler or the Nazi party.
According to Wikipedia, Manger won a European title in 1935, an Olympic gold medal in 1936, and two world titles in 1937 and 1938, setting 11 world records in the process. I believe we can safely say that Josef Manger was a world beater in lifting, and as Jan Todd notes in her introduction of Fair's article, John Terpak's effort to help resolve Manger's situation, was an "act of sport diplomacy," and shows that weightlifting can be used "to promote good will." June 1, 2024 Ripped Enterprises, P.O. Box 51236, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87181-1236 Home | Products Index | Ripped Bks | Lean Adv. Bks | Lean For Life | Recommended Bks | |Consultations | Tapes | To Order | Feedback] Copyright © 2024 Clarence and Carol Bass. All rights reserved.
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