Gottfried von Cramm
Gottfried von Cramm (left) and George Lyttleton-Rogers of Ireland in 1932
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| Full name | Gottfried Alexander Maximilian Walter Kurt Freiherr von Cramm |
|---|---|
| Country (sports) |
 German Empire Nazi Germany West Germany
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| Born |
7 July 1909 Nettlingen, Germany |
| Died | 8 November 1976 (aged 67) Cairo, Egypt |
| Height | 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) |
| 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) |
Gottfried Alexander Maximilian Walter Kurt Freiherr von Cramm (English: Baron Gottfried von Cramm, German pronunciation: [ˈɡɔtˌfʀiːt fɔn ˈkʁam]; 7 July 1909 – 8 November 1976), was a German amateur tennis champion who won the French Open twice. He was ranked number 2 in the world in 1934 and 1936, and number 1 in the world in 1937. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1977, an organisation which considers that he is "most remembered for a gallant effort in defeat against Don Budge in the 1937 Interzone Final at Wimbledon".
Cramm represented Germany during the rise of the Nazi party to power in the 1930s. The Nazi regime attempted to exploit his appearance and skill as a symbol of Aryan supremacy, but he refused to identify with Nazism. He was persecuted as a homosexual by the German government and was jailed briefly in 1938.
Cramm figured briefly in the gossip columns as the sixth husband of Barbara Hutton, the Woolworth heiress.
The third of the seven sons of Burchard Baron (Freiherr) von Cramm, by his marriage to Jutta 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 Gottfried's eldest brother, Aschwin. A younger brother, Wilhelm-Ernst Freiherr von Cramm (1917–1996), was a German officer who was highly decorated during the Second World War, and who after the war was leader of the German Party, a conservative German political party.
In 1932, Cramm earned a place in the German Davis Cup team and won the first of four straight German national tennis 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 won just after Adolf Hitler had come to power. The handsome, blond Gottfried von Cramm fitted perfectly the Aryan race image of a Nazi ideology that put pressure on all German athletes to be superior. However, Cramm steadfastly refused to be a tool for Nazi propaganda. Germany effectively lost its 1935 Davis Cup Interzone Final against the US when Cramm refused to take a match point in the deciding game, by notifying the umpire that the ball had tipped his racket, and thus calling a point against himself, although no one had witnessed the error.
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