Finally, his career and life suffered from persecution by the Nazis.
The facts
The first German tennis star. symbolic aristocrat
Gottfried von Kramm, whose full name was actually Baron Gottfried Alexander Maximilian Walter Kurt von Kramm, was born in 1909 in Lower Saxony. He achieved his first notable results in tennis in 1932, winning the German Championships, but he soon made a name for himself outside of Germany, his style attracting as much attention as his athleticism.
A is described 1993 Sports Illustrated article: as “the greatest tennis figure ever known,” wrote Bud Collins History of tennis “If any player was ever the prince charming of tennis, it was Gottfried von Kramm, a baron of the German nobility, six feet tall with blond hair, green eyes and a magnetism that made him dominate any scene he was in.”
Von Kramm, who won the German title four times in a row (1932-1935), won his first major title at Roland Garros in 1934 (defeating John Crawford 6-4, 7-9, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 in the final). Although he was able to win a second title in Paris in 1936, he was not so lucky at Wimbledon, where he lost three consecutive finals. In 1935 and 1936 it was British legend Fred Perry who prevented him from lifting the trophy, each time in straight sets, and in 1937 he lost to Don Budge (6-3, 6-4, 6-2).
Von Cram achieved all these feats with unparalleled athleticism. In the 1935 Davis Cup final, a competition Germany had never won at the time, he partnered Kai Lund in a potentially decisive doubles rubber. On match point for the Germans, Von Kram and Lund both attempted to hit the ball down the middle of the court, but when Lund hit the winning volley, Von Kram told the umpire that she had hit the ball with her racket and that the point should go to the American team. Unfortunately, this gesture of sportsmanship cost him a tie as the United States ended up winning.
“When I chose tennis as a young man,” said the Baron to his exasperated captain, “I chose it because it was a gentleman’s game, and I have played it that way since I picked up my first racket.”
1937 Davis Cup match against Don Budge (Trouble Begins)
In the 1937 Davis Cup semi-finals, Gottfried von Cram played one of the greatest matches in tennis history against his archrival, Don Bagge, who had destroyed him a few weeks earlier in the Wimbledon final. The two men faced each other in the decisive fifth game, and shortly before the match began, Von Kramm is believed to have received a phone call from Adolf Hitler himself, telling him that losing was not an option. Queen Mary was in the All England Club Center Court stands that day, as was Nazi Ambassador Joachim von Ribbentrop.
Unfortunately, von Cram lost this match, which was described at the time as the greatest tennis match ever played. “I was playing tennis as well as ever,” Budge later wrote, “but the fewer mistakes I made, the fewer still he made.” The German took two sets to love and even took a 4-1 lead in the fifth set, but Budge outdid himself and eventually prevailed 6-8, 6-7, 6-4, 6-2, 8-6.
“Don, that was absolutely the best game I’ve ever played in my life,” von Cram told his opponent as they shook hands.
Persecution by the Nazis and war on the Eastern Front
After this loss, the Nazi authorities did not show the same sportsmanship as von Kram. The Baron was under intense scrutiny for years, as he was not only suspected of being gay, but also repeatedly refused to become a member of the Nazi party. Additionally, her alleged lover at the time was Jewish and was believed to have left Germany with von Kramm’s financial help. To the astonishment of the whole world, von Kram was arrested and sentenced to prison, where he remained for five months. His tennis rival Don Budge wrote to Hitler for his release, to no avail.
However, his problems did not end after he was released from prison. In 1939, after destroying a young player named Bobby Riggs in the final of the Queens Club Championship (6-0, 6-1), he was banned from Wimbledon because of a previous conviction, and he saw the same Riggs win the tournament.
World War II began soon after that incident, and von Kram enlisted in the German army. He even fought in the terrible Battle of Stalingrad, where his former tennis opponent Henner Henkel was killed, and when he returned, he was awarded the Iron Cross.
Post-war achievements
After the war, Gottfried von Kram rebuilt the Rot-Weiss club, his former club in Berlin, which had been destroyed in 1945. He also continued to play, again winning the German championship in 1948 and 1949, and in 1951 he started a successful business in the textile industry. That same year he returned to Wimbledon for the first time, but at the age of 42 he attracted more attention for his marriage to Barbara Hutton (then known as “the richest woman in the world”) than for his results (lost in the first round, in straight sets, by Yaroslav Drobny).
Von Cram spent a lot of time in Cairo, Egypt, where he was well acquainted with the upper class society. It was there on November 8, 1976 that the German tennis legend died in a car accident.