1905 - Max Schmeling is born on 28 September in Klein-Luckow, Germany.
1906 - The family moves to Hamburg, where
Max's father works as a helmsman/navigator for the Hamburg-Amerika Linie
(shipping line).
1914 - Future boxer Joe Louis Barrow
is born in Lafayette, Alabama on May 13.
1922 - Schmeling moves to the Rhineland,
Germany's boxing center, to begin serious training as a boxer.
1924 - Schmeling is the surprise winner of
an amateur bout at Easter in Chemnitz. In August in his first professional
bout, Max defeats Kurt Czapp with a TKO in six rounds in Düsseldorf.
1927 - On June 19 Schmeling becomes the
European light-heavyweight champion by defeating Belgian Fernand Delarge.
1928 - On 4 April he wins the German
heavyweight champion.
1928 - Schmeling hires Joe Jacobs, an
American Jew of Hungarian extraction, as his new boxing manager. In 1928 and
1929 he wins several matches in the US.
1930 - On June 12 in New York Schmeling
takes the world heavyweight championship title by default when Jack Sharkey
hits him below the belt.
1933 - In July Max marries the
Czech-Austrian film actress Anny Ondra (Anna Sophie Ondráková), who
had appeared in Czech films and in Alfred Hitchcock's BLACKMAIL (1929). They
had met while Max was making the film LIEBE IM RING (1930).
1936 - On June 19 Max Schmeling and Joe
Louis have their first match. Schmeling gets a surprise knockout victory in
the 12th round.
1938 - The Louis-Schmeling rematch takes
place on June 22. Louis knocks out Schmeling after a mere 124 seconds.
Schmeling is hospitalized.
1938 - During the anti-Jewish
Kristallnacht violence of 9 November, Schmeling hides two Jewish
brothers, Henry and Werner Lewin, in his Berlin apartment and later helps
them go to the US.
1939 - Joe Jacobs dies of a heart attack.
World War II begins.
1940 - Schmeling joins the Wehrmacht
as a paratrooper. (He was not drafted as some sources claim.)
1942 - Joe Louis joins the segregated US
Army and reaches the rank of sergeant.
1945 - World War II ends; Schmeling and
Germany try to recover.
1948 - Max retires from boxing.
1952 - Schmeling begins his long association
with the Coca-Cola company in Germany.
1954 - Max visits the USA and his former
boxing opponent Joe Louis.
1957 - Schmeling is offered the opportunity
to become a partner in Coca-Cola Germany. It is the start of a successful
business career. Anny Ondra makes her last film (DIE ZÜRCHER VERLOBUNG) and
retires from the movie business.
1960 - Max and Joe Louis appear together on
the TV show "This Is Your Life."
1977 - Schmeling publishes his
autobiography, Erinnerungen ("Memoirs")
1981 - Joe Louis dies in Las Vegas.
Schmeling serves as a pallbearer at Louis' Arlington Cemetery burial.
1987 - Anny Ondra (b. 1903) dies in
Hollenstedt on 28 February.
1991 - The philanthropic Max-Schmeling-Stiftung
(foundation) is founded. Schmeling is the first German to be accepted into
the boxing Hall of Fame.
1996 - The Max-Schmeling-Halle opens in
Berlin.
2005 - Max Schmeling dies in his sleep aged
99 on Feb. 2. In a quiet ceremony he is buried next to his wife in
Hollenstedt, near Hamburg. He misses his goal of living to be 100 by just
eight months. |
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