Käthe Krauss

Käthe Krauss
Krauß at the 1936 Olympics
Personal information
Born29 November 1906
Dresden, German Empire
Died9 January 1970 (aged 63)
Mannheim, West Germany
Height5 ft 9+1⁄4 in (176 cm)
Weight72 kg (159 lb)
Sport
SportAthletics
Event(s)
100 m, 200 m, 80 m hurdles, high jump, long jump, shot put, discus throw, javelin throw
ClubDresdner SC
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)100 m – 11.8 (1935)
200 m – 24.4 (1938)
80 mH – 12.2 (1936)
HJ – 1.51 m (1933)
LJ – 5.85 m (1937)
SP – 11.99 m (1933)
DT – 41.65 m (1935)
JT – 37.91 m (1931)[1][2]
Medal record
Women's athletics
Representing  Germany
Olympic Games
1936 Berlin 100 m
Women's World Games
1934 London 100 metres
1934 London 200 metres
1934 London 4×100 m
1934 London Discus throw
European Championships
1938 Vienna 4×100 m
1938 Vienna 100 m
1938 Vienna 200 m

Katharina "Käthe" Anna Krauß (sometimes spelled Krauss; 29 November 1906 – 9 January 1970) was a German track and field athlete, who won three gold medals at the 1934 Women's World Games in London and a bronze medal in the 100 metres at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, where she was also on the German 4 × 100 m relay team. She won several German championships in various events and 2 silver medals and a gold medal in the 4 × 100 m relay at the 1938 European Athletics Championships in Vienna.

Athletics career

Born in Dresden, Krauß was a member of Dresdner SC, where she was discovered and trained by the influential coach Woldemar Gerschler.[3] She won the national women's title in the 100 metres from 1934 through 1938,[4][5][6] in the 200 metres in 1932, 1934, and 1938 (in 1931 and 1933 she took second),[7][8] and in the long jump[9] and the pentathlon in 1937,[10] and was on the national champion Dresdner SC 4 × 100 metre relay teams in 1932 and 1936.[11][12]

At the 1934 Women's World Games in London, she won gold medals in the 100 metres (11.9 s), the 200 metres (24.9 s), and the 4 × 100 metre relay (48.6 s), and the bronze medal in discus (39.875 m).[13]

At the women's 1938 European Athletics Championships in Vienna, she won silver medals in the 100 metres (12.0 s) and 200 metres (24.4 s)[14] and a gold medal as part of the German 4 × 100 metre relay team (46.8 s).[15][16]

At the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, at that time holding the German women's record for the 100 metres,[17] Krauß won the bronze medal in that event with a time of 11.9 s.[18][19] She was one of three Olympic medalists that year from Dresdner SC, the others being Rudolf Harbig and Luise Krüger.[20] She was also on the German women's 4 × 100 m relay team that was in the lead but lost due to a dropped baton on the final leg;[21][22][23] in the heats the German team had been faster than the Americans, the eventual winners, and beaten the world record with a time of 46.4 s;[24][25] the American winning time in the final was half a second slower.[26][27][28] As national 100-metre champion, Krauß was the fastest runner on the German team,[29] but had run dead heats with Marie Dollinger.[30]

Postwar

After World War II, Krauß moved to Landau, where she coached[31] and was active in senior athletics; there she was also known as a pianist and the owner of a sporting goods shop. In 1952 she published a book on sprint running titled Der Kurzstreckenlauf.[1][32] The local athletics club awards a prize named for her.[33] She died in Mannheim on 9 January 1970.

Controversy

Along with the gold and silver medalists in the 1936 Olympic women's 100 metre event, Helen Stephens and Stanisława Walasiewicz, Krauß has been suspected of being intersex.[34][35]

References

  1. ^ a b Käthe Krauß. sports-reference.com
  2. ^ Käthe Krauss. trackfield.brinkster.net
  3. ^ Meyer-Venecia, Egon (2003). Hoffnung aber lässt nichts zu Schanden werden: V. Römerbrief des Paulus, Vers 4 ; der Lebensweg eines gewissen M-V (in German). BoD – Books on Demand. p. 25. ISBN 978-3-8330-0848-1.
  4. ^ Steinmetz, Fritz (1973). 75 Jahre Deutsche Leichtathlethik-Meisterschaften: (1898 - 1972); [ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Leichtathletik] (1. Aufl ed.). Berlin: Bartels & Wernitz. p. 191. ISBN 978-3-87039-956-6.
  5. ^ "Leichtathletik - Deutsche Meisterschaften (100m-Damen)". www.sport-komplett.de. Retrieved 19 October 2025.
  6. ^ Steinmetz, Fritz (1973). 75 Jahre Deutsche Leichtathletik-Meisterschaften (1898-1972) (in German). Bartels & Wernitz. p. 192. ISBN 978-3-87039-956-6.
  7. ^ Steinmetz, Fritz (1973). 75 Jahre Deutsche Leichtathletik-Meisterschaften (1898-1972) (in German). Bartels & Wernitz. p. 196. ISBN 978-3-87039-956-6.
  8. ^ "Leichtathletik - Deutsche Meisterschaften (200m - Damen)". www.sport-komplett.de. Retrieved 19 October 2025.
  9. ^ "Leichtathletik - Deutsche Meisterschaften (Weitsprung - Damen)". www.sport-komplett.de. Retrieved 19 October 2025.
  10. ^ "Leichtathletik - Deutsche Meisterschaften (Mehrkampf - Damen)". www.sport-komplett.de. Retrieved 19 October 2025.
  11. ^ "Leichtathletik - Deutsche Meisterschaften (Staffeln - Damen - Teil 1)". www.sport-komplett.de. Retrieved 19 October 2025.
  12. ^ Steinmetz, Fritz (1973). 75 Jahre Deutsche Leichtathletik-Meisterschaften (1898-1972) (in German). Bartels & Wernitz. p. 261. ISBN 978-3-87039-956-6.
  13. ^ "Women's World and European Games". www.gbrathletics.com. Retrieved 19 October 2025.
  14. ^ "Leichtathletik-EM (Damen) - Teil 1". www.sport-komplett.de. Retrieved 19 October 2025.
  15. ^ "Leichtathletik-EM (Damen) - Teil 3". www.sport-komplett.de. Retrieved 19 October 2025.
  16. ^ "European Championships (Women)". www.gbrathletics.com. Retrieved 19 October 2025.
  17. ^ Angelis, Gudrun (2008). Frauen bei Olympia: Kunst - Sport - Wissenschaft ; Olympische und Paralympische Spiele 1896 - 2008 ; eine Ausstellung im Frauenmuseum vom 17. August bis 9. November 2008 (in German). FrauenMuseum. p. 112. ISBN 978-3-940482-12-9.
  18. ^ Walters, Guy (15 December 2023). Berlin Games: How the Nazis Stole the Olympic Dream. Harper Collins. p. 211. ISBN 978-0-06-196995-9.
  19. ^ Steinmetz, Fritz (1994). Erfolge der deutschen Leichtathletik seit 1896: Weltmeisterschaften, Europameisterschaften, Olympische Spiele (in German). Agon Sportverlag. p. 117. ISBN 978-3-928562-38-6.
  20. ^ "Dresdner Sportclub 1898 e. V." www.dsc1898.de. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 19 October 2025.
  21. ^ Greenspan, Bud (1995). 100 Greatest Moments in Olympic History. General Publishing Group. p. 33. ISBN 978-1-881649-66-3.
  22. ^ Rürup, Reinhard (1996). 1936, Die Olympischen Spiele und Der Nationalsozialismus: Eine Dokumentation (in German). Argon. p. 144. ISBN 978-3-87024-351-7.
  23. ^ Jochens, Birgit; Miltenberger, Sonja (1999). Zwischen Rebellion und Reform: Frauen in Berliner Westen (in German). Jaron Verlag. p. 220. ISBN 978-3-89773-003-8.
  24. ^ Walters, pp. 268–69
  25. ^ Report: Games of the Olympiad, New York: United States Olympic Committee, 1936, OCLC 17760969, p. 159.
  26. ^ Hart-Davis, Duff (1986). Hitler's Games: The 1936 Olympics. Harper & Row. p. 200. ISBN 978-0-06-015554-4.
  27. ^ Tricard, Louise Mead (1 January 1996). American Women's Track and Field: A History, 1895 Through 1980. McFarland. p. 227. ISBN 978-0-7864-0219-9.
  28. ^ Walters states in error, p. 269, that the American time in the final, 46.9 s, was faster.
  29. ^ Walters, Guy (15 December 2023). Berlin Games: How the Nazis Stole the Olympic Dream. Harper Collins. p. 270. ISBN 978-0-06-196995-9.
  30. ^ "Frauleins Will Bolster Nazi Team", Lawrence Journal-World, 17 June 1936, p. 6.
  31. ^ August Schimpf, Vereinschronik Archived 15 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine, Leichtathletik-Club Oberhaardt 1954, Edenkoben (in German), retrieved 17 July 2012.
  32. ^ Eberhard Vollmer, "Neuauflage der 'ewigen' Senioren-Bestenliste", Leichtathletik.de, 30 November 2010 (in German)
  33. ^ jwe, Leichtathletik: Oleg Zernickel neuer Käthe-Krauß-Preisträger, Leichtathletik, Turnverein 1981 e.V., ASV Landau, (in German), retrieved 17 July 2012.
  34. ^ Walters, p. 211, comments on Marie Dollinger telling Elfriede Kaun in 1968, "You know, I was the only woman in that race!": "[I]t is easy to see in photographs why Dollinger should have suspected Krauss of being a man."; photo caption between pages 272 and 273: "The gender of all three women would be subject to many doubts."
  35. ^ Krüger, Michael (2001). Olympische Spiele: Bilanz und Perspektiven im 21. Jahrhundert (in German). LIT Verlag Münster. p. 132. ISBN 978-3-8258-5615-1.
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