Robert Fein

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Robert Fein
In Austrian team uniform, 1936
Personal information
National team Austria
Born(1907-12-09)9 December 1907
Vienna, Austria
Died2 January 1975(1975-01-02) (aged 67)
Vienna, Austria
Home townVienna, Austria
Sport
CountryAustria
Sportweightlifting
Weight classlightweight
Achievements and titles
Regional finalsEuropean Weightlifting Championships:
Highest world ranking23 world records
Olympic medal record
Representing  Austria
Men's Weightlifting
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 1936 Berlin -67.5 kg
World Weightlifting Championships
Silver medal – second place 1937 Paris -67.5 kg

Robert Fein (9 December 1907 – 2 January 1975) was an Austrian Olympic Champion weightlifter, winning the gold medal in the lightweight class at the 1936 Summer Olympics. The following year, he won the silver medal at the 1937 World Weightlifting Championships, and set his 23rd world record that year. One year later, he was barred from competing in weightlifting, because he was Jewish, and he never competed again.

Biography[edit]

Fein was born in Vienna, Austria on 9 December 1907, and was Jewish.[1] He broke world weightlifting records 23 times in total, from 1931 to 1937, when his weightlifting career was abruptly ended by the Austrian authorities.[2][3]

At the 1929 European weightlifting championships in Vienna, Fein won the gold medal.[2] At the 1930 European weightlifting championships in Munich, he won a bronze medal.[2]

At the 1934 European weightlifting championships in Genoa Fein again won a gold medal, which he shared with 1932 Olympic champion René Duverger.[2] At the 1935 European weightlifting championships in Paris, he won a silver medal.[2]

1936 Olympic gold medal[edit]

In the event for which he was likely best known, Fein competed in weightlifting at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany.[4] He won the gold medal in the lightweight class with a world record lift of 342.5 kilograms (755 pounds), with splits of 105+100+137.5, sharing the win with Anwar Mesbah, with whom his match had ended in a tie. Sixteen weightlifters from twelve nations competed. Fein became one of only thirteen Jewish Olympians to medal in the games which were held during Adolph Hitler's Nazi government, and following the imposition of the anti-Semitic Nuremberg laws. The Nuremberg Laws, passed in the fall of 1935, stripped German Jews of citizenship, opportunities to receive a public education, and access to many professions and public facilities. Jewish businesses had been boycotted and Jews could not serve in the legal profession, the civil service, teach in secondary schools or universities or vote or hold public office.[5][6][2] [7][8]

Taking Silver in World Championship[edit]

The Weightlifting World Championships were restored with the 1937 World Weightlifting Championships in Paris, France, the first time they were held since 1923.[2] Fein won a silver medal behind Tony Terlazzo, lifting 355 kilograms (with splits of 107.5+107.5+140), 2.5 kilograms behind Terlazzo.[2][3][9]

In 1937, Fein set a world record of 360 kilograms, his last world record before the Austrians banned him from competing.[3]

In 1937 Fein was decorated with the Gold Medal for Service to the Republic of Austria.[10]

Barred from competition[edit]

With the Austrian Anschluß in 1938, Fein was barred from further competition because he was Jewish.[2][11] He was persecuted during the Austrian Nazi regime.[1]

Dr. George Eisen of Nazareth College included Fein on his list of Jewish Olympic Medalists, and an account of Fein's overcoming an early deficit to earn a tie for the gold medal with Egyptian weightlifter Mesbah is included in Jews and the Olympic Games: the clash between sport and politics: with a complete review of Jewish Olympic medallists.[12][13]

Fein died at 67 years of age in Vienna, Austria, after a long illness.[14]

See also[edit]

Notes and references[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Österreichisches Olympisches Comité - Österreichisches Olympiamuseum". www.olympia.at.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Robert Fein," olympics.com.
  3. ^ a b c "Robert Fein, Top Olympic Lifters of the 20th Century". chidlovski.net.
  4. ^ "Olympic History -- Weightlifting". UPI.
  5. ^ Stan Greenberg, Norris McWhirter (1991). Guinness Book of Olympic Records; Complete Roll of Olympic Medal Winners (1896-1988, Including 1906) for the Sports (7 Winter and 25 Summer) Contested in the 1992 Celebrations and Other Useful Information)
  6. ^ "Robert Fein - Olympic Facts and Results". www.olympiandatabase.com.
  7. ^ "The Nazi Olympics (Berlin 1936)—Jewish Athletes; Olympic Medalists". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  8. ^ "Anti-Jewish Legislation in Pre-War Germany". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 16 July 2022.
  9. ^ "World Championships from 1891 to Today". chidlovski.net.
  10. ^ "Robert Fein setzt mit einer Goldmedaille die österreichische Gewichthebertradition fort". Österreichs Athleten bei den Olympischen Spielen (in German). Austrian Olympic Committee. Retrieved 20 January 2009.
  11. ^ Routledge Handbook of Global Sport, 2020.
  12. ^ Eisen, George. "Jewish Olympic Medalists", International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. Accessed February 2, 2011.
  13. ^ Taylor, Paul. Jews and the Olympic Games: the clash between sport and politics : with a complete review of Jewish Olympic medallists, p. 95. Sussex Academic Press, 2004. ISBN 1-903900-87-5. Accessed February 3, 2011.
  14. ^ Olympic Review, Issues 89-96 (1975).

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