With the 70th anniversary of the official end of World War II this month, this week’s blog post delves into the turbulent life of Gottfried von Cramm, a 1930s tennis star who, after years of intimidation by the Nazi regime, fought for the German army during the war...

The Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum has an extensive collection of Known Players Tennis Rackets, including a circa 1936 hardwood ‘Spezialmodel’ made by Heinrich Hammer. This racket was used by mid-century German tennis star Baron Gottfried Alexander Maximilian Walter Kurt von Cramm, perhaps most famously known for losing the Gentlemen’s Singles title to Fred Perry in The Championships 1935 and 1936. He also suffered an agonising defeat against Don Budge in the 1937 Davis Cup, considered by many to be one of the greatest matches of all time, with von Cramm’s 4–1 lead in the final set being broken by a fierce comeback by Budge.

Despite not being particularly well remembered nowadays, von Cramm was one of the best players of the 1930s. Born in 1909 to a rich German aristocratic family, he chose to dedicate his life to tennis from a young age, drawn in by its appeal as a ‘gentleman’s game’. In 1932 he joined forces with Daniel Prenn, a talented Jewish player, forming a strong doubles team. However, with the rise of the Nazi party around the same time, the duo was short-lived as Prenn emigrated to England. Nevertheless, von Cramm went on to team up with Hilde Krahwinkel, winning the 1933 Mixed Doubles title at Wimbledon, along with the Men’s Singles at the French Open in 1934 and 1936.

Known for his gentlemanly conduct, von Cramm was extremely popular with tennis fans and players alike. Germany lost its 1935 Davis Cup Interzone Final against the US when he refused to take match point in the deciding game, notifying the umpire that the ball had tipped his racket, though no one had witnessed it. But whilst acts like this were admired by many, they won him no favours with the Nazis. Von Cramm’s athletic six foot frame and obvious sporting talent meant that the government spent years trying to exhibit him as an example of Germany’s natural sporting prowess. However, his initial refusal to join the Nazi Party in the early 1930s because of their treatment of Daniel Prenn, along with his Grand Slam and Davis Cup losses, angered Hitler. In 1938 the player was arrested for ‘homosexual acts’ with a young Jewish man, to which he pleaded guilty, leading to months of imprisonment. Under strong international pressure, the Nazis released him in 1939, after which he was drafted into the German army to serve on the Russian Front, earning the Iron Cross for bravery.

Von Cramm still played a small amount of professional tennis up until 1953, most notably in the Davis Cup, where he played for West Germany. In his later years he moved to Egypt to set up a cotton exporting company, tragically dying in a car crash in Cairo in 1976. Despite having his professional career hindered by the Nazis and World War II, von Cramm is certainly a player who deserves to be remembered, not only for his brilliant tennis skills, but his strong sense of justice and morality, both on and off court.