1928: Helene Mayer wins Olympic gold
The golden medal no longer shines quite as new as it once did. But it had been polished a little before it was shown to the Offenbache at Offenbach Town Hall at the end of 2010, for two months and well protected. Because its sentimental value far outweighs the value of the metal. It is the gold medal that the then seventeen-year-old fencer Helene Mayer brought home to Offenbach from the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam.
The medal and a foil with which the world champion fought are part of an exhibition set up to mark the centenary of Helene Mayer's birth. For weeks, Anjali Pujari has been working in the archives of the Haus der Stadtgeschichte to track down the exhibits with which she intends to fill ten display cases. She has sorted through documents relating to childhood and youth and the highs and lows of a short life as a sportsman. This spans from Offenbach to California.
You will get a glimpse into Helene's parents' house, see her practising ballet and training with master Arturo Gazzera. Photos from 1928 illustrate the triumphant reception that the Offenbach Fencing Club gave her at the main railway station. And you will see how Reich President von Hindenburg conveyed the German nation's congratulations to her. Among the celebrities with whom she was photographed were boxing champion Max Schmeling and film idol Marlene Dietrich.
Helene Mayer christens a boat belonging to the Undine rowing club. City archivist Pujari looks at the picture and decides: "This goes in display case 5". Other photos focus on the 1932 Los Angeles Games and then the 1936 Berlin Games: Jew-hater Adolf Hitler congratulates the "half-Jew" on her second place. One display case opens up a view of Helene Mayer's life in America. Another documents her return to Germany, her grave in Munich's Waldfriedhof cemetery and the letter of condolence from Offenbach's Lord Mayor Hans Klüber.
Ten display cases tell of pride and defiance, of ideals and delusions, of love, homesickness and shamelessness: A life like a large painting. Anjali Pujari wants to illustrate the inner turmoil of a young sportswoman in the era of racial madness: Helene Mayer allows herself to be used by the Nazis because she does not want to accept being ostracized from the German community she cares so much about because of her Jewish father. A few months later, she is forced to realize that the racial fanatics have merely misused her for a tactical manoeuvre.
Anjali Pujari's ten display cases are complemented by a traveling exhibition from the University of Potsdam entitled "Forgotten Records". From Offenbach, it will be passed on to St. Augustin near Bonn, albeit without the documents on the life of the Offenbach fencer.
LOTHAR R. BRAUN
Published in the OFFENBACH POST