Fritz Schilgen on his way to the Olympic Stadium Berlin 1936 (© Foto © Sportmuseum Berlin c/o www.berlin-marathon.com)
In the week leading up to the real,- Berlin Marathon' (Sunday 25), Germany’s capital city which witnessed the first ever Olympic Torch Relay is mourning the death of the man who made Olympic history on 1 August 1936. Gustav Schwenk pays respect to the memory of Fritz Schilgen…
He didn’t become 103-years-old like his mother. Nevertheless, Fritz Schilgen (born 8 September 1906) died at a great age as well: four days after his 99th birthday, in his birthplace Kronberg near Frankfurt (Main), and on Monday, 19 September, he was buried there. Leading German sport personalities will pay their last respects to Schilgen this week, as after all, the electrical engineer made Olympic history, although he never participated at the Olympic Games.
The former German athletics president Dr. Karl Ritter von Halt made the suggestion to choose the three-time German 1500m champion (1929, 1931, 1933) as the last runner to bring the torch into the stadium and ignite the Olympic fire in the Olympic Stadium of Berlin on 1 August 1936. Schilgen had been famous for his lovely running style but even so it took the combined acceptance of three advisory boards before this honour was finally conferred on him.
Over 3000 runners participated in this first Olympic torch relay, conceived by Carl Diem. The torch was ignited from the heat of the sun reflected on a mirror placed in a sacred grove in ancient Olympia.
Schilgen was given the honour of carrying the torch on the last stretch of the 3187km long relay which had passed through Greece (1108 runners), Bulgaria (238), Yugoslavia (575), Hungary (386), Austria (219), Czech Republic (282) and Germany (267). At exactly 4pm, as the planned schedule of the Berlin opening ceremony, he was cheered on by almost 100,000 spectators in the Olympic stadium…and as they say history made and an Olympic tradition was born.
