Hallo (english)

Cousins Alfred and Gustav Felix Flatow are among the first celebrated Olympic heroes in the history of German sports. In 1896 at the first Olympic games of the modern era, the German gymnastics squad faced no equal competition. The team dominated the parallel bars and the high bar with no competitors at all. In the individual competitions Alfred Flatow was proclaimed the winner after his outstanding performance on the parallel bars. The team was granted a particularly special honor when they were invited to dine with the Greek royal family. The Flatow cousins were, of course, included in the three-hour long celebratory feast, which consisted of a five-course meal at which all of the Greek princes were in attendance. Back in Germany, the story of the German gymnastics team’s success was kept silent. The nationalist association leaders disapproved of participation in international tournaments, including the Olympic games. 

By the turn of the century, Alfred Flatow was one of the most well known German gymnasts. At the young age of eight he joined the Danziger gymnastics club. When he was eighteen he came to Berlin and immediately became a member of the Berlin Gymnastics Federation. It was the strongest German gymnastics club at the time, and it was for the Berlin club that Alfred Flatow achieved his greatest success. Perhaps his most outstanding triumph was his victory in six events at the Hamburg Gymnastics Festival in 1898. After retiring from competition, Alfred Flatow took over as assistant supervisor of gymnastics and published several writings on gymnastic training methods. He was deeply aggrieved when, at the beginning of 1933, he was banned from his club after 46 years. Alfred Flatow remained living in Berlin despite rising backlash against Jewish citizens. At 71 years old he came under the machinery of the “Final Solution”. In 1942 he was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp where he was killed.