Christian BUSCH

Christian Busch was the first Olympian from his hometown of Wuppertal, and later became one of the most powerful sports administrators in Germany. In 1906 he could not travel to Athens because of a hand injury. He was a gymnast and excelled in several disciplines.

In 1913 he became a sports teacher, later becoming Head of Sports in the Deutscher Sportbund für Athletik (at that time the National Track and Field Association) from 1914-16 and again from 1933-36, serving as Vice President from 1932-33 and 1934-36. In these functions he rendered futile advocacy against the deportation of his former teammates Alfred and Gustav Flatow to the concentration camp Theresienstadt, where they both died of starvation. He also was Director of the Department of Physical Exercises of Cologne, and in 1934 was national coach for track & field. He also served as a member of the Deutscher Olympischer Ausschuß (former NOC of GER), as a 1935 Olympic Inspector, as the 1936 Chef de Mission at the Berlin Olympics, 1946 coach of the British Rhine Army, and then as a member of the West German Track and Field Association. Although he was never been a member of the NSDAP he was able to keep his jobs in the Nazi era.

In 1959 he was awarded the Walter-Kolb-Plakette of the German Gymnast Federation, in 1937 he was given the Hanns-Braun Memorial Award from the German Track and Field Association. He also was named in 1950 to the DLV-Ehrenring (Honor Ring), and received the sports badge of Northrhine Westfalia in 1959. His son Hans (né 1907) became a high jumper and his daughter Margarethe (1911-97) also became a sports administrator of high influence in West Germany. In 1946 she co-founded the Landessportbund Northrhine Westfalia, later serving as Vice President. She was also co-founder of the German Sports Bund and Head of Women, serving from 1954-74 as a member of the Women’s Committee.