Fritz THIEDEMANN

Equestrian Fritz Thiedemann entered the SA-Reitersturm in 1936, and was then temporarily delegated to the Wehrmacht, before returning to the SA in 1942. In the last months of World War II, he was captured by the Americans on the Austro-Hungarian border, and interred at a Russian prison camp. He absolved his riding training at the Military Cavalry School in Hannover and later at the Army Riding School in Potsdam, both military riding schools.

In 1952 Thiedemann became the only rider in Olympic history to win a medal at the Olympics in both dressage on Chronist and show jumping on Meteor. At Stockholm in 1956, and Rome in 1960 he wore the German flag at the opening ceremony. At both Games he was part of the German team that won the gold medals in the team show jumping competition. He also won a silver medal at the 1953 World Championships with Chronist, and at the 1958 and 1959 European Championships he won a gold and bronze medal respectively. Thiedemann won the Deutsches Spring- und Dressurderby in Hamburg five time 1950-51, 1954, 1958-59.

With Hans-Günther Winkler, Thiedemann was regarded as the outstanding show jumper in Germany in the 1950s. His best horse Meteor is depicted as a bronze statue in front of the Ministry of Agriculture of Schleswig-Holstein in Kiel. In 1950 Thiedemann was the first West German sportsman to be awarded the Silver Bay Leaf by president Theodor Heuss. In 1958 Thiedemann was elected West Germany’s Sportsman of the Year and in 1961 the Sports Badge of Schleswig-Holstein and in 1974, the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany). In 2008 he was admitted to the German Sports Hall of Fame.

Thiedemann trained as a farmer. He was also a horse breeder, was employed by the Riding School in Elmshorn, and lent his name to a series of articles about horse sports. Several streets in Elmshorn are named after some of his horses and the Riding Hall is named after Thiedemann.