MAX SCHMELING
(Maximilian Adolph Otto Siegfried Schmeling)
He had knocked out Joe Louis earlier. Hitler and the Nazi propaganda machine promoted the championship fight to prove their racial policies. Schmelling was Aryan—the Master Race of the World according to the Nazis while Joe Louis, a Black American, was considered to be an untermenchen—a lower man. For the two boxers, this was all nonsense, but symbolically this boxing match was a geopolitical event. Louis won by a knockout in a minute and a half of the first round and for a while the German racial propaganda machine was silenced.
Maximilian Adolph Otto Siegfried Schmeling was a German boxer who was heavyweight champion of the world between 1930 and 1932. His two fights with Joe Louis in 1936 and 1938 were worldwide cultural events because of their national associations. Schmeling is the only boxer to win the world heavyweight championship on a foul.
