Friedrich Adolf "Fritz" Traun (29 March 1876 – 11 July 1908) was a German

athlete An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track ...

and

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player. Born into a wealthy family, he participated in the

1896 Summer Olympics The 1896 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad () and commonly known as Athens 1896 (), were the first international Olympic Games held in modern history. Organised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), wh ...

and won a gold medal in men's doubles. He committed suicide after being accused of fathering a child out of wedlock.

Biography

Traun was born the son of a wealthy family from Hamburg in 1876. His father, Heinrich Traun (1838–1909), owned a natural rubber manufacturing company and later became senator at Hamburg from 1901 to 1908. In 1885, Fritz began studying

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

Dresden University of Technology TU Dresden (for , abbreviated as TUD), also as the Dresden University of Technology, is a public research university in Dresden, Germany. It is the largest institute of higher education in the city of Dresden, the largest university in Saxony a ...

. In autumn of the same year, he participated in a

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

competition between athletes from Berlin and Hamburg and won the race over a distance of half a mile. In 1896 Traun competed at the first modern

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

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. Traun placed third in his preliminary heat of the 800 metres and did not advance to the final. He also participated in the tennis tournament. In the singles competition, Traun was defeated in the first round by John Pius Boland of Great Britain and Ireland, the eventual

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

list. This put Traun in a six-way tie for eighth place in the field of thirteen men. For the doubles tournament, Traun and Boland partnered. They defeated the

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brothers Aristidis and Konstantinos Akratopoulos in the first round and had a bye for the semifinals. In the final, the pair defeated Greek-Egyptian Dimitrios Kasdaglis and Demetrios Petrokokkinos of Greece to give Traun his own gold medal. In 1897, Traun took part in a track-and-field competition at

Baden-Baden Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the states of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos (river), Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the ...

and was the first German to reach a length of over 6 meters in

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

In 1899, Traun finished his studies with the degree of a

Doctor of Science A Doctor of Science (; most commonly abbreviated DSc or ScD) is a science doctorate awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. Africa Algeria and Morocco In Algeria, Morocco, Libya and Tunisia, all universities accredited by the s ...

. His thesis "On the knowledge of dibromomesitol bromide and its transformation products" received the best possible mark,

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

. After working as a scientist at the Sorbonne at

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for two years, he decided to enter his father's company. In 1902, Traun made a business trip to the United States in order to visit the company's branch on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

. The following winter, he fell ill of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

. Upon recommendation of

Carl Schurz Carl Christian Schurz (; March 2, 1829 – May 14, 1906) was a German-American revolutionary and an American statesman, journalist, and reformer. He migrated to the United States after the German revolutions of 1848–1849 and became a prominent ...

, Traun spent the spring of 1903 in a hotel at

Augusta, Georgia Augusta is a city on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. The city lies directly across the Savannah River from North Augusta, South Carolina at the head of its navigable portion. Augusta, the third mos ...

, before returning to Germany. As he did not fully recover from his illness, he mostly spent the following years at health spas in the

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

such as

St. Moritz St. Moritz ( , , ; ; ; ; ) is a high Alpine resort town in the Engadine in Switzerland, at an elevation of about above sea level. It is Upper Engadine's major town and a municipality in the administrative region of Maloja in the Swiss ...

and

Davos Davos (, ; or ; ; Old ) is an Alpine resort town and municipality in the Prättigau/Davos Region in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It has a permanent population of (). Davos is located on the river Landwasser, in the Rhaetian ...

. In addition, he began to work as a sports journalist and tournament organizer. In 1906, he was the director of the German Tennis Championships at Hamburg, and its referee in 1907. In the same year, he met ''Friedel Preetorius'' (1884–1938), the daughter of the wealthy entrepreneur Wilhelm Preetorius from

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

, during the

Kiel Week The Kiel Week () or Kiel Regatta is an annual sailing event in Kiel, the capital of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is considered to be one of the largest sailing events globally, and also the largest summer festivals in Northern Europe, ...

. The following March, both married at Hamburg, and in their honeymoon they drove as far as

Algiers Algiers is the capital city of Algeria as well as the capital of the Algiers Province; it extends over many Communes of Algeria, communes without having its own separate governing body. With 2,988,145 residents in 2008Census 14 April 2008: Offi ...

in Friedrich's car. After their return, the couple lived at the exclusive Park Hôtel Teufelsbrücke at Hamburg. On the morning of 11 July 1908, a young lady entered the hotel and claimed that she was also married to Traun and even had children by him. After meeting with Traun, he shot himself in the bathroom of his apartment. Neither the lady's identity nor the validity of her claim is known today. However, it seems very likely that she told the truth and Traun, facing a major social scandal at that time, killed himself. Friedrich's father Heinrich Traun adopted Friedel Preetorius who was already pregnant and gave birth to her daughter ''Lieselotte'' in February 1909. She later married Ludwig Strecker, owner of ''B. Schott's Söhne'' (today

Schott Music Schott Music () is one of the oldest German music publishers. It is also one of the largest music publishing houses in Europe, and is the second-oldest music publisher after Breitkopf & Härtel. The company headquarters of Schott Music were foun ...

). Friedrich Traun was buried in the family's grave at the

Ohlsdorf Cemetery Ohlsdorf Cemetery ( or (former) ) in the Ohlsdorf, Hamburg, Ohlsdorf quarter of the city of Hamburg, Germany, is the biggest rural cemetery in the world and the fourth-largest cemetery in the world. Most of the people buried at the cemetery are c ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Traun, Friedrich 1876 births 1908 suicides 1908 deaths Athletes (track and field) at the 1896 Summer Olympics 19th-century German sportsmen Tennis players at the 1896 Summer Olympics 19th-century male tennis players Olympic athletes for Germany Olympic tennis players for Germany Olympic gold medalists for Germany German male sprinters German male tennis players Athletes from Hamburg Olympic medalists for Germany in tennis Medalists at the 1896 Summer Olympics Suicides in Germany People from Wandsbek Suicides by firearm in Germany