Gustav Wegner (4 January 1903 – 7 June 1942) was a German

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 ...

athlete who competed in the

pole vault Pole vaulting, also known as pole jumping, is a track and field event in which an athlete uses a long and flexible pole, usually made from fiberglass or carbon fiber, as an aid to jump over a #bar, bar. Pole jumping was already practiced by the ...

and the

decathlon The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of 10 track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek δέκα (''déka'', meaning "ten") and ἄθλος (''áthlos'', or ἄ ...

. He was the first ever

European champion A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers to a ...

in the pole vault and the first German to clear four metres in the event. He was a five-time national champion at the

German Athletics Championships The German Athletics Championships () are the national championships in athletics of Germany, organised annually by the Deutscher Leichtathletik-Verband. The competition features track and field events. Separate championships are held for non-tra ...

and a stadium near

Northeim Northeim (; ) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, seat of the Northeim (district), district of Northeim, with a population of 30,118 as of 31 December 2023. It lies on the German Half-Timbered House Road. History Northeim is first mentioned in ...

was named in his honour.

Career

Born in

Jarocin Jarocin () is a town in west-central Poland with 25,700 inhabitants (1995), the administrative capital of Jarocin County in Greater Poland Voivodeship. Jarocin is a historical town, having been founded and granted city rights in the 13th century. ...

Province of Posen The Province of Posen (; ) was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1848 to 1920, occupying most of the historical Greater Poland. The province was established following the Greater Poland Uprising (1848), Poznań Uprisi ...

, he grew up in a wealthy, educated family and studied up to university level. He graduated in 1927 from the Prussian Academy for Physical Education () and trained in

gymnastics Gymnastics is a group of sport that includes physical exercises requiring Balance (ability), balance, Strength training, strength, Flexibility (anatomy), flexibility, agility, Motor coordination, coordination, artistry and endurance. The movem ...

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

and

rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically a ...

.Klaus Amrhein: Biographisches Handbuch zur Geschichte der Deutschen Leichtathletik 1898–2005. 2 Bände. Darmstadt 2005 publiziert über Deutsche Leichtathletik Promotion- und Projektgesellschaft Wegner was the most prominent early pole vaulters in Germany. Competing for

VfL Halle 1896 VfL Halle 1896 is a German football club from the city of Halle (Saale) in Saxony-Anhalt. History The oldest club in the city of Halle was founded as ''Hallescher Fußballclub von 1896'' on 16 July 1896. ''HFC'' was one of a dozen clubs that ...

, he was a five-time national champion in the discipline at the

from 1929 to 1934. He was runner-up nationally to Julius Müller in 1928 and 1932. His improvements on the German record were most notable for the fact that he became the nation's first athlete to go over the four-metre barrier. His first national record was in June 1929 and bettered this with a vault of a month later. This was followed by his historic clearance of in 1930 and his final improvement of the record was to in 1931 in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

. Wegner's first and only major medal at an international tournament came at the inaugural

1934 European Athletics Championships The 1st European Athletics Championships were held in Turin, Italy, at the Stadio Olimpico di Torino, Stadio Benito Mussolini between 7 and 9 September 1934. A contemporaneous report on the event was given in the ''Glasgow Herald''. There were no ...

, which was held in

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

. Germany's sole entrant in the event, he cleared four metres to defeat Sweden's

Bo Ljungberg Bo Alexander Ljungberg (21 November 1911 – 19 March 1984) was a Swedish athlete. He won two silver medals in the pole vault at the European Championships and competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics as both a pole vaulter and a triple jumper. Care ...

on count-back and become the first ever European champion in the pole vault. Wegner was succeeded by Karl Sutter, a fellow German, at the next edition in

1938 Events January * January 1 – state-owned enterprise, State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France (SNCF) and the Netherlands (Nederlandse Spoorwegen – NS). * January 20 – King Farouk of Egypt marries Saf ...

Gustav-Wegner-Stadion Northeim by 2eight-9150

He competed simultaneously in the pole vault and decathlon and although he never won a championship title in his secondary discipline, he ranked within the top-20 decathletes in the world five times during the period from 1926 to 1932. His personal best score for the decathlon was 7351 points set in

Leuna Leuna () is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, eastern Germany, south of Merseburg and Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Halle, on the river Saale. The town is known for the ''Leuna works, Leunawerke'', at 13 km2 one of the biggest chemical industrial complexes i ...

in 1932.Gustav Wegner
Track and Field Brinkster. Retrieved on 2014-10-18. In the mid-1930s he began teaching at

Pforta Schulpforta, otherwise known as Pforta, is a school located in Pforta monastery, a former Cistercian monastery (1137–1540). The school is located near Naumburg on the Saale River in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. The site has been a sch ...

, a prestigious school near

Naumburg Naumburg () is a town in (and the administrative capital of) the district Burgenlandkreis, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany. It has a population of around 33,000. The Naumburg Cathedral became a UNES ...

. Upon the onset of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he joined the army and made the rank of lieutenant. He was killed in the course of duty in Taborki on the Eastern Front fighting the Soviets for Nazi Germany. The Gustav Wegner Stadium in the German city of

is named in his honour.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wegner, Gustav 1903 births 1942 deaths German male pole vaulters German decathletes European Athletics Championships medalists German national athletics champions German Army personnel killed in World War II People from Jarocin People from the Province of Posen German Army officers of World War II Athletes from Greater Poland Voivodeship 20th-century German sportsmen

Career

See also

References