Karl Sutter (10 May 1914 – 14 September 2003) 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 ...

. Born in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

, Switzerland, he was a member of FC Freiburg sports club and chose to compete internationally for Germany.Klaus Amrhein in DGLD-Bulletin Nr. 57/2010, Seite 285. His first success at national level came in 1937, when he was runner-up 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 ...

to Julius Müller. He only reached the national podium on one more occasion, in 1939 when he was second to Austria's Josef Haunzwickel (who competed due to the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...

). In spite of his failure to claim a national title in his career, he was the winner at the

1938 European Athletics Championships The 2nd European Athletics Championships was a continental athletics competition for European athletes which was held in two places in 1938. The men's event took place in Paris, France between 3–5 September while the women's events were in Vie ...

. Following in the footsteps of his compatriot Gustav Wegner (the 1934 winner), he defeated

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 ...

and won in a championship record mark of .European Championships (Men)
GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2014-10-19. Given 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 did not compete at any further international

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

competitions and the European gold medal remained the highlight of his short career. Sutter died in 2003 in

Spandau Spandau () is the westernmost of the 12 boroughs of Berlin, boroughs () of Berlin, situated at the confluence (geography), confluence of the Havel and Spree (river), Spree rivers and extending along the western bank of the Havel. It is the smalle ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sutter, Karl 1914 births 2003 deaths German male pole vaulters Athletes from Basel-Stadt European Athletics Championships medalists 20th-century German sportsmen