Rudolf Waldemar Harbig (8 November 1913 – 5 March 1944) 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 ...

. As a middle distance runner he was best known for the

800 metres The 800 metres, or 800 meters (American and British English spelling differences#-re.2C -er, US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of a ...

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organizatio ...

that he set in

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in 1939. He also held the European record in the

400 metres The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor running track, it is ...

from 1939 until 1955.

Life

Harbig was born in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

, the son of a stoker. From an early age, he joined local sports clubs as an amateur runner and handball player. Having finished school, he began an apprenticeship as a

wheelwright A wheelwright is a Artisan, craftsman who builds or repairs wooden wheels. The word is the combination of "wheel" and the word "wright" (which comes from the Old English word "''wryhta''", meaning a worker - as also in shipbuilding, shipwright ...

but did not obtain an employment due to the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

. Instead he set out for his

journeyman years In the European apprenticeship tradition, the journeyman years (, also known in German as , , and colloquially sometimes referred to as , ) is a time of travel for several years after completing apprenticeship as a craftsman. The tradition date ...

traveling throughout Germany. Back in Dresden, to make a living, he joined the ''

Reichswehr ''Reichswehr'' (; ) was the official name of the German armed forces during the Weimar Republic and the first two years of Nazi Germany. After Germany was defeated in World War I, the Imperial German Army () was dissolved in order to be reshaped ...

'' armed forces in 1932. Harbig, as a professional soldier, continued to participate in track events. On 24 June 1934, he competed in an 800 metres event at the Dresdner SC stadium, won, and was asked to join the preparations for the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XI Olympiad () and officially branded as Berlin 1936, were an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 16 August 1936 in Berlin, then capital of Nazi Germany. Berlin won the bid to ...

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 ...

. He began a comprehensive

interval training Interval training is a type of training exercise that involves a series of high-intensity workouts interspersed with rest or break periods. The high-intensity periods are typically at or close to anaerobic exercise, while the recovery periods invol ...

supervised by the

Dresdner SC Dresdner Sportclub 1898 e.V., known simply as Dresdner SC, is a German multisport club playing in Dresden, Saxony. Founded on 30 April 1898, the club was a founding member of the German Football Association (Deutscher Fussball Bund) in 1900. Th ...

officials and athletics coach Josef Waitzer. In summer 1935 he left the military to concentrate on his sporting career, while he still had to take on part-time jobs to earn money.

Olympian athlete

In July 1936, Harbig won the 800 metres final at the German Athletics Championships at the Mommsenstadion in

, ahead of his toughest rival Wolfgang Dessecker, and obtained the permission to start at the Summer Olympics in August. After three weeks of intensive training, he fell ill with a gastrointestinal infections. So weakened, he arrived in the Berlin Olympiastadion and took a disappointing sixth place in the first heat of the

, defeated by Canadian Olympian Phil Edwards. Contrary to some official's concerns, he nevertheless stood as a member of the German

4 × 400 metres relay The 4 × 400 metres relay or long relay is an athletics track and field, track event in which teams consist of four runners who each complete 400 metres or one lap, totaling 1600 meters. It is traditionally the final event of ...

team, together with Friedrich von Stülpnagel, Helmut Hamann, and Harry Voigt. They established themselves in the preliminaries and won the bronze medal in the

finals Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

on August 9. Harbig was the final runner, closely followed by Canadian athlete John Loaring. On 1 May 1937 Harbig joined the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

, he also held the rank of a '' Sturmmann'' of the '' SA'' paramilitary forces. He regularly participated in the Party's Struggle Games during the

Nuremberg Rallies The Nuremberg rallies ( , meaning ) were a series of celebratory events coordinated by the Nazi Party and held in the German city of Nuremberg from 1923 to 1938. The first nationwide party convention took place in Munich in January 1923, but th ...

and voluntarily served the

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...

purposes of Nazi sports official Karl Ritter von Halt. This was coupled with his ultimate rise to the top of German athletics, moving from victory to victory. In July he won the 800 metres at the German Athletics Championships for the second time, equalling the eleven-year-old German record of Otto Peltzer, and one week later made another German best time in the 400 metres at the Berlin Olympiastadion. One year later Harbig won the 400 metres at the ISTAF Berlin and again the 800 metres at the German Championships at the Hermann–Göring–Stadion in Breslau. On September 4 he defeated his long-time rival Mario Lanzi from

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

at the 1938 European Championships in Athletics in

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over 800 m in a time of 1:50.6 min. At the same championships he won the gold medal with the German 4 × 400 m relay team. In the same summer the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

runner Sydney Wooderson had set a remarkable new world record over 800 m at 1:48.4 min. When, in 1939, Harbig set a new national record of 1:49.4 he knew that the world record was not an unrealistic prospect. However, in the same season, Mario Lanzi ran a time of 1:49.5 in

Pisa Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ...

. The two rivals met in Milan in July for a much-celebrated race over 800 m on a 500 m-track. In his usual manner Lanzi took the lead and was still in front on the final bend. However, at the start of the 125 m-home-straight Harbig overtook him with an astonishing sprint. He finished with a new world record of 1:46.6 min. Lanzi, behind him, set a new Italian record of 1:49.0. In the following years Harbig's time turned out to be a very hard record to break. Even track legends Arthur Wint and Mal Whitfield could not threaten it. Not until August 1955 the Belgian runner Roger Moens could set a new world record of 1:45.7. Also, in 1939 Harbig set a

over 400 m on a 500 m-track in

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

in 46.0 sec. In Dresden in 1941 he set a world record over 1000 m in 2:21.5.

World War II and death

Harbig's career declined upon the outbreak 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 ...

in September 1939, whereafter he lost many of his training possibilities. Urged by Nazi official Hans von Tschammer und Osten and Guido von Mengden, Harbig joined the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

forces in occupied Poland, while he still prepared for the

1940 Summer Olympics The 1940 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XII Olympiad, was a planned international multi-sport event scheduled to have been held from 21 September to 6 October 1940, in Tokyo City, Japan, and later rescheduled for 20 July t ...

. In the winter of 1940-41 he was drafted to the ''

Fallschirmjäger The () were the airborne forces branch of the Luftwaffe before and during World War II. They were the first paratroopers to be committed in large-scale airborne operations. They were commanded by Kurt Student, the Luftwaffe's second-in-comman ...

'' (paratrooper) forces at the Broitzem airbase in

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( ; from Low German , local dialect: ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...

. On 24 May 1941 he set another world record over 800 metres at the Ilgen-Kampfbahn in Dresden. Later in 1941, Harbig was sent to the Eastern Front and fought in the

Battle of Moscow The Battle of Moscow was a military campaign that consisted of two periods of strategically significant fighting on a sector of the Eastern Front during World War II, between October 1941 and January 1942. The Soviet defensive effort frustrated H ...

. During the Soviet Dnieper–Carpathian Offensive against the Wehrmacht

Army Group South Army Group South () was the name of one of three German Army Groups during World War II. It was first used in the 1939 September Campaign, along with Army Group North to invade Poland. In the invasion of Poland, Army Group South was led by Ge ...

, he was killed fighting with the 2nd Parachute Division at the

Voronezh Front The 1st Ukrainian Front (), previously the Voronezh Front (), was a major formation of the Red Army during World War II, being equivalent to a Western army group. They took part in the capture of Berlin, the capital of Nazi Germany. Wartime ...

near

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in 1944. Holding the rank of '' Feldwebel'' (Sergeant) at the time, he served in ''Fallschirmjäger-Regiment'' 6 under the command of ''Hauptmann'' (Captain) Friedrich August von der Heydte as a platoon leader. The exact circumstances of his death are not known.

References

Sources

Wallechinsky, David David Wallechinsky (born David Wallace, February 5, 1948) is an American popular historian and television commentator, the co-founder and past president of the International Society of Olympic Historians (ISOH) and the founder and editor-in-chie ...

(2004). ''The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics'',

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

: Sport Classic Books. {{DEFAULTSORT:Harbig, Rudolf 1913 births 1944 deaths German male middle-distance runners German national athletics champions Athletes from Dresden Eintracht Braunschweig athletes Luftwaffe personnel killed in World War II Athletes (track and field) at the 1936 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Germany Olympic bronze medalists for Germany World record setters in athletics (track and field) European Athletics Championships medalists Sportspeople from the Kingdom of Saxony Medalists at the 1936 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists in athletics (track and field) Sturmabteilung personnel Fallschirmjäger of World War II Reichswehr personnel Military personnel from Dresden 20th-century German sportsmen