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Hear from the German fighter who was cast as the face of the Third Reich in one of the most storied bouts in boxing history.
In 1936, the German boxer Max Schmeling became the only man to ever knock out Joe Louis. Their 1938 rematch was cast as a symbolic war between the Free World and Nazism, and Louis won the bout decisively, knocking out Schmeling in one round. But despite the public perception that the two men were bitter enemies, they were in fact good friends.HISTORY UNDERCOVER strips away layers of misconception to tell the complete story of the two boxers whose reputations and careers were distorted by politics. In an interview from 1967, Schmeling talks about his experiences after the storied fight, which stand in stark contrast to Louis': while the German went on to become a successful businessman, Louis was kept from purchasing the New Jersey home he wanted because of his race. And when Louis died in poverty, Schmeling came to his family's aid. Few people have been so honored and then so abandoned as Joe Louis; few so wronged for so long as Max Schmeling. |
