At some point during The Championships fortnight, while relaxing on the grounds of the All England Lawn Tennis Club, whether it is enjoying a Pimm’s Cup or Strawberries and Cream, the discussion often turns to “The best player to have never won The Gentlemen’s Singles…”
Ivan Lendl of the Czech Republic and Patrick Rafter of Australia are regularly mentioned as the leading Gentlemen’s “Nevers…” Being International Tennis Hall of Fame members keeps them in the conversation… Those with a more expansive “What about…” list include Andy Roddick of the US… and there is always “National…” support for “Our Tim” Henman.
For me, there is only one choice…
Gottfried Alexander Maximilian Walter Kurt Freiherr von Cramm… with the name, along with his good looks and a courtly manner, it is easy to understand why he was called “The Baron.”.
The third of Baron Burchard von Cramm and Countess Jutta von Steinberg’s seven sons, he grew up at Castle Brüggen, the family estate. Once his interest in the game became obvious, his father had a clay court built at Oelber Castle – another of the von Cramm properties.
The quintessential sportsman, he lost three consecutive finals…to Fred Perry of Great Britain, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4, playing for Germany in 1935… to Perry again in ’36, (and the 6-1, 6-1, 6-0 score in 40 minutes indicates how badly he was hampered by a right-thigh muscle pull that occurred in his first service game) as a Nazi competitor… and in ’37 to Don Budge of the US, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2, again playing under the Nazi banner.
He was unable to play The Championships in 1938. A national hero, having won Roland-Garros in 1934 (just after Adolph Hitler assumed power) and again in ’36, von Cramm – in a politicized trial held in secret – was convicted of “Moral Delinquency” in March 1938 and sentenced to a year in Berlin-Moabit Prison. He did not serve the full term, but the reported length of his internment varies from a few weeks to six months.
Upon his parole, Erich Schönborn, President of the German Tennis Federation, told von Cramm that because of his criminal record he could no longer represent Germany, so he accepted an invitation from King Gustav V, a tennis friend, to live in Sweden and began playing tournaments again.
The Championships would not allow him to participate in 1939… and he would have been the favorite.
Reading the “double talk” reasoning for his exclusion 86 years later, substantiates the unethical “Insiderism” that took place.
Initially, it was said his criminal record made him an “unfit…” contestant. As Marshall Jon Fisher, the author of “A Terrible Splendor” pointed out, “… the Wimbledon committee made up of viscounts and wing commanders and right Honorables decided they could not admit a player who had been convicted of a morals charge.”
Later it was explained that he could have participated if he had submitted an entry. The only problem was, in those days, tennis federations entered players, and as Schönborn indicated, the German Tennis Federation would not support von Cramm.
Truth be known, he was an outcast to some in Germany not because of his prison term but because he would not join the National Socialist Workers’ Party, which was using successful athletes to promote its Aryan superiority doctrine.
As Charles Graves noted in “The Bystander” on July 8, 1936, “…. Gottfried von Cramm is one of the best looking boys I have ever met. He has clear, grey-blue eyes set, in his head very much like the late T. E. Lawrence’s. He talks admirable English, thanks to an English governess… and has blond hair brushed back.”
Becoming a propaganda Poster Boy wasn’t a desire. Besides, he had been critical of Hitler’s policies – specifically the removal of Daniel Prenn from the German Davis Cup team. Prenn, a Russian-born German, was von Cramm’s 1932 teammate. The duo upset the Great Britain team of Perry and Bunny Austin on clay in the European Zone semifinal at the Lawn Tennis Turnier Club “Rot-Weiß” in Berlin (with Prenn defeating Perry to decide the tie 3-2). The Germans then cruised to a 5-0 win over Italy on clay in Milan in the European Zone final. However, von Cramm and Prenn ultimately lost the Inter-Zone Final 3-2 to the US at Stade Roland Garros.
With the Nazi takeover in 1933, Prenn, who was Jewish, could no longer compete in German tournaments or represent his country, forcing him to immigrate to Great Britain.
(Supplementing the tale, Bill Tilden, who in time would be accused of moral turpitude, was hired by the German Tennis Federation – which marched to government dictates by the step – to coach the 1937 Davis Cup team. He had visited the estate in 1928, helped von Cramm enhance his backhand, and attended the Budge-von Cramm Gentlemen’s final. Furthering the irony, Tilden defeated Prenn in the final of the 1930 Berlin International Championships.)
Prenn played the Gentlemen’s Singles from 1934 until 1939 with “no citizenship” listed as his country affiliation… which leads to the question – Did his status as an elite player (which The Championships could bequeath) earn him a place in the draw or was he entered by a federation?
Since Prenn didn’t become a British citizen until 1940, it would be logical to assume he secured a spot as an elite player… that being the case – Why didn’t von Cramm receive similar treatment in 1939?
The reason is expansive… Records indicate Hitler pressured the All England Lawn Tennis Club to exclude von Cramm. The club’s sanctity was further sullied by Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount and Sir Louis Greig. Harmsworth owned the Daily Mail and the Mirror, and Greig, a longtime friend, was AELTC Chairman…
Their backgrounds add clarity to the von Cramm ban. Greig was a member of the January Club which supported Oswald Mosley – the Baron who founded the British Union of Fascists (BUF). Filling out Mosley’s blotter sheet, he was an antisemite who supported Hitler and Benito Mussolini, and was imprisoned in Great Britain when WWII broke out in 1940 and remained in custody until ’43… and the BUF was banned.
In January 1934, Harmsworth wrote an article backing Mosley … a year later he dropped his support but continued to develop stories admiring all that Hitler and Mussolini were accomplishing. Given their political leanings, it is no surprise that Harmsworth and Greig did their utmost to ensure that von Cramm would not play The Championships in 1939…
Simply said, they wanted to make sure Hitler would not have been embarrassed, because from all indications von Cramm was the favorite to lift the Gentlemen’s Challenge Cup…
The opinion was strengthened by his convincing 1939 Queen’s Club singles victory. In the semifinals, he crushed Bobby Riggs of the US, 6-1, 6-0 then downed Ghaus Khan of India 6-1, 6-3 for the title.
It is well known that Riggs went on to score a storied singles, doubles and mixed triple at The Championships. Having bet on himself to win all three events, he collected $108,000 (roughly $2.30 million in 2024).
The 1939 von Cramm drama was updated in 2018, when a Daily Mail columnist wrote a story alleging the publication’s complicity in what had taken place. An editor approved the feature, but it was reportedly “spiked…” because of its portrayal of Sir Louis Greig’s political past and his effort to keep von Cramm from participating. The grandson of Sir Louis, Geordie Greig, was the senior editor of the newspaper at the time.
After “Private Eye” reported the story’s existence, the “New European” published the piece detailing Greig’s role… leaving the Daily Mail to deplore the author and refute the story… (See the Postscript.)
As much as I enjoy being creative… I must note I haven’t made up the following absurdities that augment the von Cramm story…
In 1935, Hermann Göring became Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaff and as a member of the Lawn Tennis Turnier Club “Rot-Weiß” in Berlin. He knew von Cramm because the tennis star was also a member, resulting in Göring continually pressuring von Cramm to join the NSDAP. As the story goes, he went to von Cramm’s home and tore up loan agreements that Jewish bankers supposedly held over some of his property.
Legend has it, Göring said, “…Now you are free” …and von Cramm, who had called Hitler “The housepainter…” replied, “One more reason not to join you…”
(Prenn had been a Lawn Tennis Turnier Club “Rot-Weiß” member until the “Aryans only…” policy was established in 1933.)
Given his family’s status and the fact he was a criminal…von Cramm was conscripted in May 1940… eventually becoming a company commander… and as I said this is not made up…in the Hermann Göring Division on the Eastern front. The conditions were brutal… and with most of those under his command having been killed, he survived and eventually was evacuated because his legs were severely frostbitten. Completing the irrationality, von Cramm, an “ardent” German who was a “fervent” anti-Nazi, was awarded the significant Iron Cross for bravery… then was dishonorably discharged because he still would not become an NSDAP member.
After the war, von Cramm returned to tennis, winning the German National Men’s championship in 1948 and ’49 when he was 40. More noteworthy… 12 years after being denied entry, he played The Championships, at the age of 42, losing to Jaroslav Drobný 9-7, 6-4, 6-4 in the first round in 1951… the same year he began a cotton importing business based in Egypt.
He became active in the restoration of the Lawn Tennis Turnier Club “Rot-Weiß” eventually serving as Chairman then President. He continued to play Davis Cup until 1953 and was involved in West German Tennis Federation administration.
Having always said that he didn’t want to die in a hospital, Gottfried Alexander Maximilian Walter Kurt Freiherr von Cramm’s life came to an end in an ambulance on November 8, 1976, as he was being transported to a hospital – after the automobile in which he was riding was struck head-on as he returned to Cairo from a business trip to Alexandria.
Learning of his death, Don Budge said, “von Cramm was anti‐Nazi. Yet, he was a German sports hero. He was also one of the unluckiest men I knew…”
In the beginning I said… For me, there is only one choice…When it came to the best player to never win The Championships Gentlemen’s Singles…I hope the insight provided supports my claim…I didn’t delve into von Cramm’s homosexuality or his marriages to Elisabeth von Dobeneck and Barbara Hutton because the essence of this feature is that Gottfried von Cramm was denied the opportunity to play The Championships in 1939.
Postscript…
Articles and books have been written and movies made about von Cramm, who was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1977.
I have extensively researched the time he played and all that he contended with both on and off the court. In addition, a member of the von Cramm family has been a longtime acquaintance … which is one of the reasons I found “Why was the anti-Nazi German, Gottfried von Cramm, banned from taking part at Wimbledon in 1939?”, posted on the Spartacus Blog in 2018, revealing…
In the blog, John Simkin said, “Patrick Ryecart, the actor who has written the screenplay to a forthcoming film about von Cramm called ‘Poster Boy’, has pointed out: ‘Wimbledon have refused to make public the paperwork they have relating to this period, but this beggars belief…’ Just for a start, Prenn was banned from playing in Germany because he was a Jew and had actually escaped to the UK in 1933 and lived with the Sieff family, who founded Marks & Spencer.”
Simkin concluded, “Is it not time for institutions such as the Daily Mail and the All England Lawn Tennis Club to admit to the way that they had strong pro-Nazi sympathies in the 1930s. Of course they were not alone, as books by historians, people such as Stephen Dorril, Julie V. Gottlieb, Richard T. Griffiths and Martin Pugh, have shown. In fact, if the ruling-class had its way, we would have had a fascist takeover in this country in the 1930s, as they wanted the introduction of a ‘corporate state’ in Britain…”
As I wrote… the “double talk” reasoning for his exclusion 86 years later, substantiates the unethical “Insiderism” that took place.
Truth be known, I had hoped for more from the All England Lawn Tennis Club…and the Daily Mail as well…
Then I recalled that Winston Churchill, noted that when inherent duty and accountability were involved, “The price of greatness is responsibility…”
Photo of Gottfried von Cramm playing at Wimbledon in June 1951 by Smith Archive