Johann Trollmann

Johann Wilhelm "Rukeli" Trollmann (27 December 1907 – April 1944) was a German Sinti boxer.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Early life

Trollmann was born in Template:Interlanguage link, a village part of Gifhorn, into a poor Protestant family. His father, Wilhelm "Schnipplo" Trollmann (1867–1933), was an ethnic German umbrella maker and part-time musician, while his mother, Friederike "Pessy" Weiss (1874–1946), was of Sinti origin. He had eight siblings: his three sisters Maria, Anna, and Wilhelmine, and five brothers Wilhelm, Ferdinand, Julius, Albert, and Heinrich.<ref name=":4">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":5">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The family moved to Hanover, settling in the borough Ricklingen, in the early 1910s. Trollmann attended the local Volksschule until third grade.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Trollmann picked up boxing when he was a child and had his first amateur match at eight years old. He was called "Rukeli" by other Sinti, derived from the Romani word for tree ("ruk"), for his upright stance. Trollmann's youngest brothers, Albert ("Benny") and Heinrich ("Stabeli"), also boxed in their private time.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Although the family had kept close ties to the Roma community, the Trollmanns were regarded as assimilated. Trollmann's father had served in Braunschweig's water police during World War I while the family of his mother had long abandoned their itinerant lifestyle.<ref name=":0" />

Career

Amateur boxing

Boxing as a sport had been severely limited during the German Empire, with outright bans in some regions. Training and professional matches became openly accessible in 1919 with the founding of the Weimar Republic. Trollmann entered the boxing scene in the early 1920s. He won the regional title of Hanover district's boxing championship four times in a row and became a member of the BC Heros Eintracht in 1922, thus joining the Deutsche Reichsverband für Amateur-Boxen (DRfAB). Trollmann became famous in the mid-1920s for winning the North-German amateur boxing championship.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref>

With the rising popularity of boxing, Trollmann entered officially held matches as a middleweight by 1924. His looks made him popular with the audience, earning him compliments by both women and men during matches and dedicated columns in newspapers in his hometown.<ref name=":3">Template:Cite news</ref> He was well-received for his distinct boxing style, which was compared to dance for Trollmann's quick and agile moves. Trollmann's critics primarily focused on his Romani heritage and mocked his technique as "un-German", with some newspapers derisively nicknaming him "the Dancing Gypsy" ("der tanzende Zigeuner") or just "Gipsy/Gibsy".<ref name=":2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":0" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Trollmann sought to join the German national boxing team for the 1928 Summer Olympics, but was barred by officials, officially for "inedequate performance". For the middleweight class, the committee instead selected Walter Cunow, who had been previously defeated by Trollmann several times; Cunow himself would be replaced by Albert Leidmann. It has since been suspected that Trollmann's rejection was related to the Weimar government's unwillingness to be represented by a Sinto at the event.<ref name=":2" />

Professional boxing

In June 1929, Trollmann left the BC Heros Eintracht and joined BC Sparta Linden, primarily made up of athletes with working class backgrounds, to focus on national competitions in professional sports. From then, he lived primarily in Berlin, being coached by Ernst Zirzow. Travelling throughout Germany, Trollmann fought against opponents, both German and foreign, in the welterweight to heavyweight classes.<ref name=":2" />

Interference by the Nazi government

Following Adolf Hitler's rise to power in January 1933, the Nazi government officially renamed boxing to "German fistfighting" ("Deutscher Faustkampf") and declared the sport as an integral part of the effort to create a "defensible Volkskörper". The following month, DRfAB was restructured into Deutscher Amateur-Boxverband (DABV), part of the newly established centralised boxing association Verband Deutscher Faustkämpfer, under chairman Georg Radamm, a long-time member of the Nazi Party.<ref name=":3" /> The change led to informal discrimination against athletes with non-German or mixed ethnic backgrounds.<ref name=":2" /> Trollmann's family had been largely conservative, with Trollmann's eldest brother Wilhelm ("Carlo") joining the SA in 1933, but he was ousted the same year for being Roma.<ref name=":0" />

On 9 June 1933, Trollmann fought for the German light-heavyweight title against Adolf Witt, in a highly publicised match attended by Nazi officials, including VDF chairman Radamm. Aware that Trollmann was likely to win, which would call the Nazi government's professed superiority of the German "Aryans" into question, Radamm had instructed the jury to judge "no result" and although Trollmann clearly led by points over the course of six rounds, the jury obeyed Radamm's instructions. The audience rebelled and after thirty minutes, the jury acknowledged Trollmann as the victor.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3" />

However, six days later he was stripped of the title, with a VDF letter stating that both fighters had "performed inadequately" and that Trollmann had shown "unsportsmanlike behaviour" by crying tears of joy while receiving the trophy belt. A new fight was scheduled for 21 July, with runner-up Template:Interlanguage link, a heavyweight, as Trollmann's opponent. Trollmann was threatened that he had to change his "dancing" style or lose his licence. Trollmann arrived the day of the match with his hair dyed blond and his face whitened with flour, the caricature of an Aryan. He took the blows of his opponent as he was asked for five rounds before he collapsed.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The defeat signalled his permanent expulsion from professional boxing, with his licence being revoked in the following autumn, but this did nothing to dismantle his popular image. To avoid further issues with Nazi officials, Trollmann briefly went into hiding in the region around Teutoburg Forest.<ref name=":2" />

Between 1933 and 1935, Trollmann continued to earn a living as a boxer at carnivals and other small-scale events. He resided in Berlin-Charlottenburg with his girlfriend Olga Frieda Bilda (1915 – after 1975), having a daughter, Rita, in March 1935. The couple married on 1 June 1935.<ref name=":2" />

Detainment

In July 1935, Trollmann was detained at Template:Interlanguage link following a forced sterilisation order. With the introduction of the Nuremberg Laws in September 1935, the persecution of Sinti and Roma in Germany dramatically increased.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Trollmann was labelled "feeble-minded since birth" and forcibly sterilised Template:Circa 23 December 1935, as part of Nazi eugenics efforts targeting ethnic minorities. In September 1938, Trollmann divorced from his wife in hopes of covering for his daughter who, under the Nuremberg Laws, would be judged a Mischling for being half-Sintiza.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

By 1938, Trollmann had been transferred to Hannover-Ahlem subcamp, but was released the same year. In November 1939 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht as an infantryman. He was stationed in occupied France, Belgium, and Poland, where he was wounded in June 1941 during the early stages of Operation Barbarossa, being returned to Germany as a result; he was officially discharged in early 1942, when Sinti and Roma were banned from serving in the military.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The Gestapo arrested Trollmann in June 1942 while in Hanover. He was tortured during custody at the city's branch office of the Template:Interlanguage link and in October of the same year, he was interned Neuengamme concentration camp in Hamburg. He tried to keep a low profile, but was recognized by Schutzhaftlagerführer Template:Interlanguage link, who had been a boxing official before the war.<ref name=":1" /> He used Trollmann as a trainer for his troops during the nights in exchange for a slice of buttered bread for each time Trollmann was knocked out. Having already lost 30 kg before arriving in Neuengamme, the spars were treated as leisure by the SS guards and regularly devolved into beatdowns, causing Trollmann's health to deteriorate further. After three months, the prisoners committee decided to act and faked Trollmann's death on 9 February 1943, being listed in the camp book as having died of pneumonia compounded by vascular disease. His family received an urn, which was buried at Anger Cemetery in Hanover. In reality, the committee had managed to get him transferred to the Wittenberge satellite camp under an assumed identity.<ref name=":0" />

Death

By spring 1944, the former star was again recognised and the camp elders organized a fight between him and Emil Cornelius, a former criminal and hated "Heu" commando Kapo (a prisoner given privileges for taking on responsibilities in the camp, often a convict working for a reduced sentence or parole). Trollmann won, Cornelius sought revenge for his humiliation and forced Trollmann to work all day until he was exhausted, before attacking and killing him with a shovel. Trollmann was 36 years old.<ref name="Holocaust-memorial" /> According to fellow Sinto internee Rudolf Landsberger, the SS covered up the death as an accident and buried Trollmann in a forest outside the town cemetery.<ref name=":0" />

Two of Trollmann's brothers also died as a result of the Romani Holocaust: his youngest brother Heinrich, who had also been a communist, died in Auschwitz concentration camp in 1943, while another brother, Julius ("Mauso"), died in 1958 from long-term health effects of his imprisonment, having been rendered paraplegic from severe beatings at a hard labour camp.<ref name=":4" />

Rehabilitation and commemoration

File:Bewegung Nurr Trollmann Viktoriapark.jpg

9841- Temporary memorial for Johann Rukeli Trollmann in Berlin-Kreuzberg, 2010

In 2003, the Template:Interlanguage link officially recognised Trollmann as the winner of the 1933 championship.<ref name="Holocaust-memorial">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

On 9 June 2010, the anniversary of his championship fight,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the German artist collective Bewegung Nurr erected a temporary memorial "9841" in the Berlin Victoria Park to honour Trollmann.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The memorial was also displayed the following year in Hannover and in Dresden in 2012 for six weeks. The title refers to Trollmann's prison number.<ref name="Holocaust-memorial" />

In 2015, the Italian alternative rock band C.F.F. e il Nomade Venerabile released the song Come fiori dedicated to Trollmann. This song was the inspiration for the theathral show My Inv(f)erno... gypsy life which opened the X edition of the International TeatroLab Festival at the Tagliavini theatre in Novellara in March 2019.

In 2016, Dario Fo, recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature, published the book Razza di zingaro based on Trollmann's life.

In 2022, the German television series Babylon Berlin season four, a fictional version of Trollmann is portrayed by Hannes Wegener and is revealed to be the half-brother of one of the series' leads, Lotte Ritter. A fight takes place between Trollman and Willy Bolze, who in real life was Trollman's first professional boxing opponent. The dates are different in the show with their fight taking place in 1931 instead of 1929.

Professional boxing record

Template:Abbr	Result	Record	Opponent	Type	Round	Date	Location	Notes
64	Template:No2Loss	31–19–14	Arthur Polter	PTS	8	Mar 12, 1934	Template:Small
63	Template:No2Loss	31–18–14	Walter Müller	PTS	6	Mar 9, 1934	Template:Small
62	Template:No2Loss	31–17–14	Walter Sabottke	KO	6 (8)	Feb 9, 1934	Template:Small
61	Template:No2Loss	31–16–14	Rienus de Boer	KO	6 (8)	Dec 26, 1933	Template:Small
60	Template:No2Loss	31–15–14	Walter Sabottke	PTS	8	Dec 3, 1933	Template:Small
59	Template:No2Loss	31–14–14	Erwin Bruch	TKO	2 (8)	Nov 25, 1933	Template:Small
58	Template:Yes2Win	31–13–14	Gustav Eybel	PTS	10	Nov 5, 1933	Template:Small
57	Template:No2Loss	30–13–14	Franz Boja	PTS	8	Oct 27, 1933	Template:Small
56	Template:No2Loss	30–12–14	Fred Boelck	KO	2 (10)	Oct 8, 1933	Template:Small
55	Template:DrawDraw	30–11–14	Walter Sabottke	PTS	8	Sep 1, 1933	Template:Small
54	Template:No2Loss	30–11–13	Gustav Eder	KO	5 (10)	Jul 21, 1933	Template:Small
53	Template:Yes2Win	30–10–13	Adolf Witt	PTS	12	Jun 9, 1933	Template:Small	Template:Small
52	Template:Yes2Win	29–10–13	Otto Klockemann	TKO	2 (8)	May 26, 1933	Template:Small
51	Template:No2Loss	28–10–13	Gustave Roth	PTS	10	May 16, 1933	Template:Small
50	Template:DrawDraw	28–9–13	Karl Eggert	PTS	8	Apr 28, 1933	Template:Small
49	Template:DrawDraw	28–9–12	Walter Eggert	PTS	8	Apr 21, 1933	Template:Small
48	Template:Yes2Win	28–9–11	Johann Fraberger	TKO	9 (10)	Apr 12, 1933	Template:Small
47	Template:DrawDraw	27–9–11	Hans Seifried	PTS	8	Mar 31, 1933	Template:Small
46	Template:Yes2Win	27–9–10	Helmut Hartkopp	DQ	3 (8)	Mar 12, 1933	Template:Small
45	Template:Yes2Win	26–9–10	Fred Boelck	TKO	2 (8)	Feb 26, 1933	Template:Small
44	Template:DrawDraw	25–9–10	Claude Bassin	PTS	10	Feb 3, 1933	Template:Small
43	Template:DrawDraw	25–9–9	Karl Ogren	PTS	8	Jan 20, 1933	Template:Small
42	Template:No2Loss	25–9–8	Hein Domgörgen	PTS	8	Dec 27, 1932	Template:Small
41	Template:No2Loss	25–8–8	Adolf Witt	PTS	10	Dec 11, 1932	Template:Small
40	Template:DrawDraw	25–7–8	Adolf Witt	PTS	8	Nov 27, 1932	Template:Small
39	Template:Yes2Win	25–7–7	Julian van Hoof	TKO	6 (8)	Nov 18, 1932	Template:Small
38	Template:DrawDraw	24–7–7	Hein Domgörgen	PTS	8	Nov 9, 1932	Template:Small
37	Template:Yes2Win	24–7–6	Josef Czichos	PTS	8	Oct 24, 1932	Template:Small
36	Template:Yes2Win	23–7–6	Rienus de Boer	PTS	8	Oct 7, 1932	Template:Small
35	Template:Yes2Win	22–7–6	Onofrio Russo	TKO	2 (8)	Sep 15, 1932	Template:Small
34	Template:Yes2Win	21–7–6	Karl Ogren	PTS	8	Aug 5, 1932	Template:Small
33	Template:Yes2Win	20–7–6	Walter Sabottke	KO	2 (8)	Jul 19, 1932	Template:Small
32	Template:No2Loss	19–7–6	Eric Seelig	PTS	10	Jun 3, 1932	Template:Small
31	Template:Yes2Win	19–6–6	Adolf Witt	PTS	8	May 9, 1932	Template:Small
30	Template:Yes2Win	18–6–6	Josef Czichos	PTS	6	Mar 31, 1932	Template:Small
29	Template:No2Loss	17–6–6	Hans Seifried	PTS	8	Mar 12, 1932	Template:Small
28	Template:No2Loss	17–5–6	Claude Bassin	KO	2 (8)	Mar 4, 1932	Template:Small
27	Template:Yes2Win	17–4–6	Rudi Beier	TKO	6 (8)	Feb 26, 1932	Template:Small
26	Template:Yes2Win	16–4–6	Heinrich Buchbaum	PTS	8	Feb 5, 1932	Template:Small
25	Template:DrawDraw	15–4–6	Jack Beasley	PTS	8	Jan 29, 1932	Template:Small
24	Template:Yes2Win	15–4–5	Franz Boja	PTS	10	Jan 15, 1932	Template:Small
23	Template:No2Loss	14–4–5	Erich Tobeck	PTS	8	Dec 27, 1931	Template:Small
22	Template:Yes2Win	14–3–5	Paul Vogel	PTS	8	Dec 11, 1931	Template:Small
21	Template:DrawDraw	13–3–5	Otto Hoelzl	PTS	8	Nov 20, 1931	Template:Small
20	Template:No2Loss	13–3–4	Hein Domgörgen	PTS	8	Apr 17, 1931	Template:Small
19	Template:DrawDraw	13–2–4	Franz Krueppel	PTS	8	Mar 1, 1931	Template:Small
18	Template:No2Loss	13–2–3	Erich Tobeck	PTS	8	Feb 13, 1931	Template:Small
17	Template:Yes2Win	13–1–3	Paul Vogel	PTS	6	Dec 5, 1930	Template:Small
16	Template:DrawDraw	12–1–3	Arie van Vliet	PTS	10	Nov 7, 1930	Template:Small
15	Template:DrawDraw	12–1–2	Otto Hoelzl	PTS	8	Oct 10, 1930	Template:Small
14	Template:DrawDraw	12–1–1	Hein Heeser	PTS	8	Sep 19, 1930	Template:Small
13	Template:Yes2Win	12–1	Emil Koska	PTS	8	Aug 29, 1930	Template:Small
12	Template:Yes2Win	11–1	Walter Peter	PTS	6	Jul 27, 1930	Template:Small
11	Template:Yes2Win	10–1	Paul Vogel	PTS	6	Jul 4, 1930	Template:Small
10	Template:Yes2Win	9–1	Franz Krueppel	PTS	8	May 23, 1930	Template:Small
9	Template:Yes2Win	8–1	Georg Gebstedt	KO	4 (8)	May 2, 1930	Template:Small
8	Template:Yes2Win	7–1	Erwin Stiegler	PTS	6	Apr 12, 1930	Template:Small
7	Template:Yes2Win	6–1	Walter Poehnisch	PTS	8	Feb 28, 1930	Template:Small
6	Template:Yes2Win	5–1	Hans Thies	TKO	5 (6)	Feb 15, 1930	Template:Small
5	Template:No2Loss	4–1	Erich Tobeck	KO	1 (6)	Jan 10, 1930	Template:Small
4	Template:Yes2Win	4–0	Joseph Esteve	PTS	8	Jan 5, 1930	Template:Small
3	Template:Yes2Win	3–0	Paul Vogel	KO	2 (6)	Dec 27, 1929	Template:Small
2	Template:Yes2Win	2–0	Alex Tomkowiak	KO	1 (8)	Dec 4, 1929	Template:Small
1	Template:Yes2Win	1–0	Willy Bolze	PTS	4	Oct 18, 1929	Template:Small

External links

• Template:Boxrec