Max Schmeling

Maximillian Adolph Otto Siegfried Schmeling (28 September 1905 – 2 February 2005) was a German professional boxer who held the world heavyweight championship from 1930 to 1932, becoming the first European to claim the vacant title by defeating Jack Sharkey via disqualification in the fourth round.

Schmeling achieved international prominence through his two bouts against American Joe Louis, securing an upset twelfth-round knockout victory in 1936 that halted Louis's undefeated streak, followed by a first-round knockout defeat in the 1938 rematch amid heightened global tensions. These contests were exploited by Nazi propaganda as emblematic of Aryan superiority despite Schmeling's refusal to join the Nazi Party and his personal opposition to its ideology, evidenced by his sheltering of two Jewish teenagers in his Berlin hotel during the 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom.