Emmerich Rath

Emmerich Rath ( Czech Emerich Rath; born November 5, 1883 in Prague, † December 21, 1962 in Broumov ) was a German - Bohemian all-round athlete. He was in track and field, Nordic combined, active in bobsleigh, Canoeing, rowing, soccer, cross country skiing, mountain climbing, rugby, boxing, hockey and ice hockey.

Career

Rath came from a German Bohemian family and grew from the age of four in Braunau ( Broumov ) on. At the age of ten years he taught himself to ski and was among the pioneers of skiing in Bohemia. In 1898 he began an apprenticeship as a shop assistant at the prestigious Prague hardware store VJ Rott. Since the age of 16 Rath nourished vegetarian.

Rath started his football career with DFC Prague. Between 1904 and 1909 he was active as a military runners. He won eleven races over 50 km, including 1905 and 1907-1909 the 50 - kilometer run from Berlin. In 1909, Rath at the discharged with 30 kg Sturmgepäck competitions with 6:13 a new record time. In 1906 he published his book The luggage march more than 50 miles and why I won, which was about his victory in 1905. At the Olympic Summer Games 1908 in London he started the marathon and 10 km walk. In the marathon, he finished 25th and presented with 3:50:31 h the first Austrian national record on, while walking, he finished eighth. At the Summer Olympics in Stockholm in 1912 he reached the 33rd place in the marathon. In the cross-country run, single, he did not reach the target. 1912 Rath was a draw after fighting with the Berlin master German boxing champion in the heavyweight division.

On June 24, 1912 Rath married in Berlin Franziska Kraus. 1914 moved with his wife from Berlin to Prague, where he opened a sporting goods store. In the same year he won the Czech team a championship in field hockey, the only, the Bohemian, German and Belgian selection as well as participated as increase a Berlin club. After the end of World War Rath worked as a ski instructor in the Italian Alps. At the Olympic Games in 1920 and 1924, he worked as a sports journalist. From 1923 Rath worked again at VJ Rott, after the company had expanded its range of sporting goods. In the Nordic World Ski Championships 1926, he competed for Czechoslovakia in cross-country skiing and Nordic combined. In cross-country skiing over 30 km he had to retire. In singles, the combination he reached the 24th place. Opened in 1929 Rath in the passage between the fruit market and the street Na příkopě own business for sporting goods and Trampingausrüstung. During the German occupation Rath hid the Jews in Prague Boris Effenberg and supported him later at departure to Sweden.

After the takeover of Komunistická strana Československa Rath lost 1948, his sporting goods business. Because Western lifestyle and Americanism was known under the name Gray Wolf passionate followers of " tramping ", one of America and Nature Romantic movement committed, sentenced to one year in prison. He then worked as a street sweeper and a bricklayer. After a disease Rath lived from 1960 briefly with his cousin in Broumov and then on the road. Then he was sent to a nursing home in Starkov.

The Rathova Pasáž ( " Rath Passage "), which, going by the Na příkopě, one of the main Prague shopping streets, is named after him.

Personal best

• 400 -meter run: 55.0 s
• High Jump: 1.62m
• Marathon: 3:27:04 h (1912 )

Achievements

• Cross-country skiing championship of the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1907: 5 km (1st place ), 10 km (2nd place), 50 km (2nd place)

Works

• The luggage march over 50km and why I won, 1906
• Heinrich Otto: The Gehsport. Training, technique and tactics of quick, luggage and duration of walking with contributions by Hermann Müller and Emerich Rath, re-edited by Hermann Müller. Leipzig and Zurich: Grethlein 1922.