Gottfried Grüneisen
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From the early 1920s the lightweight and middleweight division in Central Europe was dominated by the likes of Franz Sauerer, Salvador Chevalier, Hadji Weinura (Karl Veimann), Fritz Kley, Max Steinke and Josef Kunst. After the unexpected death of Sauerer in June 1924, Weinura and Chevalier became the most influential wrestlers of the middleweight class. Both won the World Middleweight Championship twice (Weinura 1924 & '25; Chevalier 1926 & '27). Following a negative phase for professional wrestling in Central Europe mainly because of inflation during 1923, the scene was rejuvenated by newcomers like Polish wrestling star Theodor Sztekker and a former amateur wrestler from Switzerland. His name was Gottfried Grüneisen.
Gottfried Grüneisen was born in early 1902 at Thun, Central Switzerland, during a time when the Lutte Suisse wrestling scene was at it's highest period. His brother Rudolf Grüneisen was already a famous wrestler at the local Athletic Club. So. it was only natural that Gottfried also got into lutte suisse wrestling.
At the time Gottfried was in his early 20s, he became more interested in wrestling, weightlifting and especially physical fitness. It was the beginning of a passion he was to keep for over 60 years of his life. His much elder brother Rudolf Grüneisen decided to leave Switzerland during the late 1900s. Like Rudolf, Gottfried later moved to Berlin and exploded onto the local amateur wrestling scene. Gottfried became a very successful amateur wrestler and was sent to many tournaments by the local Athletic Club. In early 1923 he won the Amateur Middleweight Championship in Bologna, Italy, against a class of top-notch wrestlers. During late 1923 and early 1924 he spent a few months in Sweden, where he participated in a number of local amateur wrestling tournaments.
For most of his life Gottfried fought in the middleweight division. His dream was to go to the Olympic Games as a representative of his home country, Switzerland. It looked like Gottfried's dream was going to be realized and it would have been had he not moved to Berlin, Germany. When he requested to travel to Paris as a member of the Swiss Olympic team in 1924 he was ultimately rejected due to living abroad.
Because the trip to Paris for the Olympics was cancelled, and because he did not have a job, Gottfried stepped into the professional wrestling arena under his mentor and brother, Rudolf Grüneisen. His elder brother returned back from a long tour across Italy and through North Africa during the summer of 1924. Gottfried then traveled with him and learned much about the professional scene.
Two years later, the time had come for Gottfried Grüneisen to compete against the best middleweight wrestlers in Europe. Because of Rudolf's success it was easier for Gottfried to come into contact with the influential wrestlers: Hans Schwarz Sr., Paul Westergaard-Schmidt, and promoter Richard Marianni, who organized a huge tournament at the Munich Circus Krone beginning in May 1926.
Gottfried got his license from the German wrestling alliance, IRV, signed by the longtime president Heinrich Weber. Now his professional wrestling career officially began against the likes of the Frenchman, Salvador Chevalier, and his fellow Swiss countryman, Paul Favré. In June 1926 Chevalier won a middleweight tournament. At this point, Gottfried had no chance against the strong champion wrestler from France. After finishing in Munich Gottfried toured with the Westergaard-Schwarz-Marianni troupe and appeared in Frankfurt, Nuremberg and Hamburg.
During 1926 he had a long series of matches against Chevalier. His strong opponent won the World Middleweight Championship in Frankfurt. Gottfried lost the tournament final to Chevalier in the middleweight division in Nuremberg (September 1926) and a match during the Hamburg tournament in October 1926. The following year, Gottfried appeared at three huge tournaments held in Munich, Frankfurt and Berlin. His longtime opponent Fritz Kley won the 1927 World Middleweight Championship by defeating Salvador Chevalier at the Munich Circus Krone.
The name of Gottfried Grüneisen became known further on the professional scene of Central Europe after the huge Berlin tournament which lasted from September until October 1927. It was one of the most influential wrestling tournaments in Europe at the time. The location Berlin Sports Palace was sold out many times with 12,000 people. It was called the "Olympics of the Professional Wrestlers" and was jointly won by Theodor Sztekker and Josef Kunst. This tournament opened the doors for Gottfried Grüneisen, who accelerated to top of the middleweight division.
Following huge success in Dortmund in January 1928 against Paul Favré and Hadji Weinura, Gottfried was booked for the third time at the Munich and Frankfurt tournament. That year he made a small tour across his native country. But the professional scene in Zurich and Basel was very small with less than a handful of wrestling shows put on. All of which came off without any great payoff. The Corso-Theatre in Zurich canceled further continuation of the wrestling tournaments in 1925.
Gottfried fought in the middleweight class with little success, until he received an offer from promoter August Brylla, who organized some huge tournaments at the Circus Busch in Breslau (Wroclaw), Poland between 1929 and '32. On the evening of September 30, 1929 a new World Middleweight Champion was crowned. Gottfried Grüneisen defeated Hans Kämpfer in the final contest. He also defeated his fellow countryman Paul Favré during this tournament.
On May 31, 1931 Gottfried won a Catch-as-Catch-Can tournament held up at Munich's "German-Theatre."
From 1927 until '39 his biggest opponents were Chevalier, Sztekker, Westergaard, Schwarz Sr., Alexander Garkawienko, Hans Kawan, Herbert Audersch, Nino Equatore, August Ahrens, Yvar (Jan) Martinson and especially Fritz Kley, who was also a wrestler of top note in the middleweight division. Up until 1937 Gottfried appeared many times against Kley in some of the best technical matches in Central European history.
August Brylla booked them for the 1931 season in Breslau and Munich. Gottfried lost the final contest of the Breslau European Middleweight Championship against Fritz Kley in late September 1931. But that was just a foretaste of the final match at Munich Circus Krone on December 3, 1931. After nearly two months, the huge World Middleweight Championship tournament ends with the phenomenal win of Gottfried Grüneisen against Fritz Kley. It was the fifth time Gottfried appeared in Munich, an important place for wrestling during this time.
On December 23, 1934 Gottfried won his third World Middleweight Championship by defeating Fritz Kley at the Circus Busch in Berlin. The location was totally sold out. It was the last event at the famous Circus Busch building which was torn down in June 1937.
The professional scene in Zurich and Basel had a major presence following the start of a tournament season initiated by promoters Paul Favré and Max Seibt during 1932. Zurich quickly became a highly regarded place for wrestling. It was starting to be held in the same esteem as Munich, Hamburg, Breslau, Budapest, Warsaw and Vienna. Gottfried Grüneisen appeared in Zurich during March 1932. Between 1933 and '35 he won a total of four tournaments held in Zurich and Basel.
On September 1, 1935 he was defeated in one of his most important matches. His opponent wast the newly crowned World Heavyweight Champion, Alexander Garkawienko, at the Zurich Forum. Another strong opponent Gottfried him was Peter Ferestanoff from Bulgaria. He lost the final contest against Ferestanoff in April 1938 at the tournament held at the Zurich Limmathaus.
Gottfried Grüneisen won the important 1938 Hamburg tournament promoted by the monkey-making promoter pairing of Paul Westergaard-Schmidt and August Battmer. On December 21, 1938 he won the final match against Herbert Audersch, one of his strongest opponents ever. If you won during the 1930s in Hamburg, you had a good reputation on the professional scene of Central Europe. Gottfried won the Hamburg tournament three times.
Before World War II broke out, Gottfried Grüneisen had one last major success in his winning of the Grand Prix of Zurich on July 16, 1939 against Jan Martinson, a strong wrestler from Latvia, who was also known as "Yvar Martinson." Gottfried retired from active wrestling in 1948.
In 1942 Gottfried opened up his famous sports gym, the "Institute Grüneisen," located at Zurich Seefeld-Street. It was the first of its kind in Switzerland. The beginning of a revolution in the countries history of sports, driven by Gottfried Grüneisen's phenomenal system of wrestling training, physical strength and fitness ("Fit at Any Age through Training" / "Fit in jedem Alter durch Training"). Together with his wife Astrid, who also worked as a fitness trainer in the gym, he established his "System Grüneisen," which became very known in his native country. He wrote two books about his ideas on proper training combined with healthy nutrition: "Mein Weg zum Sport" (Zurich, 1947) and "Gesundheit durch Training" (Zurich, 1951). To this day there is a fitness center based on the long tradition at this location. Most of these gyms in Switzerland are still working in a modified form based on the Grüneisen system.
After World War II, Gottfried Grüneisen was one of the major figures behind the reorganizaion of Switzerland's professional scene beginning in February 1946. He promoted some smaller shows at the Zurich Corso-Palais until a working relationship started with Emil Keller, promoter of the Zurich Hallenstadion. Gottfried helped to reestablish the local wrestling scene and helped kick-start the careers of newcomers like Paul Berger. The strong combine of Keller-Grüneisen plus Paul Berger, who was also a promoter, was too much for rival promoter Paul Favré. Favré had been an influential member of the Swiss wrestling scene since the 1920s. He ended up leaving Zurich sometimes in late 1948.
Another successful era had started in Zurich and the city became very famous in European Wrestling during the post-war era right up until the late 1950s. The Zurich Hallenstadion was a top noted place for wrestling with the likes of Felix Miquet, Yvar "Jan" Martinson, Henri Deglane, Frank Sexton, Ede Virag, Frank Valois, Charles Rigoulot, Stan Karoly and lots of other great wrestlers. Thousands of people visited the shows. It truly was an enormous success.
On February 3, 1950 a match between Martinson and Sexton wound up in a draw. A total of 11.000 people attended the show. It was the biggest crowd in Swiss professional wrestling and still is at the time of publishing of this. During the 1957 season Gottfried retired from wrestling. Paul Berger replaced him as the co-promoter of Zurich Hallenstadion.
Gottfried Grüneisen had one of the best reputations in the entire history of sports within wrestling and athletics for Switzerland, which helped form solid foundations in the country. He spent more than 60 years of his life following his passion, his love, and never gave up until he was given no choice but to retire due to his age.
At the end of 1983 Gottfried and Astrid closed the doors of their famous Zurich sports gym, the "Institute Grüneisen" after 42 years. On January 7, 1984, a few weeks after the closure, Gottfried Grüneisen passed away at the age of 82. His death closed the books on a long and successful era in Swiss professional wrestling. He was the last great wrestler of his nation whom appeared during the pre-war era of the 1920s and '30s. Paul Berger and René Lasartesse became his successors. They followed in the footsteps of the famous three time World Middleweight Champion, Gottfried Grüneisen.
From the early 1920s the lightweight and middleweight division in Central Europe was dominated by the likes of Franz Sauerer, Salvador Chevalier, Hadji Weinura (Karl Veimann), Fritz Kley, Max Steinke and Josef Kunst. After the unexpected death of Sauerer in June 1924, Weinura and Chevalier became the most influential wrestlers of the middleweight class. Both won the World Middleweight Championship twice (Weinura 1924 & '25; Chevalier 1926 & '27). Following a negative phase for professional wrestling in Central Europe mainly because of inflation during 1923, the scene was rejuvenated by newcomers like Polish wrestling star Theodor Sztekker and a former amateur wrestler from Switzerland. His name was Gottfried Grüneisen.
Gottfried Grüneisen was born in early 1902 at Thun, Central Switzerland, during a time when the Lutte Suisse wrestling scene was at it's highest period. His brother Rudolf Grüneisen was already a famous wrestler at the local Athletic Club. So. it was only natural that Gottfried also got into lutte suisse wrestling.
At the time Gottfried was in his early 20s, he became more interested in wrestling, weightlifting and especially physical fitness. It was the beginning of a passion he was to keep for over 60 years of his life. His much elder brother Rudolf Grüneisen decided to leave Switzerland during the late 1900s. Like Rudolf, Gottfried later moved to Berlin and exploded onto the local amateur wrestling scene. Gottfried became a very successful amateur wrestler and was sent to many tournaments by the local Athletic Club. In early 1923 he won the Amateur Middleweight Championship in Bologna, Italy, against a class of top-notch wrestlers. During late 1923 and early 1924 he spent a few months in Sweden, where he participated in a number of local amateur wrestling tournaments.
For most of his life Gottfried fought in the middleweight division. His dream was to go to the Olympic Games as a representative of his home country, Switzerland. It looked like Gottfried's dream was going to be realized and it would have been had he not moved to Berlin, Germany. When he requested to travel to Paris as a member of the Swiss Olympic team in 1924 he was ultimately rejected due to living abroad.
Because the trip to Paris for the Olympics was cancelled, and because he did not have a job, Gottfried stepped into the professional wrestling arena under his mentor and brother, Rudolf Grüneisen. His elder brother returned back from a long tour across Italy and through North Africa during the summer of 1924. Gottfried then traveled with him and learned much about the professional scene.
Two years later, the time had come for Gottfried Grüneisen to compete against the best middleweight wrestlers in Europe. Because of Rudolf's success it was easier for Gottfried to come into contact with the influential wrestlers: Hans Schwarz Sr., Paul Westergaard-Schmidt, and promoter Richard Marianni, who organized a huge tournament at the Munich Circus Krone beginning in May 1926.
Gottfried got his license from the German wrestling alliance, IRV, signed by the longtime president Heinrich Weber. Now his professional wrestling career officially began against the likes of the Frenchman, Salvador Chevalier, and his fellow Swiss countryman, Paul Favré. In June 1926 Chevalier won a middleweight tournament. At this point, Gottfried had no chance against the strong champion wrestler from France. After finishing in Munich Gottfried toured with the Westergaard-Schwarz-Marianni troupe and appeared in Frankfurt, Nuremberg and Hamburg.
During 1926 he had a long series of matches against Chevalier. His strong opponent won the World Middleweight Championship in Frankfurt. Gottfried lost the tournament final to Chevalier in the middleweight division in Nuremberg (September 1926) and a match during the Hamburg tournament in October 1926. The following year, Gottfried appeared at three huge tournaments held in Munich, Frankfurt and Berlin. His longtime opponent Fritz Kley won the 1927 World Middleweight Championship by defeating Salvador Chevalier at the Munich Circus Krone.
The name of Gottfried Grüneisen became known further on the professional scene of Central Europe after the huge Berlin tournament which lasted from September until October 1927. It was one of the most influential wrestling tournaments in Europe at the time. The location Berlin Sports Palace was sold out many times with 12,000 people. It was called the "Olympics of the Professional Wrestlers" and was jointly won by Theodor Sztekker and Josef Kunst. This tournament opened the doors for Gottfried Grüneisen, who accelerated to top of the middleweight division.
Following huge success in Dortmund in January 1928 against Paul Favré and Hadji Weinura, Gottfried was booked for the third time at the Munich and Frankfurt tournament. That year he made a small tour across his native country. But the professional scene in Zurich and Basel was very small with less than a handful of wrestling shows put on. All of which came off without any great payoff. The Corso-Theatre in Zurich canceled further continuation of the wrestling tournaments in 1925.
Gottfried fought in the middleweight class with little success, until he received an offer from promoter August Brylla, who organized some huge tournaments at the Circus Busch in Breslau (Wroclaw), Poland between 1929 and '32. On the evening of September 30, 1929 a new World Middleweight Champion was crowned. Gottfried Grüneisen defeated Hans Kämpfer in the final contest. He also defeated his fellow countryman Paul Favré during this tournament.
On May 31, 1931 Gottfried won a Catch-as-Catch-Can tournament held up at Munich's "German-Theatre."
From 1927 until '39 his biggest opponents were Chevalier, Sztekker, Westergaard, Schwarz Sr., Alexander Garkawienko, Hans Kawan, Herbert Audersch, Nino Equatore, August Ahrens, Yvar (Jan) Martinson and especially Fritz Kley, who was also a wrestler of top note in the middleweight division. Up until 1937 Gottfried appeared many times against Kley in some of the best technical matches in Central European history.
August Brylla booked them for the 1931 season in Breslau and Munich. Gottfried lost the final contest of the Breslau European Middleweight Championship against Fritz Kley in late September 1931. But that was just a foretaste of the final match at Munich Circus Krone on December 3, 1931. After nearly two months, the huge World Middleweight Championship tournament ends with the phenomenal win of Gottfried Grüneisen against Fritz Kley. It was the fifth time Gottfried appeared in Munich, an important place for wrestling during this time.
On December 23, 1934 Gottfried won his third World Middleweight Championship by defeating Fritz Kley at the Circus Busch in Berlin. The location was totally sold out. It was the last event at the famous Circus Busch building which was torn down in June 1937.
The professional scene in Zurich and Basel had a major presence following the start of a tournament season initiated by promoters Paul Favré and Max Seibt during 1932. Zurich quickly became a highly regarded place for wrestling. It was starting to be held in the same esteem as Munich, Hamburg, Breslau, Budapest, Warsaw and Vienna. Gottfried Grüneisen appeared in Zurich during March 1932. Between 1933 and '35 he won a total of four tournaments held in Zurich and Basel.
On September 1, 1935 he was defeated in one of his most important matches. His opponent wast the newly crowned World Heavyweight Champion, Alexander Garkawienko, at the Zurich Forum. Another strong opponent Gottfried him was Peter Ferestanoff from Bulgaria. He lost the final contest against Ferestanoff in April 1938 at the tournament held at the Zurich Limmathaus.
Gottfried Grüneisen won the important 1938 Hamburg tournament promoted by the monkey-making promoter pairing of Paul Westergaard-Schmidt and August Battmer. On December 21, 1938 he won the final match against Herbert Audersch, one of his strongest opponents ever. If you won during the 1930s in Hamburg, you had a good reputation on the professional scene of Central Europe. Gottfried won the Hamburg tournament three times.
Before World War II broke out, Gottfried Grüneisen had one last major success in his winning of the Grand Prix of Zurich on July 16, 1939 against Jan Martinson, a strong wrestler from Latvia, who was also known as "Yvar Martinson." Gottfried retired from active wrestling in 1948.
In 1942 Gottfried opened up his famous sports gym, the "Institute Grüneisen," located at Zurich Seefeld-Street. It was the first of its kind in Switzerland. The beginning of a revolution in the countries history of sports, driven by Gottfried Grüneisen's phenomenal system of wrestling training, physical strength and fitness ("Fit at Any Age through Training" / "Fit in jedem Alter durch Training"). Together with his wife Astrid, who also worked as a fitness trainer in the gym, he established his "System Grüneisen," which became very known in his native country. He wrote two books about his ideas on proper training combined with healthy nutrition: "Mein Weg zum Sport" (Zurich, 1947) and "Gesundheit durch Training" (Zurich, 1951). To this day there is a fitness center based on the long tradition at this location. Most of these gyms in Switzerland are still working in a modified form based on the Grüneisen system.
After World War II, Gottfried Grüneisen was one of the major figures behind the reorganizaion of Switzerland's professional scene beginning in February 1946. He promoted some smaller shows at the Zurich Corso-Palais until a working relationship started with Emil Keller, promoter of the Zurich Hallenstadion. Gottfried helped to reestablish the local wrestling scene and helped kick-start the careers of newcomers like Paul Berger. The strong combine of Keller-Grüneisen plus Paul Berger, who was also a promoter, was too much for rival promoter Paul Favré. Favré had been an influential member of the Swiss wrestling scene since the 1920s. He ended up leaving Zurich sometimes in late 1948.
Another successful era had started in Zurich and the city became very famous in European Wrestling during the post-war era right up until the late 1950s. The Zurich Hallenstadion was a top noted place for wrestling with the likes of Felix Miquet, Yvar "Jan" Martinson, Henri Deglane, Frank Sexton, Ede Virag, Frank Valois, Charles Rigoulot, Stan Karoly and lots of other great wrestlers. Thousands of people visited the shows. It truly was an enormous success.
On February 3, 1950 a match between Martinson and Sexton wound up in a draw. A total of 11.000 people attended the show. It was the biggest crowd in Swiss professional wrestling and still is at the time of publishing of this. During the 1957 season Gottfried retired from wrestling. Paul Berger replaced him as the co-promoter of Zurich Hallenstadion.
Gottfried Grüneisen had one of the best reputations in the entire history of sports within wrestling and athletics for Switzerland, which helped form solid foundations in the country. He spent more than 60 years of his life following his passion, his love, and never gave up until he was given no choice but to retire due to his age.
At the end of 1983 Gottfried and Astrid closed the doors of their famous Zurich sports gym, the "Institute Grüneisen" after 42 years. On January 7, 1984, a few weeks after the closure, Gottfried Grüneisen passed away at the age of 82. His death closed the books on a long and successful era in Swiss professional wrestling. He was the last great wrestler of his nation whom appeared during the pre-war era of the 1920s and '30s. Paul Berger and René Lasartesse became his successors. They followed in the footsteps of the famous three time World Middleweight Champion, Gottfried Grüneisen.
Unique content strictly for the Professional Wrestling Historical Society.
Biography of Gottfried Grüneisen.
Author: Ronald Großpietsch.
Published: February 28, 2018.
Biography: #173.
Editor: Jimmy Wheeler.
Updated: May 4, 2018.
Unique content strictly for the Professional Wrestling Historical Society.
Biography of Gottfried Grüneisen.
Author: Ronald Großpietsch.
Published: February 28, 2018.
Biography: #173.
Editor: Jimmy Wheeler.
Updated: May 4, 2018.