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Hermann Weingärtner was a
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
gymnastGymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...
.
He was born and died in
Frankfurt (Oder)Frankfurt is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, located on the Oder River, on the German-Polish border directly opposite the town of Słubice which was a part of Frankfurt until 1945. At the end of the 1980s it reached a population peak with more than 87,000 inhabitants...
.
He started his career in his hometown at the local gymnastics club
Frankfurter Turnverein 1860. Later on he moved to
BerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
to compete for the
Deutsche Turnerschaft.
He competed at the
1896 Summer OlympicsThe 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad, was a multi-sport event celebrated in Athens, Greece, from April 6 to April 15, 1896. It was the first international Olympic Games held in the Modern era...
in
AthensAthens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
. Weingärtner was a member of the German team that won two
gold medalA gold medal is typically the medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture...
s by placing first in both of the team events, the parallel bars and the
horizontal barThe high bar, also known as the horizontal bar, is an apparatus used by male gymnasts in Artistic Gymnastics. It traditionally consists of a cylindrical metal bar that is rigidly held above and parallel to the floor by a system of cables and stiff vertical supports. Gymnasts typically wear leather...
.
He also won a number of individual medals, taking the gold in the horizontal bar, silver in
pommel horseThe pommel horse is an artistic gymnastics apparatus. Traditionally, it is used by only male gymnasts. Originally made of a metal frame with a wooden body and a leather cover, modern pommel horses have a metal body covered with foam rubber and leather, with plastic handles .- History :The pommel...
and rings, and bronze in the vault. He competed in the parallel bars, but did not win a medal in that event. His six medals made him one of the most successful competitors at the first modern Olympic Games.
After his return to Germany he and most of the other German gymnasts were suspended, because the
Deutsche Turnerschaft (at this time the
governing bodyA sport governing body is a sports organization that has a regulatory or sanctioning function. Sport governing bodies come in various forms, and have a variety of regulatory functions. Examples of this can include disciplinary action for rule infractions and deciding on rule changes in the sport...
of German gymnastics) boycotted the Olympic games with the reason that competing is "ungerman". So he moved back to
Frankfurt (Oder)Frankfurt is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, located on the Oder River, on the German-Polish border directly opposite the town of Słubice which was a part of Frankfurt until 1945. At the end of the 1980s it reached a population peak with more than 87,000 inhabitants...
to manage the open-air swimming pool founded by his father on the
Ziegenwerder island.
He drowned trying to rescue a person from drowning in the Oder.
In 1996 the main footpath on the
Ziegenwerder island was named
Hermann-Weingärtner-Weg.
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