Gottfried Von Cramm - Imprisonment On Morals Charges

Imprisonment On Morals Charges

Despite his enormous popularity with the public, on 5 March 1938, von Cramm was arrested by the German government and tried for homosexuality. After being hospitalized for a nervous collapse after his arrest, he was sentenced to 1 year imprisonment on 14 March for his relationship with Manasse Herbst, a young Galician Jewish actor and singer, who had appeared in the 1926 silent film Der Sohn des Hannibal. Von Cramm admitted that the relationship, which lasted from 1931 until 1934, began shortly before he married his first wife. He was additionally charged with sending money to Herbst, who moved to Palestine in 1936. According to a 15 May 1938 report about the trial in the New York Times, the judge stated that "Baron von Cramm had alleged that his wife, during their honeymoon, had become intimate with a French athlete. The court held that this experience had unsettled the young tennis star and had resulted in his seeking a perverse compensation for an unhappy married life.". Although Cramm had confessed to an affair with Herbst once he was arrested, Cramm later changed his confession to one of "mutual masturbation" and his lawyer was able to convince the judge that Cramm had been forced into passing money to Herbst because after all Herbst was a "sneaky Jew."

Cramm was released after 6 month of imprisonment because of his "good behaviour" on 16 October 1938.

His international tennis friends were outraged, and Don Budge collected the signatures of high-profile athletes and sent a protest letter to Hitler. After being released in October 1938 on parole, in May 1939 Cramm returned to competitive tennis but the extremely tense political climate caused problems when he went to play in England. Nevertheless, Cramm was allowed to compete at the Queen's Club tournament in London where he won the event by beating American Bobby Riggs 6–0, 6–1. The officials at Wimbledon reportedly refused to let him play in the championships, using the excuse that he was a convicted criminal and therefore unfit; The New York Times, however, quoted Wimbledon sources as saying that Cramm would have been welcome to participate, had he submitted an entry. The U.S. rejected his temporary-visa application that same year, citing his morals-charge conviction; he had intended to play at the U.S. Open in September.

A further humiliation was Germany's 1940 decision to recall Cramm from an international tennis tournament in Rome before he had a chance to play. The New York Times reported that his abrupt departure "was attributed to the German authorities' desire to prevent the former champion from meeting Henner Henkel, Rolf Goepffert, and other German players ... Berlin decided it would be embarrassing if Cramm beat his compatriots..."