Max Schmeling - Cultural References

Cultural References

Schmeling lived in Stettin, Germany (now known as Szczecin, Poland); a band from this city, The Analogs, recorded the song "Max Schmeling" on their album Hlaskover rock.

In his movie "Deconstructing Harry" Woody Allen is playing the character of Harry Block who claims to have divorced his first wife since "she looked like Max Schmeling" under a particular lighting setting.

The 2002 American-German film Joe and Max tells the true story of Joe Louis and Max Schmeling and their enduring friendship.

In the book The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Joe Kavalier is beaten up by someone who may or may not have been Max Schmeling. The author hints that it probably wasn't, as Schmeling should have been fighting in Poland at the time.

The song "Ambling Alp" by Yeasayer mentions Max Schmelling as a "formidable foe." The nicknake 'Ambling Alp' does not refer to Schmelling but refers to another contemporary boxer Primo Carnera. Carnera and Schmeling never faced each other in the ring, but both had high-profile bouts with Joe Louis.

Schmeling also appears as a character in the opera, Shadowboxer, based on the life of Joe Louis.

Schmeling figures prominently in the 2010 novel by P.F. Kluge A Call From Jersey.

In the novel Kaputt by Curzio Malaparte, 1944, Schmeling figures prominently in the chapter Cricket in Poland depicting a gathering in February 1942 hosted by Govenor-General Dr. Hans Frank in the Belvedere palace in Warsaw.

Schmeling's role as a paratrooper in WWII is mentioned in Gunter Grass's famous 1959 novel "The Tin Drum"

Schmeling is the central figure in the stage play, "The Measure Of A Man", written by Brian C. Petti.

For 2010's film Max Schmeling - Eine deutsche Legende another former boxing champion, who moreover had known him, played Max Schmeling: Henry Maske.

The 2011 fictional novel, "The Berlin Boxing Club" by Robert Sharenow Set in 1930's Berlin, Germany. Features Schmeling heavily as the character who introduces a young Jewish boy to boxing, and later plays a larger role.