September 10, 1972 was a sunny autumn Sunday, the penultimate day of the Olympic Games in Munich. Everything would have been fantastically beautiful had it not been for the shadow of the Olympic attack that happened five days earlier. The stands were still full when the final of the men’s high jump took place in the afternoon. Hermann Magerl, then 23, was one of the favorites. And it went pretty well for him at first. He had no problems up to a height of 2.18 meters. When the bar was 2.21 meters, however, he was out of luck. He tore the height three times, once the bar “wobbled, wobbled and wobbled – and then fell down”, as Magerl remembers. He had to be content with the thankless 4th place, behind the American Dwight Stones, the GDR jumper Stefan Junge and the Olympic champion Juri Tarmak from the Soviet Union.
Magerl was very disappointed, but was received enthusiastically in his home town of Obertraubling (Regensburg district). A week later, at a competition in Cham, he proved that he had what it takes to become an Olympic champion. There he crossed the height of 2.24 meters, the Olympic champion Tarmak had made 2.23 meters in Munich. Then Magerl ended his career, although he had not yet reached the best high jump age. Because you need a lot of experience in this technically demanding sport. “But I was out of breath,” said Magerl. Instead, he studied medicine and opened a doctor’s practice in Obertraubling. He has been living in Aschaffenburg for several years. The memories of his athletic career stuck with those who had seen it themselves 50 years ago.
With their contribution, the children became state winners
Magerl’s career was also remarkable for political reasons. It is thanks to nine searchers for traces that we have remembered it again, and it is hard to believe that they are Obertraubling children aged seven and eleven. Not only did they research Magerl’s life story, but with the help of the historian Heike Wolter and BR journalists, they also created a podcast worth listening to with the title “What would have happened if?” created. “Turbulent times. Sport makes society” – that was the motto of the Federal President’s history competition this year. With their contribution about Hermann Magerl, the children even became state winners.
During their research, they spoke to Magerl himself, to siblings, sports friends and acquaintances. The question “What if …” is more than justified in the case of Magerl. During the discussions, as well as looking through the photos and old newspaper reports, the young researchers quickly realized that Magerl was not exactly lucky as an athlete. His career was repeatedly hampered or even interrupted by political events. Several times he was unable to take part in important competitions because of the Cold War. In 1968 he was part of the German team for the European Junior Championships. This was then boycotted because shortly before the Warsaw Pact troops had marched into what was then Czechoslovakia. Something similar happened at the European Championships in Athens in 1969. Again Magerl was not allowed to start because the German team expressed solidarity with Jürgen May, who had previously fled from the GDR and who had not received a start permit. All individual starts were canceled. And Magerl, who was in top form, was again faced with the question as an athlete: “What would have happened if …?”
But this development reached its climax in 1972 in Munich. Shortly before the Palestinian attack on the Israelis occurred, Hermann Magerl had moved into the Olympic Village, where he saw the unrest up close. When he found out the next morning about the catastrophe with many dead on the Fürstenfeldbruck airfield, the games, which had been so cheerful up to then, were destroyed. Something bad had happened again. “The mood was in the basement, this unbelievable act pulled me down incredibly,” Magerl told the searchers. However, departure was not an option for him either, he had worked towards this goal for too long.
“For me this is normal humanity.”
Ultimately, however, he played a major role in ensuring that at least the GDR jumper Stefan Junge won a medal. Magerl turned out to be a fair sportsman in the preliminary fight for the Olympic final, a virtue that is ultimately more important than a medal. When the boy stood at 2.12 meters before the end and only had one more try, Magerl advised him to change his approach. Boy obeyed him, made it to the top, and then took the silver medal. “For me that is normal humanity,” said Magerl.
The trackers found out all of that. You lay in yours half-hour radio report shows in a touching way how a person can deal with successes and setbacks and as an athlete can be a role model for a long time.
The Hamburg Körber Foundation and the Office of the Federal President have been organizing the history competition for young people in Germany since 1973. This year 1,349 contributions were received. Like all state winners, the Obertraubling children now have the chance to be honored as national winners in Berlin in November 2021.