Dr Ernst Jokl WW2 Olympic Games South African Sports Medicine German Hand Signed

CHAU0611  A vintage A4 size 1976 hand signed letter direct from Dr Ernst Jokl historic pioneer of sports medicine from his offices at Berlin personally autographed by Dr Ernst Jokl in blue ink centrally folded twice where posted otherwise mint condition.

Ernst Franz Jokl (pronounced JOKE-el) was born Aug. 3, 1907, in Breslau, Germany, now Wroclaw, Poland. He made the 1928 German Olympic team as an alternate in the 400-meter hurdles, but did not compete. At those Olympics, Erica Lestmann of Germany won a gold medal in exhibition team gymnastics. In 1930, she and Dr. Jokl met, and a romance began.

Two years later, because Dr. Jokl was a Jew, he was dismissed as the director of the Institute of Sports Medicine in Breslau, believed to be the first of its kind in the world. At the same time, Ms. Lestmann, from an affluent Lutheran family, lost her job as a high school teacher because she refused to offer a Nazi salute during a track meet in Berlin.

Dr. Jokl moved to South Africa and there established a physical education curriculum for South African schools, emphasizing that it be required not only for white boys, but also for white girls and nonwhite boys and girls. He made the nation so conscious of exercise that a word for it was invented. ''Jokkel,'' meaning ''to exercise,'' found its way into the Afrikaans National Dictionary.